Recently it was reported (via Collider) that Frank Miller (of Sin City and The Spirit fame) is working on his graphic novel follow up to 300 titled Xerxes. Where 300 followed Leonidas, King of Sparta, and his warriors as they held a superior force of Persians at bay, Xerxes will chronicle the life of the enemy warlord and tell the story of his campaign to conquer all of Greece. Don’t be worried though, we will have a Greek hero to root for, Themistocles. A great leader in his own right, Themistocles was responsible for building the navy that helped keep the Persians from flanking the Spartan defensive in 300, a historical fact that was all but ignored in the 2006 film. Per usual, movie news such as this has me both excited and apprehensive. First let’s look at the good stuff.

Frank Miller has a style all his own. Everything he has done looks pretty dang good. By this I mean his comics and the movie adaptations of them. The look of 300 was just as epic as the story and Sin City embodied all that is noir in its illustration and shading. Part of this has to do with Zach Snyder, who was responsible for directing the film version of 300. Snyder has shown that he is able to bring exaggerated, almost impossible comic book worlds to life through his work with Miller and by adapting the “un-filmable graphic novel,” Watchmen. When combined, these two guys create very cool things; what comes to mind most are the amazing fight sequences in 300. Snyder’s first feature film, the remake of Dawn of the Dead, did not lack any gore or action but maintained a psychological focus; this mix of violence and thought is evident in all of his work

Now for the things that frighten me a little. First, Snyder is a very busy man. He is the director of the upcoming remake Superman: Man of Steel, which is only in pre-production and could take a while to get going. If Snyder is not able to direct, I fear that Miller himself will try to take over. Now, carefully look at the last paragraph, I credited Snyder for creating the awesomeness of the films. I mean, the source material is great, don’t get me wrong, but when Miller is let off the leash he tends to create things like The Spirit. While the crazy colorization in Sin City seemed to follow a logical, or at least well thought out aesthetic plan, The Spirit had the effect thrown in at very strange times, contributing only to a higher level of confusion.

On a semi-serious side note, I would like to commend both Miller and Snyder for creating one of, if not the most, lucrative examples of queer cinema in 300. I mean, anybody assessing the film from a Freudian standpoint could tell you that even though Leonidas calls the Athenians “boy lovers” at one point, the fact that the Spartans dress in thongs and thrust large phallic rods into other men does nothing to make them more heterosexual. Just saying.

The film and graphic novel media, while both highly visual (duh, right?), are not interchangeable. Should Xerxes get the green light for film production, which I can only assume it will, an experienced film director needs to helm the project. The obvious preference is Zach Snyder due to his experience with the story and the technical aspects of bringing the novel to life.  Here’s hoping things work out for this production.

What Do You Think? Discuss.