“Unless I miss my guess, we’re in for one wild night.”
Based on the Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fight to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army, the movie never claims to be historically correct. It relies heavily on Frank Miller’s 1998 comic book mini-series. Changes from history were made by Miller and director Zack Snyder to appeal to a wider audience and create a more visually stunning action movie, rather than a typical historical epic. The makers showed a 90-second test of the film’s style to Warner Bros. executives to get a greenlight to do the project. They originally pushed Snyder to direct this film with a PG-13 rating as the goal. Snyder refused and ultimately the studio agreed to make an R-rated movie. The film was shot in 60 days on blue and green screen in Montreal except for two days of location shooting in Los Angeles for the horses ‘approaching Sparta’ scene. Post-production took almost a year. There are 1,523 cuts in the film, with 1,006 effects shots. Ten visual effects vendors contributed to the film, spread over three continents. Some weapons used in the film were taken from other war epic productions covering that period including Alexander (2004) and Troy (2004). The equipment was “recycled” to cut costs. Footage was previewed at the Comic-Con Convention in San Diego in 2006. Attendees were so impressed by the film clip that they demanded to see it three more times. Total world-wide box office gross: $456 million. DVD sales: $280 million. The movie’s filmed body count: 585.
