Zack Snyder Reveals Disappointing Update on Third '300' Movie

While Zack Snyder usually bounces around between superhero epics and zombie movies, he did direct 300, a stylized adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel about the Spartans. The film was a box office smash and, while the sequel 300: Rise of an Empire, didn't live up to expectations, Snyder hoped Warner Bros. would still be interested in a third movie. Snyder told The Playlist that he wrote a script he called Blood and Ashes, but Warner Bros. passed on it.

During the pandemic, Warner Bros. asked Snyder to write a new 300 movie, but they weren't interested in what he pitched. He wanted to make a movie about Alexander the Great, and it morphed into something about Alexander's relationship with one of his personal bodyguards, Hephaestion. "I just couldn't really get my teeth into it," Snyder told The Playlist's The Fourth Wall podcast. "Over the pandemic, I had a deal with Warner Brothers 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. It turned out to be a love story," Snyder continued. "So it really didn't fit in as the third movie." Snyder thought the concept "came out really great" and he called it a "beautiful" love story titled Blood and Ashes. "I would love to do it, [WB] said no… you know, they're not huge fans of mine. It is what it is," he said.

The original 300 helped make Gerard Butler an action star. Butler starred as King Leonidas, who led 300 Spartans into a battle against the Persian King Xerxes, played by Rodrigo Santro. The film also starred Lena Headey, David Wenham, and Dominic West. It was a huge hit in 2007, leading Warner Bros. to produce a sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, that included scenes that took place during, before, and after 300. Although many cast members returned, Butler did not. Snyder was a co-producer and co-writer on the film, which was directed by Noam Murro. Although Snyder's idea for a third film was not picked up by Warner Bros., clearly the studio is clearly still interested in the franchise.

Snyder recently teamed up with Warner Bros. to release his vision of 2017's Justice League on HBO Max. His next film, the zombie movie Army of the Dead, hits Netflix on Friday. Earlier this year, Snyder said he was interested in doing a new version of the King Arthur legend, but now the director said it is going to be something very different. "I'm writing a kind of retelling of the Arthurian legend, that's sort of set in a different place," Snyder told The Playlist. "It's like in the Gold Rush era of America. Kinda weird, but it's cool and I'm really into it."