300: All Hail Spartan King Gerard Butler
Actor discusses the upcoming graphic novel adaptation.
by Scott Collura

November 15, 2006 - Gerard Butler has had the distinction of starring or co-starring in many big-budget Hollywood productions, from The Phantom of the Opera to Timeline, Tom Raider II to Reign of Fire, and yet he still hasn't quite broken through into the realm of major stardom. That is likely to change, however, when his next film, the adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel 300, is released in March.

IGN Movies sat in on a 300 press conference in New York this past Monday, where the actor discussed the film and his role as Leonidas, the Spartan king, at length. (For more on the film from Miller and director Zack Snyder, click here for our coverage of the L.A. press event from last week.) When asked how Butler got the role of Leonidas, he cracked that "having to go through the whole casting couch with Frank Miller — not a pretty sight," before telling the full (hopefully, truer) story.

"I heard about [300] when they offered it to me!" he laughs, before looking over at Miller and saying, "Sorry, [it's my] comic book favorite ever! 300, me, mom, Christmas, birthday! 300. 300. 300! Batman! It wasn't even written yet! No, I knew of the comic book but I hadn't read it, and what happened was I was in speaking to [Warner Bros. exec] Greg Silverman about something else, and Greg said, 'We've got this really cool project 300.' And as I heard the name 300, I thought, 'What a cool title for a project.' And he explained what it was about and then they set up a meeting with Zack, and him and I had the craziest meeting in the Valley where we were both jumping about. I think people thought we had just been let out of the nuthouse, as we were describing the physicality and the whole story and we just connected."

300 details the true story from ancient times of the 300 Spartan soldiers who faced the unbeatable forces of the overwhelming Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae. You might describe the tale as the Dirty Dozen in togas… though in Butler's eyes, it's so much more than that.


"The script … was written so poetically, in a way that you kind of felt, 'How can you film this?'" he recalls. "It was like, 'The dying groans rushed from the body,' or, 'rushed from…' Uh, whatever the f**k it said! O.K., how are you going to film that? At the same time it just gave the script a really unusual, edgy, beautiful kind of poetic feel to it, and so after we had that meeting, you just know there's that gut feeling. I've been excited about different projects, but there was just something about this one. And then they showed me the trailer that [they] shot, which blew my mind, and then of course I immediately went into panic mode. I was jumping over the couch of [producer] Mark Canton's office, jumping on it again, going, 'You've got to let me do this!'"

Obviously they did let him do it, and the result — judging by the 30 minutes or so of footage screened at the Q&A — is pretty amazing. Shot in a similar style as Robert Rodriguez's Sin City, the entire picture was filmed on green screen sets with the digitally rendered backgrounds added to the action in postproduction. The process allows Snyder to capture a highly-stylized reality, but that's not the only technical wizardry at work in the film. One scene glimpsed at the event depicts, seemingly in a single shot, Leonidas leading his troops into a battle, with the King charging front and center and taking out a good half-dozen Persians one at a time. It's a very cool scene, but one that Butler almost had to sit out.

"The shot where I'm kind of marching through, I almost never did that," he says. "I had trained so hard for this particular piece, and it was 15 guys and it all worked fine in the gym when Johnny comes [at me] and then David and then Chad. But then suddenly you dress them all the same as Persians and you're like, 'Who the f**k is this? Ahhhh!' So at the last minute it looked like we were running out of time, and Zack came over to me and said, 'Look, maybe we should use a stuntman.' And I think he just didn't know how badass I was yet! And it broke my heart. So he said, 'Why don't you go ahead and warm up?' And I don't know what happened; I guess [he] probably saw me up there and said, 'You know, maybe we'll take a gamble with this.' And it went great."


A technical glitch with the camera, however, meant that the shot (achieved in two lengthy shots, in fact, that would be seamlessly cut together in post to appear as a single take) was useless and would have to be redone.

"Anyway, the whole thing was f**ked up," laughs the actor. "And it was after Christmas, and I'm going home to Scotland and I'm going to have a few Christmas puddings, and I'm not going to be keeping up with the training quite so much. So I was like, 'Do it now! Do it before Christmas!' So [the final version] was actually after Christmas, after a few Christmas puddings. It worked great, but there was something about the first time, I think especially because it wasn't supposed to happen for me. … That was the first day with the big battle where everyone was involved, and the testosterone, the excitement, the passion of every person was incredible."

Butler has nothing but praise for his director, who has already demonstrated his keen visual sensibilities through his work on the Dawn of the Dead remake. Working from the original comic book artwork (by Miller, with painted colors by Lynn Varley), Snyder made up a "massive portfolio of every shot" for the storyboards, which the team accessed and, according to Butler, often took their inspiration from as well — including the actors.


"He won't tell you because he's too humble, but Zack is so incredibly prepared," says Butler. "[We were] working from this incredible source material … because I think that in just three drawings in this comic, you so got who these guys were, what they were made of, the world that they lived in, and the kind of people they were. So it was incredibly revealing at every moment, including the physicality and shape, and we would often refer back to that, for me especially, because you so got a feeling it was Leonidas, the different ways he'd been drawn and represented. … It just felt like the way Zack had storyboarded it that you knew in a heartbeat that he understood the absolute essence of what this was about, and just completely enriched it and extended it and made it incredibly filmic. We all knew we were working with great stuff."

Taking on the role of Leonidas also meant that Butler would have to look like he could kick some serious ass, so he swore to Snyder and the producers that he would get in peak physical condition if they gave him the part. Of course, once he got the job, as he recalls, he said, "Oh, f**k, now I have to do it. … I know that process, getting out of bed that day and you know you've got a s**t-load to do, but this was going to extend over eight months." He trained six hours a day, lifting weights with his stunt double on the set everyday, but also preparing for the shoot for four or five months in L.A., working with the film's trainer and his own personal trainer as well.

"One of my main ambitions was not to be that actor standing up there with a bunch of stunt guys who are really f**king tough, but to be that guy, with the stunt guys going, 'S**t, look at him,'" he says. "And for me one of the first things is always the physicality. There was a strength and a power and a testosterone on that set in Montreal that I've never experienced before, and as the King is slightly mad … there are those moments where you go beyond being a Spartan where you realize how intense and passionate and, let's face it, how f**king nuts these guys were."

Esther
*mask*

FRANK MILLER, ZACK SNYDER AND GERARD BUTLER ON “300”
by Kendall Smith, Guest Contributor
Posted: November 15, 2006

Frank Miller and Zack Snyder bringing “300” to the big screen makes me so happy I almost want to cry. When one of the biggest names in comics figuratively weds the director of the great modern zombie movie, and they decide to bring an child into this world together -- everyone should be lining up to see the weird little mesmerizing freak in his crib.
From what I've just seen, this love child of theirs will be something truly refreshing for those of us tired of being disappointed by most current Hollywood fare. Monday night I was lucky enough to see some clips of the upcoming film during a private screening in New York City and got to hear Director Zack Snyder, Writer/Artist Frank Miller and actor Gerard Butler speak about their experiences and their passion for bringing this heroic story to us lucky geeks.

The first thing you notice about this film from seeing the images and listening to its creators is its strange position between our world, the past, and total fiction. Frank Miller repeatedly voiced his frustration with historical films that have been projected through a modern prism, with our Judeo-Christian views forced onto times and groups of people when those mental luxuries simply didn't exist. To think that ancient warrior societies lived in the same cerebral space as we do is fundamentally flawed, and unfortunately it's something that we've come to accept from most historical movies. “300” looks like it will soundly pummel that lazy logic we've been fed, and instead give us a stylized look through time and myth to a reality where brutality and freedom and honor actually had meaning. The whole thing seemed simultaneously familiar, but eerily otherworldly.

The clips they fed us were beautiful. These were canvases of slow motion rack focus blood splatter and freshly liberated limbs orbiting each other. A wall of bodies three stories tall. Striking scenes of composition and image that really pinch the old cortex. Even the two fanboys next to me, who had earlier been insulting one another for either not owning first prints of “Dark Knight Returns,” or not knowing enough about Zombie lore, found a common ground and maybe even shook hands after seeing the reel. Each segment was greeted with hearty applause and whooping sounds, and that impressed kind of whispering you hear when people are thinking, "I can't believe I just saw that. I am a very lucky person."

Below is a transcription of the questions and answers from this evening.




Do you think you've gone for a straight historical approach, or more of a fantasy approach?

Zack Snyder: Well you make a choice. When I chose to make the graphic novel into a movie I said "OK, it's going to be that aesthetic" -- the choices Frank made, the choices I made, and for the better, I think. Yes, there is certainly room for super accurate historical movies about Thermopylae, but I feel like what we've done is more about the soul of Thermopylae.

Frank Miller: If I may, doing an ultra-realist version of a battle that was never written down would be quite difficult. We based this on oral history, much imagined, much exaggerated. I think when I did my book I took a lot of liberties because I thought that the average hoplite, or Greek knight, would be carrying seventy five pounds of panoply, weaponry and such, and he would weight about one hundred and fifty pounds. So, you would see a bunch of little red caped beetles moving slowly across the desert, and you'd go to the next movie. [Laughs]

Gerard Butler: You know, when you get into the techniques of these battles -- the Spartans fought the Athenians for twenty years -- you get the feeling that the first couple lines always knew they were goners, they were going to die. You get the feeling that once they clash, they're just kind of stuck there, and every now and again you'd get a spear through. To truly represent some of these battles would be a really long movie.

Miller: Well, you know what they say about watching a car wreck in slow motion -- it's more like a train wreck.

Snyder: I do like the idea between showing the hoplite [heavy infantryman] with his shield and his technique and Xerxes armies with their wicker. There was a certain technological superiority that the Spartans had, even though they were fewer in numbers, to feel that they had a different methodology of fighting, and when they came together you could see that contrast. Also, that society, those Spartans didn't have any other job than that -- just eat, workout and kill.

Just wanted to ask Frank how he thinks it came out?

Miller: (reaches over to shake Zack's hand) Put her there, brother.

[Applause]

How many of the sets and locations were real, and how many were virtual? Also, was the actor playing Xerxes really that much bigger than Gerard?

Snyder: Yeah, he's a freak of nature. [laughs] Actually, he's just really far away, the way it's shot. We had a rule of thumb where if you could touch it, we'd probably build it. If it were twenty feet away, you wouldn't build it. So the ground was real, a lot of Sparta was real, but anything that went any distance away, we didn't build. And Rodrigo [Santoro, who plays Xerxes] is a little shorter than you [Gerard], right? Like an inch shorter?

Butler: Yeah.

Snyder: So, there you go.

Frank, do you recommend other writers to basically sit back and influence movies?

Miller: I recommend for anybody who's going to want to see something turn into a movie to work completely on the comic book, and make sure to hell that you own it. If you don't own it, you don't own dick. Then you can turn everything down as it comes around, and everybody says all the right things and all of that. You need to have these things trademarked, not copyrighted -- copyrighting is meaningless. If
you absolutely own it, then you can enter the completely different level as a licensor, and you know how businesses work. They tend to favor people called "licensor" as opposed to someone called "artist".

One of the striking things about the trailer is that the score is very modern, like the excellent Nine Inch Nails song there. Is that going to be throughout the whole movie, or is that just for the trailer?

Butler: The score here is the real score. Tyler Bates, who did the score, has basically been working on the film for a long time. We did a test shot two years ago, and an animatic before that, and he scored that, then he scored test shots, and he's been working on the movie for a long time. I think that he's really put in a conscious effort to support the visuals. You don't want to counter the visuals so much
that you're like "Oh cool, rock and roll, this is stupid," but also where you're not completely playing to the established rule to sword and sandals, whatever that means.

Miller: Just to pick up on that -- you have to understand what Zack did here. He's not following in the shoes of Cecil B. DeMille. This is a scary modern movie. This ain't your father's “300.” I love it for that. The music is one aspect of that whole thing.

Snyder: Well, I hope your dad likes it, though.

[laughs]

Did the importance of mythology to Navy SEALs have any impact on Frank writing or Zack directing?

Miller: [pause] Sure.

[Laughs]

Miller: With the “300” that we're seeing now, special ops galore. We see that same loyalty to your men. Also, we're seeing things here that may seem antiquated, but we're learning them again the hard way.

Snyder: Warrior culture is fascinating to me anyway. When you're talking about Navy SEALs or tier one guys, you're talking about warrior culture in any country that's real. Your job is that, and it's real. It fascinates me.

You did a lot of blue screen work with the fighting scenes, did that make it tougher than you expected?

Butler: Not so much for the fighting scenes, I think it actually made the fighting scenes easier. We were in a more controlled environment, so it didn't really bother me for the fighting scenes, it was more for the dramatic scenes. Oftentimes you were playing against things that didn't exist, like armies that weren't there, attacking us, and there's nobody there! Or me speaking to my own army that wasn't there or looking at burning villages that didn't exist, and then turning to my army to talk about the burning villages and there was nobody there! I spent a lot of time speaking with nobody and nothing.

What was great was that they had these look frames that they would have up around the set to give us an idea about the world that we were living in. Especially with Thermopylae, it was very complicated -- where the cliffs were, where the water was, where their army would be, so that was kind of weird. Also, there's the dryness to the performance area, because at the end of the day, you are standing on top of cardboard or rubber, and you're not really there. Like for “Beowulf,” we were
filming in Iceland, and that was great at least for that. But it allows other elements into the performance that seem to perfectly suit this mood because nothing is quite normal or quite as it seems. It's based on a graphic novel from a guy with a very scary mind [laughter], with quite an incredible story as well so you just have to trust that and what is going to be designed around you, and you have to learn a lot to use your imagination and then to pull that all back in.

Snyder: When we originally started talking about filming Thermopylae, the tech guys said to me that we could install in the roof of the sound stage this complicated series of receivers, then put this mini-GPS on the camera that calculates its height and tilt. Then we can build in CAD a 3D model of Thermopylae, and at any time we can do a real time comp of the actors, so I could look over at a monitor and say "Oh yeah, that's perfect". So they pitched this thing to me, and I said if I see this thing, I'm going to kill somebody. We basically ended up cheating every single part of it anyway, so the movie would've taken three times as long to shoot. We would've built a fake set and then have to shoot it for real. It's crazy. And we saved millions of dollars, so that's good.

Did the relative flatness of some CGI movies that we won't talk about here influence you decisions at all?

Snyder: It's ridiculous how long we've been developing this mythology and methodology. Thinking "How do we get this shot? How do you make it look like this? How are we going to get that rock? OK, we'll build it." And it went over and over like that. The only shot that was filmed outside was the horse battle at the end of battle one, that was all shot inside, but that one shot of them coming over the hill on the way down to Sparta was done outside because we couldn't get the horses to run fast enough inside. So we built up a mound of dirt.

In terms of an artist choosing subject matter, what made you choose the “300?” Was it them sacrificing themselves? What was it?

Miller: I was six years old when I saw a movie called “The 300 Spartans” and towards the end of it I nudged my brother who was sitting next to me and asked, "Are the good guys losing?" and he said, "I don't know, you better ask Dad." We were very cool kids, so we were obviously sitting two rows in front of our parents. So, I scurried back to my dad and said, "Dad, are the good guys going to die?" [In a
deeper voice] "I'm afraid so, son." And I went back and sat down, and everything about my creative life and everything I thought about heroes was changed forever. Heroes stopped being people who got medals and got applauded and got statues made of them, but all of a sudden they were people who did the right thing whether anybody knew it or not. So I sat on the story and became a comic book artist and waited and waited until I thought I was good enough to do it. Then I realized that day would never come and I'd become one of those idiots who tells everyone about this great story they're not going to tell. I went to Germany and read all the books -- I didn't go to Germany, I went to Greece! [laughter] I went and read all the books and became quite an expert on the battle and proceeded to draw up the best damn
story I ever got my hands on.

Gerard, what drew you to this movie based on your previous acting experience, and what as filmmakers, drew you to Gerard? Was it his audition?

Butler: What audition?

Snyder: He just showed up!

Butler: I sang! I said listen to this. I sang a couple of notes and they said, "That is a Spartan king right there."

[Laughs]

Butler: I'm sorry, what was your question?

Why this movie?

Butler: I know it must seem strange me having done “Phantom of the Opera,” but I'd say I'm more the type of guy who be in something like this than in Phantom. When this came my way [Frank Miller drops his water bottle] it felt like something just...dropped. [laughter] It made sense. For me, I read the script, it was exceptional, and I knew this was going to be a very special film. After meeting Zack, I was even more excited about it. I got even more excited when I went in to meet [Producers] Mark [Canton] and Gianni [Nunnari], they showed me this trailer they had cut before they started filming and that blew me away. So, I had to be involved with this, there was no way I was going to miss it. I'm so glad this man gave me a chance, and I've only seen this for the first time today, so it's a great birthday present for me.

Miller: Again with the birthday?

[laughs]

Did you go hoarse from screaming so much in the movie?

Butler: Well, I actually saw the trailer and I just seem to be screaming all the time, and I know there are people going, "Is that all he does?" I assure you, I don't spend the whole movie screaming. The other thing is, I've screamed a lot in other films and my voice has gone, but strangely enough it never went in this. Maybe it's because of the physicality and passion and that kind of belief like me, the stunt guys, the armies, the actors -- for me it felt like I got into the physical and mental condition of a Leonidas. I felt like a fucking monster, basically. So screaming didn't really hurt my throat.

Snyder: If you watch movie trailers, you'll see that you can only whisper or yell. Those are your two options. Like people won't go see a movie where they talk.

Miller: Let's do a little exercise here, we'll split the audience in two and we'll give you spears and no shields. Then you can run at each other, and we'll see how quiet you are.

[laughs]

You mentioned before that the story is viewed through the prism of an ancient mind. That said, I was wondering if there was any point if you wondered if you could make a new scene, like if this scene was fleshed out a little more and have Frank chalk something out?

Snyder: I should have done that to him, but he was too busy to draw me something. He drew me a couple of things and that was really cool. I think it was a challenge for us, because the book is so beautiful, and we'd have some dumb scene like the burning village and I'm like, "Aw, Jesus. How are we going to do this?" You get to the point where you feel like there's an overall aesthetic to the film and I feel like it's consistent throughout, and that Frank's book is consistent throughout, so I think you do get to a point where you understand what is appropriate and what is not.

As a follow up, I wanted to ask Frank if you're retrospectively thinking of new scenes with these adaptations of your books?

Miller: To answer that, I'd really have to be on the set. That's when those things occur. That's when actors come up with their magic. As far as the historical aspect, one thing I'm really tired of is seeing so called historical movies that put everything through a modern prism. The Spartans were of the Dorian culture, which was the oldest of Greeks, so all of our luxuries of modern morality, of Judaism and Christianity for instance, are creations of a future peoples. What we have here is an evocation of the time before all of that. It is necessarily bleak and severe because what we're seeing is the birth pangs of what would become Western civilization.

Where did you draw from for the fight scenes?

Snyder: I could point to any panel in the book and say, "OK, this is the inspiration for this." If you look at the book, there's one frame in the initial clash where Leonidas is out in front and is kind of the head of this arrow of the phalanx. That's really the inspiration for that scene. As far as the actual technical fighting, I work with these two guys and they're good friends of mine and they're just freaks. I guess you have to be friends with freaks.

Miller: Zack is being very generous, because the fight scenes in this movie are spectacular. Occasionally, there were some key images from the book that were used, but boy, I never used slow-mo like that.

[laughter]

With the string of comic book movies that have come out, what do you see as the direction for comic book movies in the future?

Snyder: There are very few movies that take from a graphic novel, but there are a lot that take from comic book characters. I would say any of the Batman, Superman, X-Men, Fantastic Four, they're all character movies. Hollywood has reinvented their mythology or have used some of their different stories. You know, this should make everyone happy -- knock all the sharp parts off, and here, take it, it's great. It won't hurt you. You can play with it and it won't poke your eyes out. I think that's the Hollywood idea, to give you something everyone can enjoy. I think when you make something from a graphic novel, you have a particular point of view and a particular setting, it's going to offend some people, it's going to be too violent, too sexy, too whatever. From my point of view, that's funner to watch, and funner to do. In this case, being true to the source material gives this movie a point of view, and that's cool movie making.

Miller: It all comes down to content. What's in it is what matters. A graphic novel or comic book or movie, they're all the same thing. Same with a novel. When people move something from one form to another are true to it, if there happens to be something good in it, that's something precious happening. What I've experienced, in the two movies that I've been associated with, is that my work has been amplified by the work of these amazing crews and amazing casts. An actor does things with a scene or with a line that I couldn't have imagined. Very creative, very intelligent people. When Truman Capote said actors are stupid, he proved he was not a director. It just comes down to content. As someone in a movie once said, you can't polish a turd. If the source material isn't very good to begin with, you're going to get something lousy at the end. More and more people are holding on to the ownership of these things and following their own dreams, and in a way bypassing what has become a factory system in Hollywood to come up with new stuff that translates very well into film.

Butler: I just want to say, I love that point. It's breaks my heart when you see the films right now that don't do well and the ones that break box office records. I would hope this film would be successful essentially to encourage studios to make films that aren't just banal action movies, but that are actually trying to be different, and artistic, and with a bit of strangeness to them. I feel like this is an incredible story anyway, but taken by Frank and turned into a brilliant film, you've really got something.



After this, Zack mentioned his next project is Watchmen, and that really got everyone talking. Is he only making one film? Had Terry Gilliam been consulted? There were many questions but no solid answers. However, after listening to Zack speak about “300” and his near sacred treatment of source material, the long talked about “Watchmen” film may finally be in very good hands.

While walking out of the theater, everyone was excited and animated and gesturing to each other. People were smiling and mimicking sprays of blood from non-existent wounds. I heard strangers talking about how great everything looked. It was infectious. I haven't seen that kind of exit from a theater in a long time, and I can't wait to see it again when we have total access to this great looking film.

Esther
*mask*

Love this movie poster!!

Esther
*mask*

GAH! march march march!!!!

*happy* *custard* *happy*

BUTLER LEFT CRIPPLED BY MOVIE TRAINING


Scottish actor GERARD BUTLER suffered for his art shooting new movie 300 because the intense work-outs he undertook to buff up his body later left him in torture. The hunk, who plays KING LEONIDAS in the historical epic, ignored the advice of his trainer to keep up his gym regime after filming wrapped and suffered the consequences. He explains, "It's true, I bust my gut for this role. One of my main ambitions was to have the stunt guys say, 'You are really f**kin' tough!' "I wanted to be that guy, where stunt guys are going, 'S**t, look at him.' I was training for over six hours a day. I trained with my stunt double whenever I was on set and I pumped (weights) on set constantly. "I started training four or five months before the movie started but I struggled a lot after this because I didn't go back to a gym and every part of my body gave out. "I was literally walking around like a cripple."

Esther
*mask*

oh poor Gerry! *hug*

I agree Mischa...poor Gerbear...

If it helps him any, I thought 'sh** look at him', when I first saw him after his transformation! hehehe *luvgb*

*LOL* yea, well that's expected!!!! I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS MOVIE!!!!! AAAAHHH!!!

There goes my next avatar! Wow, that thing is BIG!! What a wonderful thing to play around! *LOL*

Personally I was HOT for him before he pumped up---but you know it was something he wanted to do so I support that---but I feel sorry he was in pain afterward, but he is a sillywilly to not listen to the trainer! Still POOR BABY COME HERE AND LET GYPSY KISS IT AND MAKE IT BETTER---and if it's your whole body, well so much the better! *hm*

*lmao* Very funny!! ok, now because he hurt himself while shooting 300, they have this question if the movie "Priest" will make it. Read on....(i like short articles)

got this in an email...a review for 300!

It's kick-ass. Unlike Sin City, I don't feel it is style over substance--it very much keeps the drama and serious "this is for freedom" tone of the book. You could title this "Frank Miller's Braveheart" and not be far off.

The sepia-filled camera work is just stunning and it feels organic. I never felt like I was watching something CGI or green-screened, it honestly feels like they are outside, on the ocean, in the Hot Gates. There was only one shot they simply *must* fix and that's where Xerxes has his hands on Leonidas shoulders--Santoro is shorter than Butler, so they shot it separately and superimposed it. And you can tell, it has that hideous circa 80's blue screen effect.

David Wenham really isn't in the first half of the film much except for his narration. He has some really great fight scenes though--it's nice to see Faramir kicking some ass! He comes in big towards the end though and you just cheer.

And now, for my Gerard Butler. He is the perfect Leonidas, he's the sarcastic, determined and slightly mad hero of the book. I would follow him into battle and die at his side without question.

Like what you hear? Then head over to AICN for the full review on 300.

300 opens to theatres on March 9th, 2007.

new 300 article:

300 Muscle Men
Movie News January 3, 2007

300 is the type of movie that makes you want to hit the gym harder. All those half naked, buff and bulky Spartans with their six pack abs fighting each other… They even show off a perfect moon lit butt shot, even though the film was shot entirely on a blue screen stage.

Interview: Zack Snyder on 300 Fitness

"That was difficult," said director Zack Snyder. "We had to brighten it a little bit, I gotta admit, when we were in the telecine. They composite it a certain way and then we have it, and then you've got to go, 'Okay, put a little power window on the butt and brighten it.' Debbie, my wife, was in the telecine going, 'you know, it's probably bright enough' or 'No, not bright enough' so I deferred to her a little bit for that. If it was up to me, it'd be super bright. No, just kidding."

As for the bodies in general, that was no special effect. "I had the guys train really hard. They hate me probably. I will be perfectly honest with you. There is a little bit of makeup, airbrushes to help some of the abs, but I've got to say, 99% is just sweat and muscle and caring. Because the actors really, Vince Regan, who plays the Captain, when he came to Montreal, he had no idea that he was going to be basically naked in the movie. I showed some of this footage in England and we were in London and I was talking about the movie, most of the actors in the movie are English. I told them, 'I cast English actors because they're notoriously health conscious people who love fitness over most other pursuits.' And that is totally not true as you know. So they love fish and chips and beer. They don't love turkey breasts and weights. So they really worked hard."


Was it a permanent lifestyle change? "I think the day the film ended, if you were to bring them here today and take their clothes off, you'd be like, 'Who are these guys? Where are the Spartans?' I've seen Gerry recently and I love him more than anything, but for the premiere, I don't think he's going to be taking his shirt off."

300 opens to theatres on March 9th, 2007.

For the video journals, stills, trailers, posters, early review, synopsis and movie info, head over to the 300 Movie Page.

Stay tuned for updates.

~Ryan Parsons

Ten Gets You 300
Despite the fat comments in Italy and some initial on-set snickers, there is absolutely no doubt that with 300, Gerard Butler claims his standing as an action star for the new millennium.
Friday, January 5, 2007 at 4:00 PM
By Daniel Robert Epstein

All hail King Leonidas!

I was one of a number of online genre writers recently invited in Los Angeles and New York to view about 20 minutes of scenes from the upcoming movie 300 (Warner Bros., March 7th). I consider 300, which is the story of how an army of 300 Spartans was able to defeat 10,000 Persian soldiers in the year 480 B.C., to be graphic novel creator Frank Miller’s greatest work.

From what I’ve seen, Zack Snyder’s film perfectly translates to the screen Miller’s art and Lynn Varley’s color palette. But besides the surprise of how amazing the footage is, the big shock was how Gerard Butler looked. He seemed slim and calm, which is in direct contrast to how Butler was when I visited the set of 300.

At that time, they were just a few weeks from wrapping principal photography, with Butler still in full-on King Leonidas mode. When he sat down for the interview, he had a full beard and - even through his long sleeved coat - you could see his bulging, muscular arms. Normally, Butler speaks in soft tones, but in the spirit of Leonidas on this day, he barked out his answers as though he needed to speak as quickly as possibly in order to get back to killing Persians.

Turns out that is essentially exactly what Butler needed to do, because after the interview he was back into the thick of a battle scene. And what battle scenes they are! In the past, many directors have commented that overseeing a multi-million dollar movie shoot is like commanding an army. But 300 director Snyder is truly the general of this army of Spartans.


I’ve visited numerous movie sets, but there is nothing quite like the visceral thrill of seeing 40 men in full battle trappings, slamming their swords and shields against one another. Warner Bros was nice enough to let us peek in on number of other sets, including one associated with the leader of the Persians (Xerxes, played by Rodrigo Santoro). But the biggest shake-up was how disturbingly real a giant wall of dead Persians looked.

When I asked Butler about the kind of training regimen that was required for him to turn into a lean and mean Leonidas, he admitted that the spark was somewhat accidental. During a summer holiday in Italy before 300 pre-production began, people he didn’t even know would volunteer the opinion that he looked fat.

“That made me think that I had a bit of work to do,” he recalls during his recent chat with FilmStew. “My frame’s always been pretty good since the days of Attila (2001) and I’ve been fortunate that I’ve done various jobs that have required me to work my body.”

“But when I started training for this, I was probably at one of my lowest levels of fitness,” he adds. “So I felt like I had a mountain to climb. In fact, I did have a mountain to climb. I always work hard for my roles, but I think I trained harder for this than I did for any other role.”

Butler also dedicated a great deal of time during the making of 300 to the examination of the original Miller comics. He says that he and Snyder deliberately tried to emulate some of the incredible Leonidas stances and positions depicted on the page.



“They are certain moments that if you read the comic book, they stick in your mind,” he explains. “But you’ve got to temper it. If you take certain things too far, it would just look ridiculous standing next to everybody else that you’re working with. It’s trying to find that fine line between believability and the comic book nature of the piece.”

“It’s all hyper-real and real at the same time,” Butler observes. “I paid a lot of attention to trying to get the power of this thing which you really feel when you read the graphic novel, but then at the same time without making it stiff and lending the guy some more humanity.”

“I think if you were to play him as severe as in the comic book - he almost kills his best friend and captain right at the start just for beating one of the soldiers - immediately you’d have an audience absolutely hating you.”

Butler got more than his fair share of injuries from 300, although not quite as many as the number of the film's stark title. Ironically, he says some of that was again due to what he did before things got rolling.

“I think I overdid my training at the start,” he admits. “That’s what I do; I dive into these things and I don’t always judge it very well, but I’m glad now. Anytime that I’m feeling like that, I imagine our king would be feeling that as well. Because I’m sure he’s had a few bumps and bruises in battles.”



“I got a scar on my knuckle from when I tried to spear somebody and ended up punching the shield,” he adds. “I’ve had a bunch of bruises: I pulled my hip flexor; I’ve got tendonitis on both my elbows and shoulders. I’ve gone through a lot in this film. After a couple months of that it really starts to take its toll, but to me, it’s all part of the experience.”

Butler looks simply smashing in his leather cod piece, despite a rather inauspicious costuming debut. When he first tried the prop on, he was not only the first actor to do so, but also the first actor to do so with only the accessory of a pair of trainer’s black socks to go with it.

“The crew was watching me walk past and I could see the smiles on their faces,” he recalls. “And I thought, ‘Is it going to be months of this?’ But the funny thing is, later on, they didn’t blink an eye. When you work so hard on your body and you’re proud of the way you look, I’m quite happy to show off.”

“I’m quite happy to walk about pretty much naked any chance I get, because I know as soon as this movie finishes, I’ll never look like this again. So I might as well enjoy being seen [like this] while I have it.”



Except for two brief moments, the entirety of 300 was filmed in front of green screens on a Montreal sound stage. And unlike Butler’s experience on The Phantom of the Opera, where he had the luxury of retiring to his underground lair and the company of dancers and spectator extras, here it was along the lines of standing next to one fake rock and looking into the eyes of an army that isn’t there.

“You’re talking to an army of 300 that might only be made up of about 10 guys,” he reveals. “Sometimes it’s 40 guys, but it just depends on the shot. What I’ve often learned as an actor is you don’t necessarily trust what you’re feeling inside because often when you’re performing, especially in this environment, it doesn’t feel as truthful as it does in other films. That makes it more interesting, because you have to go to different places.”

“Sometimes I found myself doing a performance in theatre or film where in my head I thought it was just awful, but people later tell me it’s the best they have seen me do,” Butler continues. “So I’ve learned not to trust what is going on in my head. The other thing is in a movie, you do a performance and it feels one way, then you see it and it comes out so differently.”

“It’s challenging and different and fresh, and doing it without the advantage of full sets makes it in some ways different, slightly to the left or right of what is real and what is normal. All that adds to the film’s slightly unnatural feel.”

Given all this, it’s hard to think of a better preparatory routine than the one that Butler followed in Los Angeles for 300. In addition to about four hours of straight training every day with his own trainer and a Warner Bros. taskmaster, the actor spent two hours in a San Fernando Valley building with no air conditioning, practicing his sword fighting skills.

“That was a good way to lose weight, because I sweated so much there,” he says. “But it’s taken its toll on my body I have to say. I really feel it. It’s as much mental endurance as physical endurance. And I also knew that when you take a look at the way Leonidas has to braid his hair [in the film], it requires a big body underneath that hair.”

“No matter how strong I was, it wasn’t going to work if you saw a skinny body underneath this hair,” Butler insists. “So I knew I had to get big and strong for that as well.”

Butler says that the stuntmen he worked with on 300 are the best he’s ever had the pleasure of collaborating with. A key element when you consider the weight of the sword and shield, and the fact that after twelve hours, even a cape starts to feel heavy.

“It’s not just in terms of the stuntmen’s incredible talent, but also in terms of how much they give you of their souls and how encouraging they are, how patient they are,” Butler explains. “I feel that I’m doing a pretty good job with the action in this film, but it’s due to this incredible training that they’ve given me.”

“However good I look on screen, they make me look ten times as good as I actually am,” he suggests. “When you watch the scenes back in playback, you’re like, ‘Holy sh*t, I look like a monster.’ I know I’m being pretty tough, but I know I’m not being that tough.”

Although Butler did read a number of books on war, generals and the philosophies of ancient battle, he confesses much of his Leonidas research was done on-set on a daily basis, supported by the surprising accuracy of Miller’s comic book. “It’s finding that fine line between this man’s absolute brutality and that he’s a hero that pushes the definition of hero to the edge,” says Butler.

“Sometimes you might feel that the Spartans are the bad guys because we kick so much ass the whole way through the movie. We’re not just killing them but we love it. This is what we were born and bred to do, and I really wanted to put that aspect into the movie.”

“But at the same time also remembering that we didn’t start the war. We were being attacked and now we are going to make it as bloody and as much fun as possible. Because this is what we live for.”

Esther
*mask*

wow...that was quite a read. gerry never fails to make me smile...

OKAY!!!!!!
:crowd:

THANKS FOR THAT, ESTHER!

You are most welcome. *hug*

Esther
*mask*

Here are two more!!

INTERVIEW: GERARD BUTLER (300 SET VISIT)
01.11.07
By Devin Faraci
Gerard Butler did his interview with us on the 300 set visit fully clothed. Later, of course, we would see him running around in his ancient Greek diapers and cape, but for now he’s just a regular guy, not yet a Spartan Warrior.

300 could be huge for Butler. He’s appeared in many films, but not usually very well-received ones. He’s managed to create a serious fanbase with his good looks and charm, but movies like Reign of Fire, Timeline and Phantom of the Opera never crossed over to the mainstream public, keeping him something of an unknown with your general audience. But 300 is going to be a big movie, and he’s Leonidas, king of the Spartans, and his face and booming voice (“MADNESS?!?!? THIS… IS… SPARTA!!!!”) are all over the advertising campaign. 300 is hard work for the actor, as he talks about in the interview, but in a few months it could all be paying off.

We went and saw the trainer. What processes you had to go through? Where was your body prior to doing this movie and what you had to get to what we are going to see in the film?

I had let myself go a bit. I remember three unsolicited comments whilst I was on holiday in Italy this summer about me being fat from people that I didn't even know, so I guess I had a bit of work to do. My frame’s always been pretty good since the days of Attila the Hun, and I've been fortunate in so much as I've done various jobs that have required me to work my body and do a lot of physical training. But I was probably at one of my lowest ebbs. So when I started training I felt like I had a mountain to climb – in fact I did have a mountain to climb. I trained… I always work hard for my roles, but I think I trained harder for this than I did for any other role.

Does this seem almost more mental than, in a sense physical; your mind has to overcome this obstacle that Mark is putting you through to get your body in shape.

Yeah, well the thing is, when I was training with Mark, I was also training with another trainer. So I was doing a two hour session with Mark and then I was popping off to my own trainer because I wanted to make sure that I also built muscle. Mark is much more conditioning of the body, but I was also concerned with getting big and strong and fitting the power and the character that I felt the king needed, especially because I knew that this guy, when you take a look at the way he has the braid in his hair and the beard, it requires something. I didn't want to see that, which is a big head, a big presence of the head and then a skinny body underneath that. It didn't matter how lithe or how strong I was, it wasn't gonna work. So I knew I had to get big and strong as well. So there were times, in the earlier, the first couple of months where I was training 6 hours a day, because I was also doing two hours of sword fighting and it was this crazy place out in the Valley in LA with no air conditioning. That was a good way to lose weight; I sweated so much out there. Then I would train with Mark and then I would train with my own trainer and when I came here, I've taken a separate trainer as well, so in fact I'm training with this guy at five o'clock. I've been doing a lot of separate training in the gym. It's as much what these guys do, it's hard to go through; it's as much a mental endurance as a physical endurance, but it's been testing. It’s taken its toll on my body, I have to say, I really feel it.

Terrence Stamp hasplayed two comic book characters, and he has said he very seriously looked at the comic to figure out the way the guy moved between panels. I was wondering, looking at the book, if you had done anything like that?

Absolutely, I spent a lot of time looking at the comic and so did Zach. We've often… there are certain moments in that comic book where the king has such incredible stances or positions that we tried to emulate in the film. You know, certain moments that, if you were to read the comic book, moments would stick in your mind as a reader. We've done the same thing. I often find myself referring to the book, even when it's not something we are trying to emulate, but just to get a feeling of the kind of mood he's in, just from the position he's in. So I've done a lot of that, and looking at the way he seems to move etc. But you do that, but then you have to temper it with the fact that this isn't a comic book and there's certain things that if you take it too far would just look ridiculous, standing next to everybody else you’re working with. I guess it's trying to find that fine line between believability and the comic book nature of the piece, or the fantasy element. So it’s kind of hyper-real and real at the same time, and for me, I paid a lot of attention to trying to get the power of this king, which you really feel when you read the graphic novel, his absolute power and command, but then at the same time without making it too stiff, and lending the guy some more humanity that you think an audience can perhaps relate to, even more than the comic book. Because I think if you were to play him as severe as he is in the comic book… I mean, he almost kills his best friend and captain right at the start just for beating one of his soldiers. I think immediately you'd have an audience absolutely hating you. So it's finding that fine line between this man’s absolute brutality when necessary, which I love, I love that he is a hero who pushes the definition of hero to the edge, in terms of sometimes you feel when you watch this film that the Persians are the good guys and the Spartan's are the bad guys because we kick so much ass the whole way through the movie. I actually feel sorry for these Persians as they attack, because you know that they're running forward going "Shit, we've got about 3 seconds to live," and we're not just killing them, but we're loving it, you know? This is what we were born and bred to do, and I really wanted to climb into that aspect of the fight and the war, whilst at the same time remembering that we didn't start the war, you know? We're being attacked, but within that environment we're going to make it as bloody and as much fun as possible, because this is what we live for.

We were watching some film before lunch and speaking of fun, it looks like it might be some fun to be out there with some swords and shields and running around. Is it fun?

It's great, you know. Listen, it's hard as well. At the end of the day you're… I finished at 9am on Saturday morning and I was aching. My back was killing me and my legs were killing me and my shoulders, because you're carrying the shield and you're slashing with the sword and you have a cape, which after 12 hours really starts to weigh heavy on you, it's tough. But it's also so much fun; I wouldn't change it for the world. And I am working with the best stuntmen I have ever worked with, and not just in terms of the talent. They are incredibly talented, but in terms of how much they give you of their souls and how encouraging they are, how patient they are. I feel that I'm doing a pretty good job with the action in this film and I'm doing it all myself, but it's down to this incredible training they've given me right from the start. They're amazing, and no matter how I look on the screen, they made me look 10 times better by the moves that they do when you finish the scene and you watch it back on play back. You’re like "Holy shit! I look like a monster! I know I'm being pretty tough, but I know I'm not being that tough”. They make me look 10 times as good as I actually am.

And you're wearing the leather loincloth.

The codpiece. How can I defend loincloth with codpiece? No it's not a loincloth, it's a codpiece goddamn it. (laughs)

Did you have any issues with it?

Not anymore. I don't even think about it. I did at the start because, you know, I remember the first time that I tried it on, I had to walk past a lot of the crew who hadn't really seen anybody dressed like this yet. So, I didn't even have my cape on. I walked past in a pair of trainers, black socks and a leather codpiece, with nothing else on. And all the plasterers, and the joiners, and the electricians were sitting eating sandwiches just watching me walk past and I could see the smirks on their faces and I thought, “Is it going to be months of this?” But the funny thing is, now, they don't blink an eye, I don't even think about it, and also when you work so hard on your body and suddenly you’re proud of the way you look, I'm quite happy to show off! I'm pretty much happy to walk around naked any chance I get, because I know as soon as this movie finishes it'll all disappear again, so I might as well enjoy being seen while I have it.

Did they send you the script or the graphic novel, and which one did you read first?

I read the script first and then actually it was a couple of friends in New York that were visiting me, and they knew of the graphic novel and went out and bought it in a comic book store and brought it back for me, so I read that, but that was literally three days after I read the script. And it was about 5 months before I got involved with the film, because the film wasn't even green-lit at that point, but I had a fantastic, phenomenal meeting with Zach, where he couldn't keep me on my chair. I was like jumping all over the place, trying to show him the strength, the character that I felt was necessary for this king – and for every Spartan, you know. I felt that every Spartan should be at least Russell Crowe, or better, in terms of toughness.

Were you surprised by the look of it, after you read at the script?

Yeah. Well firstly, when I first met, I didn't realise it was all filming in a studio. That was never explained to me, but then when I saw… I don't know if you guys ever saw the teaser that they did, a long time ago?

We’ve heard a lot about it. [We would be shown it later]

It's like this film. You have to see… as soon as you see one thing, even if it's just a photograph of the compositing in the back, so much of this film makes sense. you realise the world that you are entering into. The teaser explains the action more than anything and how it is going to be done, and it's really phenomenal. When I saw that, I was already hugely excited, I loved the script, it's such a wonderful story. I had a great meeting with Zach, and I could tell immediately that this was the guy who had such understanding and control of this script and this story and wanted to take it to all the places that I wanted it to go and I imagine so many members of the audience would want it to go. After that I was sold, but it just took a long time after that for the plans to be finalised and for me to be cast. You know, there are certain films that they chase you for and there are certain films that you chase and I think I would say I chased this one. I know when I see something and I want it, then get out of my way! (laughs)

For Phantom, the set was really impressive; it was all there for you to physically touch, smell and taste, and you step on the set here and there's nothing there for you. Can you talk about that as an actor?

Yeah, this is definitely much more challenging. It is more difficult to experience, I think, the feelings that you would naturally experience just by being surrounded by the true environment, or as true an environment as possible in terms of it being in a studio. In the Phantom, you had that; you had the theatre, you were surrounded by the dancers or the crowds or you had an opera being performed. I had my lair downstairs; I had those elements to look at, to feel, to touch, to smell, whereas here, sometimes you’re just standing next to one false rock and you’re looking at an army of a million Persians that aren't there, that are a blue screen, and you’re talking to an army of 300 behind you that really, at that point, might only be 10 guys. So, sometimes it's 40 guys, but it just depends on the shot. But what I've learnt as an actor is that you don't necessarily trust what you’re feeling inside, because often, when you're performing – especially in this environment – it doesn't feel as truthful as it has done in other films, which makes it, in some ways, even more interesting because you have to go to different places. You have to almost, I feel, in some ways even change my approach – sometimes, in a subtle way and sometimes in a way that… I just feel it changing naturally and I have to trust that, just like I found myself in theatre or film doing a performance where in my head I thought it was just awful and have people tell me it was the best thing they've seen me do, you know. I learn often not to trust what is going on in my head. Then the other thing is, I so often find you do a performance, and it feels one way and you see it and it comes out so differently, especially when you see it. Even just a shot, with those backgrounds, and you realise the world that you're living in, because you can't tell until you see it. I kind of like that; in a way it's challenging and different and fresh that you're doing it without the advantage of that, and in some ways if that makes it different and again slightly to the left or right of what is real and what is normal, then that adds to that slightly unnatural feel I think that we will have in the film, if that makes sense? It does in my head, but I'm not very good at explaining.

When you're acting in a film like this, that has so much green screen, is it more like being in theatre where you have to create the world around you and you have the stage that has to be a different world than you're really in?

Yes, I think so, that's a good point and I hadn't really thought about it that, but as you were saying it I suddenly thought yes, it does often feel like theatre. The only one difference is, in theatre, which is what I miss because I haven't done it in a long time, is you get to tell the story from the start to the beginning and when you’re in the middle of it you're not even thinking about it; you're just there. You don't even have to think about where you are and I miss that, but that's a big difference between filming. But yeah, it does often feel more theatrical when you're doing this, and again, it's one of the constant things that I am always checking in myself, is going through that, getting that nice balance between, again, the comic book character and the real person. Or the theatrical element and the cinematic element, and not pushing it too much either way because I think you could do a more theatrical performance here – and sometimes you do and sometimes it works fantastically when you have an understanding of where you are or that particular moment – but it's not something you want to push too far, too often. I think again you would end up having a character that would push the character away, and I'm always about drawing an audience in. But it's what's been fascinating about this project; I've been constantly checking and making fine adjustments and never knowing really what the fuck is going on. (laughs) But I love that, I love that, I honestly do. Sometimes I'm going, "I have no idea what we're making here," but I do think that we are making something that will never have been seen before.

Have you seen any of the finished composite footage?

Not a lot, no, but I've seen some of the stuff. I've seen a lot of the photographs and what they could show me of them. I actually saw… I did this ridiculously long action piece, which I did all myself, and there was a problem with the focus, so we had to do it again. But they showed me it, to show me the moves etc. and it looked so astonishing, it's incredible. Everything that they’re doing, whether it's the artistry of the backgrounds, which is really what gets me, but also the camera techniques they’re using and the colour pallets etc, everything about this film is, to me, so fresh and original and brave and I'm so excited to see it. So, I've some stuff, but not a huge amount.

Did you do a lot of research into it? First of all did you know the story of 300 Spartans?

I knew the story, but I hadn't studied the story. I knew of the story, so I did a bunch of reading into that, and I did some reading into… there was a couple of other books, like Carnage and Culture; books on war, books on generals, books on philosophies of battle. But to be honest, most of my research just goes on, on a daily basis, as I'm walking around being obsessed with the character that I'm playing, and how I play that character and how that works in cinematic terms because it's actually quite surprising when you read the story of how actually accurate the comic book is, in so many ways. But what's great about the comic book is also it pushes it to another level, that therefore allows you to play it in a way that you're not going to necessarily find in your history books, but you're going to find in you understanding of how to play this character in cinematic terms.

We heard about some of the minor injuries had been going on. How have you held up in all of this?

I've had a few. I've got a scar on my knuckle here where I tried to spear somebody and ended up punching the shield of a Spartan next to me! (laughs) I didn't get very far. my spear was supposed to go all the way here and it got here and I punched the shield. I've had a bunch of bruises; I pulled my hip-flexor, I've got tendonitis now on both elbows and shoulders. I've gone through a lot in this film because I went from no training at all to training very hard and as Mark says himself, after a couple of months of that, it starts to take its toll. I think I overdid it at the start. That's what I do; I dive into these things and I don't always judge it very well, but I'm glad now, I'm glad. Anything that I'm feeling like that, I imagine our king would be feeling it as well, because I’m sure he’s had a few bumps and bruises in battles as well.

Esther
*mask*

Warner Bros Pictures "300" Soundtrack News


Jan 20 2007
Warner Bros Records is set to release the soundtrack to the epic drama, 300, on March 6, 2007 - three days before one of 2007's most anticipated films hits theaters.

Based on Frank Miller's graphic novel and adapted for the big screen by director Zack Snyder, 300 tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae, a fierce battle that took place in 480 BC. 300 Greeks led by King Leonidas (played by Gerard Butler) stood up to the overwhelmingly massive Persian Army. Rodrigo Santoro and Lena Headey also star in 300.

Writer/director Zack Snyder reunited with Tyler Bates for the 300 score. Snyder and Bates had previously worked together on Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, and Bates also served as composer on See No Evil, Slither, and The Devil's Rejects. Bates scored 300 at the Beatles' Abbey Road Studios with vocal work supplied by Azam Ali (The Nativity Story).

In a press release issued by Warner Bros Records, Bates said, "My intent was to stay true to the inspiration of the film and that of the Spartans' freedom and will. The greatest challenge was to bead a musical thread throughout the film's ever-changing landscape of visual art, while sustaining its epic and emotional qualities. I had to approach it in a style as inventive as the film itself."

Offering his opinion of Bates' score, Snyder was quoted as saying , "It moves the film into mythology, cauterizing the images as you view them, making them something they could never be alone."

300 fans will be pleased to know Warner Bros Records is not only releasing 25-track CD, but will also issue a special edition deluxe-version Digipak (includes a 16-page booklet and three two-sided trading cards).

Source: Warner Bros Records


Esther
*mask*

“300” – ONE-ON-ONE WITH GERARD BUTLER
by Jonah Weiland, Executive Producer
Posted: February 6, 2007 — More From This Author

In January of 2006, CBR News trekked up to a rather cold Montreal for a personal set visit for the film “300.” As the only press on the set that day, we were given incredible access to the stars and producers of the film. All this week, we'll bring you those interviews and our own set visit report.
“300” tells the story of King Leonidas of Sparta, who in 480 BC with 300 of his personal guard held the pass at Thermopylae against hundreds of thousands of Persian soldiers under the command of Xerxes. By all accounts, this was one of the most important battles in modern history. Following the outcome of the Battle of Thermopylae, the various Green kingdoms joined forces, ultimately defeating the Persian invaders, giving rise to the Greek empire and the first vestiges of democracy.

We start out our coverage of the film by talking with “300” star Gerard Butler, who plays the powerful King Leonidas. Butler had to work out extensively for the part, with intense work out sessions daily to prepare for the role. Our discussion lasted about 25 minutes and took place following one of those work out sessions, prior to the start of shooting that day.

“300” hits theaters March 9th.



Gerard, how are you holding up? This has been a pretty grueling production, on top of which you've had to go through some very intense physical training and it's a very challenging part you're playing.

It has been, but then again that's OK. I've taken on a lot of roles in the past that have required a serious amount of training and preparation. I don't think I've ever had to work quite as hard as I have for this in terms of physicality, but it was only a matter of degree – maybe an extra 15-20%. I'm used to it and I love that. I love when your work is cut out for you and you've got to keep your head down and do a lot of grafting and you go through a lot of pain and endurance, so you almost feel like you've earned the film once it's all done. When you see it, the experience is that much more memorable. It enhances your memory.

So, through that pain it's been amazing, but it's been long hours. I'm training every second I get, whether with the stunt guys or especially with Mark [owner of Gym Jones, the team that trained with the cast]. I was doing that for two and a half months before the movie started, six days a week. At one point I was over doing it. I had two trainers – I was training in two different gyms and I was training with stunt guys everyday, so some days I was doing six hours a day. After a few months your body really can't take that anymore, so come Christmas time I was considering getting a zimmer frame (walker) when I went back to Scotland, or getting a wheel chair to get some rest. I have a lot of aches and pains and I'm looking forward to the rest.

Has it been primarily weight training or fight training?

When you train with the stunt guys, it's learning your sword and shield, which I've used before, but these guys have a very specific technique which is kind of Filipino influenced. It really works in terms of the Spartan warriors because it's not that different. Then, also, you learn your spear, which is a whole different thing completely, learning the ways of movement and learning to work as a team, because that's what the Spartan's did. They worked as a unit. Then of course you're talking about it being filmed and you want to make sure it looks amazing, so you're doubly concerned with making the line look accurate, to walk together, work together, to do things in unison. And with sword fighting, there's a big difference between good with the sword and being really good with the sword – knowing how to move, what part of the body comes first, how you move the arm, how to make a strong finish, how to use your feet, all those things. That all just comes with practice and watching these guys who are the best I've ever seen. They're really incredible.

Do you enjoy that side of this, the combat fighting?

I love it. I have some great pieces in here. There's this one piece which I think might be one of the longest action pieces any actor has had to do uncut. It was crazy and took so much work. I have to say those days that I did it, I was so pumped up and full of testosterone and full of nerves. It's tough because you have hundreds of Persians running at you and they're covered up – you don't know who's who. When you do it in the gym, you know who's who – “Oh, that's Johnny and there's Chris, then it's Max.” – but suddenly you have all these anonymous guys running at you full speed and you react a lot differently. It's crazy!

We were using this special camera rig with three cameras on it wrapped together and there were a lot of technical problems, so, sometimes if you mess up a shot, you wait 50 minutes to go again. So, you're pumped up, I'm working the weights, you're ready, you're warm, you're so full of energy and suddenly it stops. That's hard. You get this sort of empty, sick feeling because you just want to go. But, yeah, I love it. It's a buzz. It's exciting.

You've talked about the physical demands of this part, but what about the mental demands of playing a character like Leonidas. Are they there? Are they bigger than any other previous part?

No, they're not bigger. The tests mentally and emotionally I haven't felt as powerfully in this. The one thing about the Spartans is that a lot of times they are very emotionless and, in fact, that's part of what makes the movie so powerful at the end because you suddenly get a measure of just who these men were. Of course, these men have emotion, but they keep it so down inside because everything about them is power and control and fearlessness that any of that emotion is stuffed down inside deep. And with me playing the King, I think I feel it more than anyone because I always have to play against it, even more so in those particular moments of say, remembering my wife at the end. Rather than play into that, you play against it. Your way of dealing with that emotion finds you closing up even more. So, if you were to compare this to “The Phantom of the Opera,” where I felt like I spent four or five months listening to the saddest notes in my soul and crying all the time, no, “300” has not been like that.

With this movie, I've had to work out how to balance a character that is as powerful as this, yet give him a human element and understand that he's based on a comic character that is so extreme in his masculinity. When you read “300” the comic book, you've never seen guys as tough as this, that go through as much as this, that endure as much as this, that suffer as much as this and they love it. And then, when you're a King, you have to go a step further. But if you push that too far, you loose all connection with the audience and you become a caricature. So, the challenge was really in finding that fine line between these different aspects of the character.

When they approached you about the part, did they hand you the graphic novel first or the script?

The script.

Allright, so you read the script and that excited you, so when did you get the graphic novel?

About a week later.

What did you think of it?

I loved it. I'm not a big comic book guy, I have read them before, but I'm not that guy who would go rifling through comic book stores looking for that one comic book. I loved “Sin City,” I read that comic and have read a number of things from Frank Miller. I love the darkness and masculinity of those characters and their psychological journeys. You really climb into that, especially as a guy. So, I got into them, but when I read “300,” I treated it as a film. I'm not making a comic book, I'm making a film. The script on its own was phenomenal. I read it and thought it was so unusual, and this was before I realized how much influence the comic book was going to have on the film. Often a film made from a comic book, it's just used as the basis for the film. Whereas here we are very much stylizing our presentation and at times completely replicating the comic and that's the tone and feel Zack [Snyder, director] is trying to get.

In a way, I wish we could have pushed it as far as the comic book had, but then you'd be making a movie where your boundaries become smaller in so much as you define it more and it becomes appealing to less people. I think we have a great balance where there is emotion, there's toughness, there's brutality, it's ferocious, but it's also a phenomenal story that moves you and is interesting with great politics in there. It has it all going on. Whereas, in the beginning of the comic book, the Captain almost kills his best friend because he beats up one of his soldiers, and you think, well, at least he's caring for his soldier, but then he commands his soldier to carry his Captain back when the soldier has already fallen from exhaustion. So, I'm left wondering if these guys are tough or just pure evil! [laughs] We get that these guys love to fight. That's what they were born to do and that's what they lived their lives to do. But there's all this other stuff for these guys, dealing with what happens when loved ones have to go and leave to fight a war. We focus nicely on that – knowing you have to leave your spouse and your child with the knowledge that there's every chance you might not see them again, so we explore what is going through their minds as well, both on the battle field and back at home. But, it doesn't dwell too much on that. It just feels to me like a really fresh and original way of telling this story. We've taken a lot more angles and risks than most of the similar stories I've watched.

The unique stylization of the film, and the story itself, helps allow it to really contrast against recent films like “Alexander” and “Troy,” allowing it to help break out on its own and rise above the noise left by those other sand and sandals films.

I really do think it will live on its own. Having worked on this and having seen those other movies, it doesn't remind me of them in any way. Not at all.

What struck you the most about the part of Leonidas?

I love these kind of roles, but I think that right from the top of the story you see already that you're dealing with, well, in some ways he's laid out as your typical heel – he's a ruler, you know what he's been through to get there, it's spelled out what an incredible life he's had and that he was basically born a ruler, he just was of that blood. Then he immediately kills his messenger and all his men, just for simply bringing him news. So, you begin to realize you're not just dealing with your typical heel. This is what I love about not just this character, but this story, in so much as there's a framework set-up that they're only defending themselves, but within that framework is an element that shows in a way we're the bad guys. What frustrates me with watching movies normally is you always have to wait for your hero to get his ass kicked before they finally stand up, dust themselves off and say enough's enough. It's kind of the opposite in this film. We're there right from the start. We toy with our aggressors, we taunt them, we almost encourage them. We have an almost simplistic view in the way life works – we do not bow down to anybody and we live as free men. That's where we're going with this film.

Talk about some of the more precarious moments you've had in filming “300.” Any scary moments for you?




My oddest moment was today, in fact, when I left my house. It's funny, I've picked up a few injuries on this film. I have a pulled tendon in my arm right now. I've pulled my hip flexer. I got drop foot and literally my foot was out of control for a week.

Drop foot?

Well, I damaged a nerve in my leg which caused the nerve in my foot to essentially die and my foot would just flop around.

That must have been scary!

It was because I didn't know exactly what was happening. I kept tripping because you don't know what your foot is doing. I would trip over curbs. I'd be standing in the gym, I'd go to move and I'd just fall over because my foot wouldn't move.

But, today, I was late for work again, I was running down the stairs in my house with my boots laid open, and I tripped over my boots and almost went head first down the stairs. At the last second, I grabbed the banister and was hanging over the stairs. My heart was in my mouth! If I had fallen, the way I had fallen, it would have been bad.

I've seen three guys carted off to hospital during this film – we're fighting in close quarters, I've smashed knuckles, I've been banged in the head and I've banged people in the head. But, how funny, that I could have injured myself to such an extent that I couldn't work, just leaving my house.

Zack would not have been happy with you!

I wouldn't have been happy with me. That would have broken my heart.

How'd you get involved in this role? How did that all come together for you?



I was sent the script by my agent and they set-up a meeting with Zack. And, that meeting, you've never seen two more passionate characters. I think everyone thought we were crazy. I was up and about, telling everyone about the physicality of these guys and how they would move and how they would fight, and I'm literally acting it out and throwing myself about. And then here's Zack who's a total fitness freak and such a strong guy. It's rare you get a director who really understands power and understands violence. This guy has trained with cops and the Navy Seals. So, in that meeting, he's there, he's punching the table and we were just both everywhere! When I left that meeting, I was hoping it went as well as I thought it did, and it did. Then, from there, the producers showed me this three minute preview that they did for the studio and it was then that I really understood where they were going with the movie and it was then that the pain started. Immediately the fear set in, “What if this doesn't happen? What if I don't do this?” Then it was just a waiting game. The film hadn't even been green lit at that point. But I was now armed with as much information as I needed to make a decision based on the script, the comic book and this three minute preview. That was really helpful – the preview is like three minutes of action and the tone and style of the film, but I could watch that all day. I could just put it in on a loop and watch it over and over again. Some days I'll ask for them to turn it on again and it's been like eight months that I've been seeing this thing! [laughs]

What's the next kind of roll you'd like to do to follow this?

Something completely different. I don't like doing two things that are the same back to back. I think I'm off to do a thriller next in Vancouver. It would be myself and Maria Bello and Pierce Brosnan. I haven't actually done a thrilled in America yet and I really like this script. It's not 100% definite, but it's looking good. [The film is “Butterfly On A Wheel.”] I couldn't go and do something like this again – I just don't have the energy. But I feel like I've paced myself just right. I almost over did it, but I think I'm going to survive it because I can see the end is in sight.

This movie employs extensive use of green screens for special effects to be added later and very few natural sets. Green screen acting – especially on this scale – is that really a challenge for you as an actor?

Yeah. I don't love green screen because the pay off with green screen is at the end of the production, but seeing that preview was very helpful. When I saw that I realized just how incredible this film is going to look on an artistic level. They've gone to a place that they really didn't have to go, they could have made it a lot easier on themselves, but they are really trying to create a world that we haven't seen before. A fantastical, dream like world that really puts you in a mood with every scene. It's so visually exciting it will literally take your breath away.

The pay off for that is in the end, but unfortunately I don't fucking see that when I'm filming! [laughs] I just see green screen. That's really been one of my big challenges – finding that fine line between the human Leonidas and the comic book Leonidas and also trying to find that within the framework of working on unnatural sets inside a studio. But, the strange thing is, you can't help but let that affect your performance slightly and in a way it kind of gives an off kilter, slightly off balance performance, which I kind of love. It works perfectly with the whole feel of this film. So, I'm trusting that I haven't made a huge mistake in trusting that! [laughs] That's why I kind of feel like the pressure is taken off me a bit because when you see the design and style of this film, it comes through nicely. When you see that trailer and artwork, people will form their own judgments and I'm pretty confident that people will never have seen an epic laid out like this and presented like this.

Thanks, Gerard.


Esther
*mask*

Frank Millers 300 : Bringing the Novel To Life
Movie 300 Posted By: Stanch / Source
Related News : Action Movie News , Comic Flicks ,

Mysterious. Fierce. Formidable. Spartans are among the most enigmatic cultures in history. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender, they are the perfect warriors. "The Spartans remain a mystery to everybody," says Frank Miller, who wrote the graphic novel 300 which inspired the film. "They are arguably unique in that they are completely a battle culture, absolutely dedicated to warfare. They have a code of honor on what it means to be Spartan, and out of that arises a heroic class like the world has never seen before."

Co-writer/director Zack Snyder adds, "Spartans live for battle. They love it," he says. "They fight as one, creating a phalanx in which each warrior's shield protects the man beside him. It's an awesome and intimidating sight, even for the masses of Persians. Though the Spartans face insurmountable odds in terms of numbers, a true Spartan warrior is always willing to die for freedom--they consider it a 'beautiful death.' They define themselves by sacrifice and freedom."

Frank Miller first encountered the Spartans when he saw the film "The 300 Spartans" as a kid. He remembers, "I was quite shaken and inspired by it because it taught me that heroes aren't the people who necessarily get a medal at the end of the story, that heroes are people who do what is right because it is right, even making the ultimate sacrifice to do it. All my life I wanted to tell this story because it's the best story I've ever encountered. And, eventually, I gained the skills as a cartoonist, such that I thought I could finally handle it."


To illustrate 300, Miller synthesized his substantial research--which took him to the cliffs of Thermopylae itself--with the trademark style he brought to such legendary graphic works as Sin City and The Dark Knight Returns. He pared down the Spartans' uniform (roughly half his body weight in uniform and weapons) down to its most essential and symbolic features and peppered the story of the historic 480 B.C. battle of Thermopylae with elements of prior and subsequent clashes between Xerxes and the Greeks.

"Frank took an actual event and turned it into mythology, as opposed to taking a mythological event and turning it into reality," says Snyder, who blended Miller's bold vision with his own to make the feature film. "That's the refreshing thing about it. He wanted to get at the essence, as opposed to the reality, of what a Spartan is. If you go to Thermopylae, the statue of Leonidas is a nude; he's got a shield and spear and a helmet and that's it. Frank went to Thermopylae and I'm sure he saw that and went, 'Okay, this is how we have to do it.'"

Walking through the underbrush of Thermopylae had a profound effect on Miller. "It's a place where great and glorious things happened," he describes. "We are talking about the crucible, the epicenter of the battle for everything that we have, for everything that is Western civilization. There's a reason why we are as free as we are, and a lot of it begins with the story of 300 young men holding a very narrow pass long enough to inspire the rest of Greece."

300 became a best seller and won Miller numerous industry awards. "The story sold itself," he comments. "I just did my best to do justice to a great moment in history. It was very important to streamline the appearance of characters to make them more dynamic and to lose the sense of this being an old story. It's not an old story; it's an eternal story."

The book gained a legion of fans, counting among them the co-writer/director and producers of the feature film. "The beautiful thing about Frank's book, and about any of Frank's work, is the prose that goes along with his drawings," notes Snyder. "It is not just an illustration; there is this poetry. The way that he structures the prose is as important as the drawings to me. I wanted to think of a way to preserve and honor his prose, as well as his imagery in the film."

Five years ago, producer Gianni Nunnari and Snyder were discussing future projects on which to collaborate when Snyder noticed Nunnari's copy of the graphic novel on his desk. Nunnari championed the project solo for several years. He was able to reach out to convince producer Mark Canton to get involved with him and develop the project in earnest with Snyder as director and co-writer.


"300 is an incredible work and Zack came to this project with such love for the material itself," Canton enthuses. "He also brought such an extraordinary vision for what it could be as a film that we became tremendously excited about the possibilities."

Nunnari adds, "The property itself just opened his imagination. He saw every ingredient clearly - from the visualization of the fighting to the characters themselves. We knew that what he wanted to make would be a seminal film."

"Gianni's persistence and Mark's dedication to this project convinced me," recalls Miller. "First Gianni, then Mark, were so determined and so believed in the story that they won me over. Zack really wanted to make this movie. He's really charming and was so completely focused on this project that it was very difficult to say no...so I didn't."

Snyder found his process in conceiving the feature film similar to what Miller had experienced. He wanted to eschew the precepts of realistic filmmaking and instead find a way to "make it live on screen," he explains. "I didn't want to make a film that looks like a photograph but, rather, to put you inside the world Frank created in the graphic novel. This is not an historical drama. It's not a linear story. Nor is it meant to be entirely historically accurate. Our goal was to create a true experience unlike anything you've ever seen before."

A core team of filmmakers coalesced around "300" from the moment it crystallized. Producers Canton, Nunnari and Bernie Goldmann were all captivated by the story. "Zack was so specific about how he wanted this film to look and feel," comments Goldmann, "and as the project began to take shape, there was great satisfaction in knowing that Zack would be bringing this story to life in a way that audiences have never seen before."

Snyder, in the interim, made his directorial debut with "Dawn of the Dead" and then immediately returned to the project, working on the adaptation with his writing partner Kurt Johnstad, infusing the story with additions that sprang naturally from the clarity of Miller's original vision (Michael B. Gordon had written a previous draft of the screenplay). Producer Jeffrey Silver joined the team to work closely with the physical production and visual effects aspects of the production.

"From the start, everyone on this film, from the studio to the producers, executive producers, the cast and production team, was incredibly supportive of what I wanted to do with '300,'" says Snyder. "They all grasped the vision so well and were such tremendous collaborators that it has been a truly extraordinary experience."

Snyder's decision to make the graphic novel had groundbreaking implications for the film's look. "The look development was a big part of the process," Snyder continues. "You go to the movies because you want an experience that's different. That's what we tried to do with '300.' Whether it was landscapes or battles or action or architecture, every frame in the movie is like a visual effect."


Snyder initially storyboarded the film himself, and ultimately, he and his producing partner and wife, executive producer Deborah Snyder, and associate producer Wesley Coller put together a development package to express the director's vision for the film.

The presence of Frank Miller, who also served as an executive producer on the movie, might have proved intimidating to the director, but Goldmann counters, "Frank was so nice and so helpful. Whenever Zack sought his input or approval, he would say, 'Keep going, it's great. I love what you're doing.' He embraced the movie and all the people involved in making it."

A series of tests was conducted on every aspect of the film, from lighting and costumes to the texture of the sets. One of the elements that the filmmakers wanted to explore was the photographic look of the film. Snyder had the idea of manipulating the color balance to create a process that was ultimately nicknamed "the crush." "Zack developed a recipe where you'd crush the black content of the image and enhance the color saturation to change the contrast ratio of the film," Jeffrey Silver explains. "Every image in this film went through a post-image processing. The crush is what gives this film its distinct look and feel."

"I don't want anyone to say, 'Oh, that looks like Greece or that looks like Canada,'" explains Snyder. "I want them to be, from beginning to end, inside of this experience."

"We were all in awe of the scope of what Zack wanted to do with this multi-layered effects process," Canton adds.

"The evolution of what was filmed, from the set to the final product, brings this story into another realm," says Nunnari.

Gerard Butler, who stars as King Leonidas, states, "It's almost like somebody who was there and witnessed the battle went to sleep and dreamed the whole thing again because a lot of it is very representational...a lot of it exists in the imagination, so it allows us to take it so much further. It's an incredible story, which has been an inspiration to so many people throughout history, but it's not a documentary. It is a fantastic story full of passion and politics and brutality and so many more things, existing in this hyper-real, beautiful, emotional world."
__._,_.___

Esther
*mask*

King of The Fans
Everyone is rooting for Gerard Butler in '300.'


By Ginanne Brownell
Newsweek International
Feb. 19, 2007 issue - Gerry Butler is so popular in Japan that when he arrived in Tokyo in 2005, 2,000 swooning fans met him at the airport. Those are more screaming Japanese than have ever bothered to greet Tom Cruise—at least according to Tamara Halstead, who runs gerardbutler.net, one of several Web sites dedicated to the brooding Scottish heartthrob. Halstead says her site averages about 30,000 visits a day and has received almost 7 million hits since its launch in 2001. Some of these fans meet up at annual conventions to deconstruct what it is that they love about the 37-year-old actor: his self-effacing charm, as well as his rippling muscles, entrancing eyes and sexy chin. This summer 400 fans will converge for a convention in Butler's hometown of Glasgow. They're the lucky ones; the event sold out within 24 hours and 300 hopefuls remain on the waiting list. Yet few mainstream moviegoers have ever heard of him.

That's about to change. This week his latest film, "300"—a historic epic about the Battle of Thermopylae, based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller—will debut to eager anticipation at the Berlin Film Festival. Playing Leonidas, the king of the Spartans, Butler leads a tiny army of 300 against Xerxes' massive Persian forces. Warner Bros., the film's producer, has high hopes for the box office—in part because it has generated so much Internet buzz. "Gerry carries the movie," says the film's director, Zack Snyder. "There was a concern that if we had an actor who people did not know, they wouldn't know who to follow in this tale. But Gerry has such powerful charisma and presence, you just want to be led into battle." And "300" isn't the only Butler vehicle on tap; the thriller "Butterfly on a Wheel," in which he costars with Pierce Brosnan, will also be screened in Berlin this week. His love story "P.S. I Love You," with Hilary Swank, comes out later this year.
Butler is no doubt as surprised as anyone by his turn in the limelight. Growing up mostly in Glasgow, he was a good student and a hard-core Celtic Football Club fan who dreamed not of Hollywood stardom but of the scales of justice. He served as president of the University of Glasgow Law Society and graduated with honors; his focus was on European Community law. But one week shy of qualifying as a lawyer, he was fired from his traineeship at an Edinburgh firm. "That day I got fired was the worst day of my life," Butler says. "They were so nice but they said, 'Let's face it, this is not for you. Your dreams lie elsewhere; go and sort yourself out'." And so the next day he moved to London and got a job as an assistant to a stage director. Before long, Butler himself was treading the boards.

Small television roles led to parts in films like "Mrs. Brown" and Michael Crichton's "Timeline." Though Butler has appeared in leading roles before, he has not registered with a wider audience because he's been either eclipsed by his leading ladies (Angelina Jolie in "Tomb Raider") or literally covered up (he played the title role in "The Phantom of the Opera"). Staying below the radar screen suits him just fine. "I want to still be able to sit on my arse in a New York café without anyone taking notice of me," he says. But "300" may soon make that impossible: Butler fairly bursts from the screen with a physical energy that is stunningly compelling.

What seems to attract fans, apart from his seductive swagger, is his devotion to them. When members of gerard butler.net raised $6,000 for a cancer charity (his father died of the disease), the actor matched their donations. He has been known to make phone calls or send notes to fans. Halstead considers him a friend, and vice versa; "I was one of his guests at the 'Phantom' premiere," she says. The number of fans clamoring for his attention is only going to grow. One project Butler hopes to take on next year is a biopic of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. "It is a project I am passionate about, and though it has been a struggle to get financing, it is my full intention to make it," he says. After the premiere of "300," King Leonidas is more likely than ever to get his way.

© 2007 Newsweek, Inc

Esther
*mask*

GERARD'S SPART ATTACK
Shooting bloody epic left Scots star in agony
Exclusive by Fiona Young
SCOTS star Gerard Butler got into the best shape of his life for new movie 300 - but has revealed the terrible toll on his body.

The 37-year-old suffered countless injuries filming the historical epic's spectacular battle scenes.

Gerard said: "I pulled my groin then got drop foot -my foot was flopping around for six days.

"I damaged my shoulders from overdoing it and I suffered from chafing - my thighs were too big. I should have worked less on them."

Tomb Raider and Phantom Of The Opera star Gerard plays King Leonidas, who leads a 300- strong Spartan army against a million Persians at the bloody battle of Thermopylae in 480BC.

The film also stars Vincent Regan and Lena Headey and is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller, whose Sin City was also made into a movie. It has been touted as the most violent film ever and Gerard trained for months to master the fight styles and weapons.


He said: "I was training before the movie started with two different guys. I loved it but it was intense. There was a lot of bodybuilding and a more aerobic side with swords and spears.


"That went on for months and we'd be doing it between shots, too. But it was a lot of fun, especially the early days, when we were all pretty s*** at it.


"I haven't been in a gym since we stopped. I have no wish to do so for a while either. I spent four months on a massage table after shooting."


300 is filmed in the same comic-like black and white of Sin City and most of it was done in front of a blue screen rather than an exotic location.


Gerard said: "I thought I'd be off to Morocco or something."

Esther
*mask*

Here are some links to some various interviews and articles about 300.

Esther
*mask*

:um: no links came up, esther. or is it just my computer acting strange again?

No it's not your computer I think I forgot to paste them lol. I'll search for them again and then re-send them. Sorry about that. :wah:

Esther
*mask*

waiting... :um:

Feb. 20, 2007 by Cinerati publication--

When it comes to historical dramas, one often wonders what the thoughts of scholars of a particular subject think about films depicting that subject. When watching a film about the Crusades, one wants to know what medieval scholars think about the film as a whole product.

No one expects historical dramas to be perfectly accurate, but one does expect them to capture the feel of the times and to be compelling stories. There are exceptions to the above statement, especially with regard to biblical films where some people do expect perfect accuracy, but by and large the audience wants to know that a film is entertaining and not a mockery of the era it is representing. Let me give what I think are two good examples. Kingdom of Heaven has many historical inaccuracies, but the more I watch the film, the more I am drawn in by the sense of the film and its imagery. The film genuinely transports me away from the present and into a faux version of the Crusades. Timeline has an almost opposite effect. As much as I enjoyed Crichton's book which provided the foundation for the movie version, I dislike the movie more each time I view it. Sadly, I have seen this film around six times because I have friends who enjoy the movie, and friendship is more important than agreeing whether a film is good or not. For me, Timeline's problem is that the film completely ignores the underlying argument of the book, chiefly that the "Dark Ages" weren't anywhere near as dark as the Renaissance claimed it to be. Every time I see Timeline, I keep asking myself, "Where did the $80 million go?"

Next month sees the opening of Frank Miller's 300 on the big screen. The Battle of Thermopylae has been one of my favorite subjects to read about/watch for a long time. My first exposure to the famous battle was Rudolph Maté's 1962 classic, The 300 Spartans. I saw it at a tender young age when I was cutting my teeth on all kinds of Sword and Sandal films, most of which had some kind of supernatural element. The 300 Spartans was different. The heroes didn't win the day, they died heroically. I have watched the film numerous times since and, while it does seem dated, it inspires me every time. I guess you can't go too wrong as long as you include the "big lines" from Herodotus.

I am excited about Frank Miller's version. The graphic novel was good, though there was significant artistic license. The previews look beautiful and Gerard Butler, who was the best thing about Timeline, looks to be a very good Leonidas. Being excited, I did what I usually do and surfed the internet searching for speculation by scholars familiar with the subject. I was pleasantly surprised to find more than mere speculation. Frank Miller, and film director Zack Snyder, gave classical scholar Victor Davis Hanson a preview screening. Both claim to be big fans of VDH, a fandom which includes me.

In an interview with Rebecca Murray, Zack and Frank were quoted as saying:

Zack Snyder: He’s a frickin genius. He’s a Greek historian and we showed him the movie because I wanted him to write a forward to the Making Of book. I was a little nervous to be honest, because I wasn’t sure how he’d react. And Kurt Johnstad who he and I worked on the screenplay together, he actually also is a huge fan of Victor Davis Hanson. He went up to show him the movie at his house.

Frank Miller: I mean, jumping back to Victor Davis Hanson, it was right in the middle of maybe our first conversation that Zack brought his name up, not realizing that he was citing my favorite non-fiction writer in the whole universe.

When I read these words, my excitement increased. But it was upon reading Victor Davis Hanson's review of 300 that the film went from "must see" to "will murder to see." VDH gives the film a glowing review over at his site (though it should be noted that the graphic novel is being released by Dark Horse and not Black Horse). He states in the summary of his review, "most importantly, 300 preserves the spirit of the Thermopylae story. The Spartans, quoting lines known from Herodotus and themes from the lyric poets, profess unswerving loyalty to a free Greece. They will never kow-tow to the Persians, preferring to die on their feet than live on their knees."

I can't wait.

Sorry for the wait but here are those links...

http://iesb.net:80/index.php?option=com_co...=1878&Itemid=99

http://www.comics2film.com:80/StoryFrame.php?f_id=24618

http://www.comicbookresources.com:80/news/...tem.cgi?id=9664

Esther
*mask*

oh thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! they were all great! *hrt*

Interview : Gerard Butler
Scottish actor Gerard Butler sang for his supper as the ill-fated 'Phantom of the Opera' and not to be outdone, takes on the mythical King Leonidas in the much anticipated '300', a stylized retelling of the Spartan attempt to do battle against the mammoth Persian army. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Margaret and Edward Butler, Gerard Butler was raised (along with his older brother and sister) in his mother's hometown of Paisley, Scotland (he also spent some of his early youth in Canada). His parents divorced when he was a child and he and his siblings were raised primarily by their mother, who later remarried. He had no contact with his father until he was 16 years old, after which time they became close. His father passed away when Gerard was in his early 20s. Butler went on to attend Glasgow University, where he studied to be a lawyer/solicitor. He was president of the school's law society thanks to his outgoing personality and great social skills.

His acting career began when he was approached in a London coffee shop by actor Steven Berkoff (who later appeared alongside Butler in 'Attila', who gave him a role in the play "Coriolanus", and Butler decided to give up law school for acting. He was later cast as Ewan McGregor's character Renton in the stage adaptation of 'Trainspotting' (1996). His film debut was as Billy Connolly's younger brother in 'Mrs. Brown' (1997). While filming the movie in Scotland he was enjoying a picnic with his mother, near the River Tay, when they heard the shouts of a young boy who had been swimming with a friend who was in some trouble. Butler jumped in and saved the young boy from drowning. He received a "Certificate of Bravery" from the Royal Humane Society. He felt he only did what anyone in the situation would have done.

His film career continued with small roles in the James Bond movie 'Tomorrow Never Dies' (1997) and Russell Mulcahy's 'Tale of the Mummy' (1998). In 2000 Butler was cast in his breakthrough roles, the first being Attila the Hun in the USA film 'Attila'. The film's producers wanted a known actor to play the part but kept coming back to Butler's screen tests and decided he was their man. He had to lose the thick Scottish accent, but managed well. Around the time "Attila" was being filmed, casting was in progress for Wes Craven's new take on the 'Dracula' legacy, also wanting a known name (so Butler wasn't much of a consideration). His unending tenacity and drive drove him to hounding the producers. Eventually, he sent them a clip of his portrayal of "Attila". Evidently they liked it because 'Dracula 2000' (2000) was cast in the form of Gerard Butler. "Attila's producers, thinking that his big-screen role might help with their own film's ratings, finished shooting a little early so he could get to work on "Dracula 2000". "Attila" ended up being the second highest rated TV movie ever. Following these two roles, Butler developed quite a fan base and internet sites and lists started popping up everywhere.

Since then he has appeared in 'Reign of Fire' (2002) as Creedy and 'Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life' (2003) as Terry Sheridan, alongside Angelina Jolie. The role that has garnered him much attention from both moviegoers and moviemakers was that of Andre Marek in the big-screen adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel 'Timeline' (2003). Butler played an archaeologist who was sent back in time with a team of students to rescue a colleague. Last year he appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical 'The Phantom of the Opera' (2004), playing the title character in the successful adaptation of the stage musical, and was a role that has brought him much international attention. Other projects include 'Dear Frankie' (2004), 'The Game of Their Lives' (2005) and 'Beowulf & Grendel' (2005).

Apart from '300', based on the Frank Miller graphic novel, Butler has completed 'Butterfly on a Wheel' and 'PS I Love You'. Butler, in good humour, spoke to Paul Fischer.

What was the challenge for you to play a character in which you’re marrying technology and performance: trying to get the performance right against what was going on technologically.
Gerard: I can’t worry about technology. The challenge for me is just to give the best performance that I can. However, you’re right. You’re always aware that you’re working in a different environment and for me that’s – every film you do for one reason or another requires a different thought process or a different approach. And for me it’s almost leaving yourself open to that in a weird way. It’s not even necessarily a technique but leaving yourself open to trying to feel, almost by osmosis this different feeling that’s going on there. And then thinking about it as quickly as possible like Phantom of the Opera, I tried to learn so many things in the first few days about performing while singing and literally you’re like – it’s ridiculous things that you wouldn’t even think about like when you’re singing, don’t open your mouth so wide because you know all the camera can see is this big open mouth, whereas you’re thinking ‘I’m opening my mouth’. But no that’s not how it works. So there it was definitely about trusting. Really trusting the world you were living in because I think the temptation was to force it a little because there’s nothing there and yet sometimes it felt you were performing in a vacuum and in that respect, in using your imagination to create it, might push you towards more theatricality or perhaps explaining things a little more just with your voice and it was about trusting that and trusting who you’re dealing with, your kind of immediate partners in crime if you like.

Was it the character that was interesting for you when you decided to take this on or was it the whole sort of process?
Gerard: It was the whole thing. If I read a script where I had an interesting character but I wasn’t really excited about the script then I wouldn’t want to do it because that’s happened before and I hated it. Likewise if it was a great script but a character that I didn’t love, I wouldn’t want to do it. Because I’ve done that before and I hated it. This film had it all. It was a character that I’d never come across before. Yes I have played similar characters but I’d never come across one that really pushed the envelope in terms of what it takes to be a hero and what it takes to be a villain because, I have to say, there were times when I thought, ‘Jesus these bad guys actually seem kind of nice. They’re very reasonable’. You know, there is a confidence and an arrogance about this king and even in terms of the political dealings either messengers or Xerxes that it’s quite risky in terms of keeping an audience kind of in your favour. We really pushed that. There’s never an apology about who they are. They stayed focussed and simple and principled and they never budged on that. And it doesn’t really matter what actions come out of those beliefs, there’s no conscience there in that respect when it comes to fighting which I loved because as an audience member I’m always saying in my head to the hero, ‘Just fucken kill ‘em. Kick the shit out of ‘em now. You know he’s a bad dude’. And in this, that’s what they do. So I think that it’s really cool that at every turn it kind of goes the way you wouldn’t necessarily expect and it’s also a great excuse for more violence and more action.

Nothing like a good decapitation as far as I’m concerned.
Gerald: Ouch, in life or in film.

Could you afford to allow yourself to do a lot of research on this? Did you do historical research or not worry?
Gerard: No, I do historical research but I have to say my experiences as, it was the same with Zack, you do all this research and there are some great books, fictional and historical, and then general historical books about the minds of generals and the soul of battle by Victor Davis Hanson or Hanson David – you always end up to me probably 90% of where this character and where this film came from was Frank Miller’s graphic novel. Because often when you go too much into the past and bring up interesting facts it only muddies the water of your own story. There’s a very, I’ve got to be honest, really quite a simple true but yet mythological tale going on there and if you start messing – you know what? That action story was way more complicated than what it is in the film, as is every story that you see in a film and that’s for the History Channel.

What are you doing next?
Gerard: I don’t know. Going to bed.

Is there anything after 300?
Gerard: Well it’s been weird because after P.S. I Love You I couldn’t do anything early on in the year because of this, because of the press stuff. And I was quite happy to take a rest but now I’m, you know, I’m in a really good place right now. I’m happy with what I have coming out and I’m just going to wait until, you know, see what comes along.

Would you ever do another film that required you work out this intensely and train this intensely?
Gerard: I don’t think so, but I think somebody would have to understand just how intensely I trained for this film. I think it’s pretty impossible to surpass, at least in my book, I wouldn’t want to do it again and I don’t think I’d ever really need to do it again. It’s not where I would necessary go now.

You’re the romantic lead in P.S. I Love You I take it?
Gerard: Yeah.

Was it a nice change of pace going to that?
Gerard: Oh I loved doing that.

How much training, working out did you do for that movie?
Gerard: Well funnily enough I did. Because I had to do a Men’s Health shoot in the middle of it. The cover of Men’s Health magazine.

For this movie?
Gerard: Well it was for this movie but it was while I was filming P.S. And the weird thing is I was training in the gym. But then I started getting pumped and quite big and I thought, ‘I can’t – that’s not this guy’ and I had to do a strip tease in front of Hillary, so I had to do this banana cove and to not get in too great shape and then trying in the last week get into really good shape for the Men’s Health cover. So it was kind of strange but I loved that film.

You trained for the strip tease?
Gerard: Um, yeah. You just messed around with how can you be as silly as – I mean I stripped with a pair of boxer shorts on and suspenders and Chelsea boots and sleepy socks. I mean, there was an element of ‘OK let’s think about some funny moves I could do’ but at the same time I wanted it to be spontaneous.

It sounds like a nice film.
Gerald: Mmm. It’s great. I’m really excited about it.

Cool. And your leading lady in 300 was not shabby
Gerald: Rodrigo? I know. I love Rodrigo but Lena is very cool. You know, Lena’s from the north of England. She’s a Newcastle lass and has this really kind of classically beautiful face but then she’s out, she drinks beer, she dances, she jumps about, she’s like one of the guys, and that’s my kind of girl.

OK Ladies....he's just told us what type of girl he likes :) I'm doing jumping jacks right now, think he knows? lol

Esther
*mask*

HA!..i'm getting images already! I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS MOVIE NEXT!!

ok..so he likes a girl who drinks beer, dances, jumps about, and is like one of the guys....aside from the beer thing (i'm more of a wine cooler girl lol), i'd say i have a pretty good chance! haha..hey, he never mentioned an age limit! *LOL*

thanks for that, esther!

You are most welcome :)

Esther
*mask*

The tartan Spartan
CRAIG McLEAN
YOU join us in that cradle of civilisation, Greece. But there won't be much sun protection required on the Adriatic this afternoon: the skies are thick with murderous thunder and lightning.

Despite the inclement weather, a bunch of manly men - 300 to be precise - are standing around in little more than leather loincloths and comfy sandals. They are shouting "hoo-hah!" and beating their chests as their mulleted hair flaps in the wind. They have an urgent appointment at the Hot Gates. No wonder they're eagerly stroking their swords.

No, they're not German tourists, and nor is the Hot Gates a lap-dancing club. They're elite Spartan soldiers, the toughest of the tough in the warrior culture that defined the Ancient Greek city state of Sparta. Back then, no one messed with the Spartans; hundreds of years of battlefield dominance had seen to that. But now, with the time fast approaching 480 BC, Sparta is under attack from the evil god-king Xerxes. He wants to conquer Sparta like he's conquered much of the rest of the known world. But he knows the Spartans are macho guys. So just to be sure of victory, Xerxes sends a big army to fight them. A really big army. A million-strong army, in fact, with lump-faced giants, phantom soldiers with sharpened teeth, armoured elephants and battle rhinos thrown in for good measure.

"Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough" - or ancient Greek words to that effect - says Sparta's King Leonidas. He positions his 300 soldiers at the Hot Gates, a narrow corridor between cliffs through which the Persians will have to pass. Let the Battle of Thermopylae - one of the greatest ever, military history fans - commence... But hang on - is King Leonidas speaking with a Scottish accent? Indeed he is. That's Gerard Butler playing the lead the role in 300, a full-on period film based on the graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller (Sin City, The Dark Knight Returns).

In this epic the 37-year-old from Paisley is rippling with so much muscle as to be almost unrecognisable. He has played more than his fair share of action/hero/macho roles, from Beowulf to Attila The Hun, to Lara Croft's boyfriend in Tomb-Raider to The Phantom Of The Opera. But in this big-budget blockbuster he takes the energy biscuit.

"It wasn't about becoming Schwarzenegger," Butler says of his bulging bod. "I wanted to have power and agility and speed - but I also needed to bulk up to fill the role of the king. I had the armour on my arms designed in a particular way so you could literally s