Updated: A Warner Bros. spokesman has told
Entertainment Weekly that Guy Ritchie has not been offered the 300 prequel, Xerxes. They say the story was an erroneous rumor - though conspicuously, they don't mention whether Zack Snyder is still attached or planning to direct the movie. ORIGINAL STORY FOLLOWS------ According to
Vulture, that renowned cockney geeza
Guy Ritchie is being eyed by Warner Bros to the direct the 300 prequel,
Xerxes - once he has completed, what we now know will be titled Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (talk about a moniker that sucks the air out of a room)! Ritchie is said to have been offered the gig in replacement of 300 helmer
Zack Snyder and the reason for the change seems to be two fold; that Snyder is on board to direct the new Superman movie, so the filming schedules may clash; Snyder's last two efforts, Watchmen
and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, both underperformed at the box office, leading to speculation that Warner are questioning Snyder's pulling power. There's a few more caveats to this story emerging as Snyder's expensive, all female led action flick
Sucker Punch has been the brunt of some negative buzz having 'tested poorly' among preview audiences. "It was bad; like, really bad. They're really not happy with it over there" a suspiciously anonymous 'insider' claims.
Rumours are also abound concerning Snyder's
Superman: Man of Steel, with worrying claims that a heavy delay in production to sort out what WB claim are 'third act issues' in David Goyer's screenplay may lead to the greatly anticipated reboot becoming a 'rush job', with Warner keen to get the movie into theatre's at the tail end of 2012 or face legal ramifications from the Siegel & Shuster estate. Gulp. Snyder seems to be a man under pressure, having to juggle the pre-production and casting on Superman (though he already has his
Man of Steel in Henry Cavill) whilst also making sure Goyer's script is worthy to shoot, and also overseeing promotion on Sucker Punch - a personal, original concept from Snyder - his passion project, so his balls are totally on the line with that one. And with Chris Nolan now busy with The Dark Knight Rises, his 'Godfather' isn't as readily available if he needs back-up on his ideas.
Concerning Ritchie & Xerxes then, the film is named after the Persian leader whose ruthless and androgynous portrayal in the
300 film was deemed to be so offensive by Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that he even filed a complaint to the United Nations, claiming the movie to be a vicious propaganda piece against the historical identity of his people. Set ten years before 300 just after the Battle of Marathon, Frank Miller's comic follows
Themistocles, a warlord of Greece who built their navy and is on the search to become a God. The movie will be the same heft as 300 but it covers a much, much greater span of timeits 10 years, not three days. This is a more complex story so much larger. Basically, expect more 300 but bloodier, more ambitious and more violent.
If Ritchie
is to direct Xerxes, then the next few years look set to be immensely profitable for the former Mr Madonna. The follow-up to the surprisingly-quite-good Sherlock Holmes
reboot of 2009 is currently undergoing a few finishing touches, and looks set for a mid-December release with Stephen Fry, Jared Harris and Noomi Rapace added to the Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law led cast. There's also been talk of Ritchie directing a
Soderbergh-esque remake of Cannonball Run with a huge cast of A-list ensembles, though
The Playlist have poured cold water over that story today. Considering the unique, intrinsically Snyder-esque visuals of the Spartan war-'em-up, the thought of Ritchie following in the same vein for a 300 prequel seems quite improbable so are we to expect a grittier, more realistic take on Frank Miller's epic? We can't really imagine what a 300 movie would look like without Snyder, so colour us very intrigued.