300: Battle of Artemisia

The prequel for the flying head epic, 300 will be named 300: Battle of Artemisia, not Xerxes as previously thought. Since Guy Ritchie passed on the project, and Zack Snyder is busy with Man of Steel, it's a toss up between two directors, Noam Murro and Juame Collet-Serra. Murro has only the rom-com, Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle, Smart People, to his directorial resume but has been a force on the Halo video game campaign and is in the works for Die Hard 5 (I guess by the time a 5th Die Hard movie rolls around, it's probably logically assumed, you are, in fact, hard to die). Serra, has directed the solid thriller, Unknown with Liam Neeson and also horror flicks, Orphan and House of Wax. He is also set to direct the new reinterpreted Dracula flick, Harker.

300: Battle of Artemisia will have a script written by Snyder and 300 co-writer, Kurt Johnstad. Apparently, Snyder, and 300 creator, Frank Miller, have been working on the script for several years. Miller has been quoted as saying:

"The time frame begins 10 years before '300' and the story starts with the Battle of Marathon, which was killer to draw, by the way, even if it was a lot of work. The lead character is Themistocles who became warlord of Greece and built their navy. The story is very different than '300' in that it involves Xerxes search for godhood. The existence of gods are presupposed in this story and the idea is that he well on his way to godhood by the end of the story. With Themistocles I have a character who is almost the dead opposite of Leonidas in that Themistocles was a lying, conniving, brilliant, heroic figure. He was nicknamed 'The Subtle Serpent' and he always manages to do the exact right things that will result in him benefiting greatly."