The long-awaited 300: Rise of An Empire is finally in the home stretch, set to come out this March, and while promotion for the movie over the last month has largely consisted of a bunch of character posters, today Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have something new ready for us. The studio has not only launched the brand new trailer that you see above, but also the new TV spot that you see below:
One of the undeniable draws of the first 300 movie was the visual style of director Zack Snyder, and I'm curious to see how that translates in the sequel. While Snyder is a part of the project both as a co-writer and a producer, the directing duties for part two fall into the hands of Noam Murro, whose only previous feature was the 2008 dramedy Smart People with Dennis Quaid and Ellen Page. The Greece-set war film is certainly a completely different kind of beast, and a chance for the filmmaker to establish himself in the action genre. That said, this movie does appear to have an extremely similar aesthetic to its predecessor - filled with lots of high contrast photography and slow motion - so it will be interesting to see if Murro will use the film to establish his own sense of style or if he will simply ape what Snyder did.
Even beyond the visuals, this trailer features a lot of tie-backs to Snyder's particular style - the most notable being the use of some good ol' classic rock. A remix of "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath plays well here, but remember when the ads for Sucker Punch blasted a bit of "When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin?
The story of 300: Rise of An Empire is largely set around the Battle of Artemisium, which was fought between the Greeks and Persians parallel to the Spartan hold at Thermopylae (as seen in the first movie). On the Greek side, Athens general Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) works to lead his people into battle, while fighting for the Persians is Artemisia (Eva Green), the leader of the Persian navy who has a serious grudge against the people of Greece. The film will also explore the origins of Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), as he rose to become the god-king of Persia. Look for the movie in theaters on March 7th.
