300 prequel gets an update, no longer called Xerxes

If you thought that a prequel to 300 was a spur of the moment decision after the film became popular, not so. The project is still in the works, and now has an update from producer Mark Canton who spoke to MTV about the film.

“It’s not called Xerxes anymore. We don’t know [what it’s called] yet.”

“It’s been worth the wait. You know, that group of people [who worked on ‘300’], we’re really a family. That’s part of what made that movie so gratifying. Rather than doing the bad sequel, Zack led the way, we took our time. And now I think we have something that is going to be fantastic.”

That would seem to imply that Snyder might still be onboard, rather than be replaced by Guy Ritchie as was previously rumored.

The man writing the story, Frank Millar has previously explained what the story would cover, and don’t worry, there are plenty of more epic battles to be fought.

“The story will be the same heft as ‘300′ but it cover a much, much greater span of time — it’s 10 years, not three days… This is a more complex story. The story is so much larger. The Spartans in ‘300? were being enclosed by the page as the world got smaller. This story has truly vast subjects. The Athenian naval fleet, for instance, is a massive artistic undertaking and it dwarfed by the Persian fleet, which is also shown in this story. The story has elements of espionage, too, and it’s a sweeping tale with gods and warriors. The new tale climaxes with a massive naval confrontation that is so dense that it is fought like a land war and it ends on the same day as the events of 300.

…the story starts with the Battle of Marathon” … “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.”

Would you see this? Judging by my comment avatar, you know I sure as shit would.