News flooded out everywhere yesterday that Frank Miller is working on a graphic novel SEQUEL to 300, the pop culture phenomenon that added the cry “THIS IS SPARTA!” to the ranks of movie catchphrases for lunkheads. Zack Snyder wants to direct and Legendary is on board.
While exciting news for fans of digitally enhanced abdominals, this story isn’t as much of a slam dunk as it sounds. First off, didn’t everyone, like, DIE in 300?

Spinoffs of bloody actioners can prove challenging, especially when the main characters kick the bucket the first time out. Warners would surely like to cash in on “I Am Legend” again, but would have to find a way to deal with the fact that star Will Smith’s character died at the end. Producers tried to figure out how to revisit “Gladiator,” but they too were hampered by the fact that the star character, played by Russell Crowe, expired in the original. A second “Wanted” could also prove tricky for Universal given the violent deaths of so many characters.

A sequel to “Sex and the City,” by contrast, is theoretically easier to conjure on a creative level, although Warners and New Line could run into talent problems similar to the ones that delayed the original bigscreen adaptation.

Second, Cinematical looks at the sources of this rumor, and finds them wanting.

But honestly, I can’t believe the trades even ran this story. I mean no disrespect to Collider, as they ran it in the right context, but Variety is implying that this is on the verge of being filmed. Any 300 spin-off is entirely theoretical at this point, as it depends on a book that Frank Miller is only believed to be writing. No one even knows if he’s jotted an outline down, let alone what it will be about. I watched Collider’s interview with the aforementioned producers — and with all due respect, when asked point blank if they had been in contact with Miller, they didn’t answer. That doesn’t confirm a solid project. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and suggest Miller hasn’t given it a second thought since the movie came out.

So this Frank Miller GN, though much wished for, may just be standing behind HOLY TERROR BATMAN in the queue of Miller projects. Which is a long one.

Finally, and most importantly, would any kind of 300 sequel be the same with dear, dear Gerard Butler and his amazing six-pack? Of course not. And yet DDGB himself does not know if he’ll ever be in fighting shape again. Sad but true. And James McAvoy just isn’t fit to wear DDGB’s codpiece, now or ever. Must we find a new burly Scotsman to bring ancient Sparta to grunting, sweaty life? The search is on!

Technorati Tags: 300

Well, it’s not enough that comic book movies have saved the box office, now they are saving the DVD business, which fell 3.2% last year to a mere $15.9 billion. How? Well, using Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, of course. According to the NY Times, Warner is trying a bold new tactic in conjunction with the release of the WATCHMEN movie next year: a concurrent release of the animated TALES OF THE BLACK FREIGHTER as a direct-to-dvd movie.

The second film, tentatively called “Tales of the Black Freighter,” follows a side “Watchmen” storyline about a shipwreck and will arrive in stores five days after the main movie rolls out in theaters. The DVD will also include a documentary-style film called “Under the Hood” that will delve into the characters’ backstories.

Warner, the No. 1 distributor of DVDs, bills the effort as a way to renew retail excitement for little silver discs now that the once-booming market has matured.

The move is an investment in creating excitement for WATCHMEN, which is already a risky business as an R-rated, mature-themed superhero movie.

The immediate goal is for the parallel release to help start a potential new movie franchise. As television advertising becomes less effective because of declining TV viewership, movie studios need to reach a mass audience somehow, and having what amounts to ads sitting on store shelves is seen as a crucial antidote.

The effort is also a way for Warner to get more DVD bang for not many more bucks. The “Watchmen” film, Mr. Synder said, will probably generate at least three DVDs: “Tales of the Black Freighter,” followed about four months later by release of “Watchmen” itself, and then an “ultimate” edition in which the two are edited together into one megamovie.

You don’t say. Warner also plans to create a dozen 22- to 26-minute Webisodes of “The Watchmen Motion Comic” to help make the story more palatable to non-Watchmen initiates. This series, which will eventually be collected into DVD, will be “a panel-by-panel slide show of the graphic novel narrated by an actor.” So that’s at least FOUR dvds that we will have to buy then. Let’s hope Warner does a better job of marketing this movie than they did SPEED RACER!

Setting aside how positively thrilled Alan Moore must be over all this, we’re thrilled because dear, dear Gerard Butler is going to take time out from his busy schedule of being linked to Hollywood starlets to provide the main voice for Black Freighter! Win-win!

Everyone has been very, very sad that dear, dear Gerard Butler didn’t end up with a role in WATCHMEN, although he and director Zack Snyder had professed their undying love for one another many times. However, all is not lost! Empire reports that Butler will voice the captain in an anime-style cartoon of “Tales of the Black Freighter” the comic-within-the-comic. This is planned as a bonus feature on the DVD, but may still be excerpted in the film if it works narratively, Snyder says. As for Butler, he joins the long queue of WATCHMEN fans:

“I actually read the script before reading the comic book and I thought it was awesome,” continued the 38 year-old. “Then I read the comic book and it’s great. The little bits that have been added define it so much more. It’s very dark and there’s just something so descriptive and scary. It’s this descent into madness but explained in such a sane way that you totally feel it yourself. By the end, my heart was pumping!”

Good news, but can he possibly top Nina Simone? Doubtful.

It looks like Gerard Butler is blithely traipsing down the romcom path :

Gerard Butler has signed on to star opposite Katherine Heigl in the battle of the sexes comedy “The Ugly Truth” for Lakeshore Entertainment….Story centers on a romantically challenged morning show producer (Heigl) who is reluctantly embroiled by her chauvinistic correspondent (Butler) in a series of outrageous tests to prove his theories on relationships and help her find love.

In this case, romcom is spelled with a “Blarf!” Pic follows the truly ghastly looking PS: I Love You, in which Butler played a dead guy who still loves Hilary Swank, which sounds like a good reason to stay in the grave if you ask us. Future films include one in which he plays a dad whom a tot must rescue (Nim’s Island) and a Guy Ritchie film, tantamount to ordering a big glass of career ender. Looks like the rigors of getting in shape for 300 left GB (we’re dropping the DD) firmly committed to satisfying his doting fans by making all these dopey romance movies as opposed to being the man of action we once knew and liked strongly. Sure, Cinematical says the Wolverine producers are after him for a role (rejected by Karl Urban!), and someone else says he’s up for Conan, but we’ve heard this kind of idle argy-bargy time and time again. We’ll believe it when we see it. Oh Gerard, what happened your face of melting snow?

Oh dear.

We knew DDGB would do anything that paid…but Jodie Foster too?