Spartans Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's rather eerie when your private wishes suddenly appear in the trades. I'm in the middle of reading Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire, which made me long for another Greek epic. Now, Columbia is giving me one. According to Variety, the studio has optioned the Greek classic Anabasis, Xenophon's firsthand account of the journey of the Ten Thousand.

The tale of the Ten Thousand is, perhaps, lesser known to popular culture as the 300 Spartans (even if it did inspire The Warriors), but it's no less compelling. They were an army of Greek mercenaries hired by Cyrus the Younger to aid him in seizing the Persian throne from his brother, Artaxerxes II. His expedition proved to be a failure, and the Greeks found themselves stranded deep into enemy territory. Their Spartan general was killed, as were other senior officers, and it was up to Xenophon to try to encourage the ten thousand to make the journey home to Greece. If you're into history at all, read it, and marvel at the toughness of the ancients.

No director has been named, but the script is being penned by Robert Schenkkan, who was responsible for HBO's The Pacific. Production duties will be split by Jimmy Miller (known more for Will Ferrell comedies) and Robbie and Jonathan Stamp, who both know their historical epics. They were consultants on the outstanding Rome, that HBO series I'm constantly going on about. Apparently, just about everyone involved in this project is an ancient history nut, and is hoping this will be the first of many historical epics. Given its pedigree and primary source material, my expectations are high. Don't disappoint me, Columbia!

There are many reasons to see 300. Maybe you're a 14-year old with a love of violent entertainment. Or you're a classics professor who longs to get a splitting headache. Or possibly you're an experimental gay pornographer, and want to see the newest techniques in ab-oiling. Perhaps you're a special effects aficionado who's curious about the state-of-the-art in faux decapitations and digitized blood spray. Or you're a big fan of Frank Miller's work, and Sin City just didn't sate your appetite for writhing, speechless women, mutilated giants and two-dimensional tough guys. Speech pathologists may go to 300 to witness how the two-syllable word 'Sparta' can be quadrupled in length and extended even moreso with each bellowed repetition. Or, finally, maybe the phrase 'moving pictures' has always seemed a bit contradictory, and a movie that unfolds with the glacial pace of a series of oil paintings in a series of nearly-still images sounds soothing.

Whatever your reason for going into 300, I can't imagine leaving it very excited by what you get. I can imagine being excited by the prospect of leaving -- for me, the end credits of 300 rolled up on the screen with the comforting shock of a parole notice delivered in the middle of a prison riot. After leaving, I walked through a crowded downtown to the loudest bar possible in the hopes that an adult beverage would wash the taste of blood out of my mouth; even that level of all-encompassing sensory overload still felt like a fortnight in a Zen temple by comparison. 300 tells the classic tale of the Spartans at Thermopylae, where a small band of Spartan warriors (you should, at this point, have a general idea of how many) led by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) held off thousands of Persian troops. They were few, but perilous terrain and Spartan valor held back the many. There have been multiple re-iteratons of this story onscreen and in print, and 300's source material is a graphic novel adaptation crafted by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley.

If I said "Gladiator meets Sin City, from the director of Dawn of the Dead," what would your reaction be? If you answered "umm, yes please!" then you're officially invited to come see 300 when it hits theaters next March.

Why all the excitement? Because apparently I'm the last movie geek in the world to have seen this fantastic promo clip for the film, whch premiered at Comic-Con a few months back and is now living comfortably on iFilm.com, which means I can watch it whenever I darn well feel like.

Adapted from the graphic novel by Frank Miller, which was adapted from an actual battle from thousands of years back, 300 stars the dreamy* Gerard Butler, the gorgeous Lena Headey, the Welsh Vincent Regan, and the Faramir David Wenham. Plot deals with the Battle of Thermopylae, in which 300 Spartans did battle with thousands of Persians. And much carnage ensued.

I wonder if those soldiers ever imagined that their battle would one day become a highly-anticipated comic book movie. Probably not. Also, the music in the promo clip is Nine Inch Nails. Can't remember the track's title, but it's definitely Reznor. One last thing: Production diaries on 300 are available at the official site, and they look pretty nifty.

(* Or so I'm told. Repeatedly.)