300 Spartans

http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=10822

Warner Bros. Pictures is set to return to ancient Greece and make war epic 300, based on Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name. Variety says the film will be directed by Zach Snyder and produced by Hollywood Gang Productions and Atmosphere Pictures MM.

Gerard Butler (Phantom of the Opera, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life) has been signed to star. Production will begin October 17 in Montreal.

The film tells the true story of 300 elite Spartan fighters who, led by King Leonidas (Butler), fought to the death against King Xerxes' massive Persian army during the battle of Thermopylae in 481-480 B.C. According to lore, their valor inspired all of Greece to rise up against the invading Persians, planting the seeds of democracy.

Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) and his writing partner, Kurt Johnstad, adapted the screenplay from Miller's graphic novel. Michael Gordon wrote a previous draft.

The studio said 300 will rely on hyper-real renderings similar to the stylized illustrations created by Miller for his book.

I think they made a movie about this about 40 or 50 years ago.

Have to check the movie guides.

Has anyone read Victor Davis Hanson's The Western Way of War ?  His thesis is that free men, the agrarian Greeks, knew that war was so devastating in terms of lack of agricultural sufficiency; pestilence and destruction, that they fought to the death...to kill and be killed...to get it over with as quickly as possible.  A "decisive" resolution of conflict that was far less destructive than prolonging conflict.  Part of the thesis is also that free men have more invested in the resolution of conflict than the "slave soldiers" of other cultures of antiquity.

Menippos:

Nah, that is a Viet Nam movie.

I'll check and post something.  Meanwhile, check out Hanson....a very interesting and entertaining academic writer....he is a Professor of Classics at U. of California, but his reputation is in ancient military history.

 I actually liked Troy, I think because its largely a mythical event even though there is some truth to it, it doesnt really matter how realistic it was because nobody can be sure exactly what happened when and how.

 Troy is by far the best *epic* since gladiator i think. Alexander though was poor, if not just from an historical point of view then for a pure lack of entertainment. I just thought the film was boring simple as that.

 The recent flurry of historical epics has been wasted on films like Alexander, and its really turned the audience off to histor, IMO, therefore making it very hard for further *epics* to be a success. Though I suppose people prefer daft cliched movies like Spiderman than good indepth epics anyway these days.