300: Rise of an Empire has only just begun its marketing campaign, releasing a few stills, a poster, and showing off footage at last month's CinemaCon, but it appears that Warner Bros. will be throwing the brakes on for a while.
According to The Hollywood Reporter,while the 300 sequel was originally going to be released on August 2nd, it has now been moved to March 7, 2014. The move makes a good deal of sense from a competition perspective. On its original release date, the Greek epic, directed by Noam Murro, was going to face off against not only The Smurfs 2, but also 2 Guns, the action flick with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg that would have definitely stolen part of the film's key demographic. On its new date it's only competition will be Mr. Peabody and Sherman, a feature version of the skit from Rocky and Bullwinkle that will mostly be going for family audiences.
The story of a battle parallel to the one featured in Zack Snyder's 2006 original, 300: Rise of An Empire follows the Greek general Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) as he faces off against the Persian army at sea.Eva Green co-stars as Artemsia, the leader of the Persian navy, while Rodrigo Santoro reprises his role as Xerxes, the god king.
But that's not all that Warner Bros. is shifting. With 300: Rise of an Empire moving to March, the Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller All You Need Is Kill is now moving to the blockbuster season and will now come out on June 6, 2014. It's an interesting move given that it will now be coming out the same weekend as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Directed by Doug Liman, the movie centers on a soldier (Cruise) fighting in a war against an alien invasion. On his final day of battle he gets caught in a time loop, and with each re-living of the same events he becomes a better soldier. Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton co-star in the film.
