Zack Snyder has been retreading familiar ground. It’s not a criticism, and in fact, Snyder’s recent work has been well received by fans and critics alike.
His cut of the panned Justice League movie and his upcoming Army of the Dead prove that he’s a filmmaker unafraid of looking backwards, as well as ahead. But one franchise to which he was unable to return is 300. And not for want of trying.
The movies are based on the Frank Miller comics, and the first film was relatively well-received. The sequel, however, had a lukewarm reception with many citing it as a clear money-making gambit that was more style over substance.
Warner Bros.
Despite this, Warner Bros seemed ready to revisit ancient Greece. Speaking to The Playlist, the filmmaker revealed that to try and reinvigorate the franchise, Warner Bros had asked him to write a script for a third and final 300 film.
He said: “I just couldn’t really get my teeth into it. Over the pandemic, I had a deal with Warner Bros and I wrote what was essentially going to be the final chapter in ‘300,’”
“But when I sat down to write it I actually wrote a different movie. I was writing this thing about Alexander the Great, and it just turned into a movie about the relationship between Hephaestion and Alexander.
Warner Bros.
“It turned out to be a love story. So it really didn’t fit in as the third movie. But there was that concept, and it came out really great.
“It’s called ‘Blood and Ashes‘, and it’s a beautiful love story, really, with warfare. I would love to do it, [WB] said no… you know, they’re not huge fans of mine. It is what it is.”
That Warner Bros decided not to make this film the third and final 300 movie doesn’t mean it could never get made. Many ancient stories are told through a modern heteronormative lens that simply didn’t exist in other cultures at other times.
Whether we want Zack Snyder to be the person to tell that story is up for debate. But regardless, that this potentially compelling love story has been written doesn’t mean another 300 movie won’t happen — or that Blood and Ashes will remain just a script.
Kevin MazurGetty Images
Snyder has been one of the main focus points of ongoing issues in the industry — from studio control to sexism to artistic vision, he has managed to encapsulate and distil a lot of arguments on both sides of these conversations. Whatever your feelings about him, he is clearly a proponent of respecting the creative vision, even if that vision rubs people the wrong way.
In the case of Blood and Ashes, it’s a concept that wouldn’t go amiss. Alexander the Great is known to have had lovers of all genders, and that Hollywood made him into the pinnacle of heteronormative-masculinity isn’t a reflection on truth, but on our own narrow view of what it means to be a powerful and great man.
Someday, maybe, we’ll get Blood and Ashes. If Snyder’s recent Army of the Dead is anything to go by, we could get a version of it on Netflix. But that’s just speculation for now.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League out now on HBO Max in the US, and Sky Cinema and NOW in the UK.
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