“I could see Hollywood not wanting to do it,” he said. Zack Snyder, the 40-year-old director who is now completing postproduction work on “300,” is only too aware of the danger that some viewers might find it hard to distinguish his movie from its more star-driven predecessors, neither of which had a spectacular run at the box office. Miller’s distinctive vision of the bloody battle while avoiding any sense that it is simply extending a series of Greek-theme epics that began with Wolfgang Petersen’s “Troy” and Oliver Stone’s “Alexander,” both released in 2004. In delivering “300” to the screen in March, Warner Brothers will face the challenge of realizing Mr. He studied the armor and philosophies and fighting methods of the Spartans, and finally, working with the colorist Lynn Varley, created a series that in 1999 won three Eisners and two Harveys, awards considered among the comics industry’s most prestigious. Miller started work on what was to become “300.” He researched the battle, spoke with scholars and traveled to Greece, to the site of Leonidas’ last stand. Over the years the story of the famous confrontation at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. “I tend to be drawn to characters who might die disgraced to the world, who technically lose whatever combat they’re in but win the moral victory,” Mr. In “Sin City” one hero shoots himself in the mouth to protect a loved one another is executed by a corrupt system after ridding the world of not one but two cannibals. In “The Dark Knight Returns,” which many credit with reinvigorating the Batman franchise, an aging Bruce Wayne goes out in a blaze of glory in an outmatched battle against his old pal Superman. Miller would return again and again to the concept of heroic, often seppuku-like sacrifice. It was an epiphany to realize that the hero wasn’t necessarily the guy who won.”Īs a young comic book artist and writer, Mr. “I was used to seeing Superman punch out planets. Miller said in a recent telephone interview. “It was a shocker, because the heroes died,” Mr.
Miller was stunned as he watched its climax, in which the few remaining Spartans are slaughtered in a hail of arrows. The film’s dialogue and staging may seem a bit quaint now. led 300 warriors in a doomed battle against the much larger Persian army, and David Farrar, regal in robes of purple and green, was the Persian king Xerxes. In this telling of the battle of Thermopylae, Richard Egan played the Greek king Leonidas, who in 480 B.C.
The year was 1963, and “The 300 Spartans” was in theaters. THE story of “300” - the popular comic book mini-series and, soon, a film from Warner Brothers - began when Frank Miller, the series’s creator, was 6.
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