Thanks to a little thing you might've heard of called Man of Steel, there was little chance of Zack Snyder directing the prequel to his greased up warrior flick, 300
. Back in April we learned that the film's working title, Xerxes, was gone. And now more than two months later I guess Warner Brothers finally came up with a suitable replacement, calling the film 300: Battle of Artemisia. Probably a smart move, as 'Xerxes' isn't going to put a single butt in any seat, while referencing the still popular 300 adds name recognition.As we've heard before, this film will be vastly different than 300, although it'll still be littered with glittering, shiny shirtless bods and lots of blood. It'll take place ten years before the battle at Thermopylae, and will cover the entire time span leading up to it starting from the battle of Marathon. The story will follow Xerxes and his quest to achieve godhood.
But who's gonna direct if Snyder won't? Deadline presents two names: Jaume Collet-Serra and Noam Murro. Collet-Serra most recently helmed the Liam Neeson thriller, Unknown
, although his best film by far was 2009's child killer flick, Orphan
. Noam Murro is mainly a commercials director, although he scored some good buzz for 2008's Smart People
. Both have their strengths, but I like Collet-Serra's filmography much more than Murro's. House of Wax was a solid horror, and I love Orphan. Smart People suffered mainly from script problems, but Murro didn't really put a visual stamp on the film, and if anything 300 is going to be a very visual feature.
