Last Updated on August 5, 2021
Last summer, comic creator Frank Miller announced XERXES, his prequel to the graphic novel 300. Soon after, that movie adaptation’s director Zack Snyder officially came on board to bring Miller’s work to bloody life again. At least on the page — Snyder only signed to worked on the script.
And now it sounds like the studio is seeking a Snyder substitute behind the camera. Vulture claims that Warner Bros. wants Guy Ritchie (SNATCH, SHERLOCK HOLMES) to take over the sweeping tale of gods and warriors.
Vulture offers nothing but speculation as to the possible reasons for replacing Snyder on the project — e.g., the director’s impending movie SUCKER PUNCH is an expensive mess, his WATCHMEN and LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS under-performed, and Snyder will be too preoccupied trying to fix some major problems with his next anticipated project, SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL.
Again, those are all just theories… but that last bit may cause panic for fans of Christopher Nolan, who is producing and co-wrote the script for the new SUPERMAN. But we’ve already learned that Nolan won’t be a “hands on” producer on Snyder’s Kryptonian because he’s gearing up for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES — his producer-spouse Emma Thomas said that Nolan brought SUPERMAN to an appropriate screenplay and it’s now entirely Snyder’s picture.
Meanwhile, Ritchie is in the midst of his SHERLOCK HOLMES sequel, which Coming Soon verified as being titled SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS. That movie’s due in December, and Ritchie hasn’t committed to another project yet.
As for XERXES, Miller previously had this to say about the story: “The time frame begins 10 years before ‘300’ and the story starts with the Battle of Marathon, which was killer to draw, by the way, even if it was a lot of work. The lead character is Themistocles who became warlord of Greece and built their navy. The story is very different than ‘300’ in that it involves Xerxes search for godhood. The existence of gods are presupposed in this story and the idea is that he well on his way to godhood by the end of the story. With Themistocles I have a character who is almost the dead opposite of Leonidas in that Themistocles was a lying, conniving, brilliant, heroic figure. He was nicknamed ‘The Subtle Serpent’ and he always manages to do the exact right things that will result in him benefiting greatly.“
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