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A sneak peek at a rough cut of 300, Zack Snyder’s new film based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel, was held the other night, and everyone signed a non disclosure then went out and posted on the internet. The one’s we’ve seen have been overwhelmingly positive. Here’s one such post from Millarworld:

When I first heard about this adaptation, I was worried that Zack Snyder and company were just going to ape what Rodriguez and Miller did with Sin City. I was very surprised by the Comic Con presentation, and now having seen the rough cut, I think Snyder did an amazing job not only in terms of it adapting the comic, but of making a great film.

Not only is it faithful to the comic, the performances blew me away. I’ve never given much thought to Gerard Butler. but his performance blew me away.

Seriously, instead of waiting until next March to release this, they could send it out now with a temp score and half done effects and it would still be one of the best movies I’ve seen all year.

The downside of this was listening to the people next to me while they filled out their comment cards. One claimed that [spoiler snip]’s speech at the end should be trimmed because ‘it sounded too Republican’.

I spoke with Zack Snyder following the movie. He was blown away by the crowd’s response. I mentioned to him that [snip]’s speech at the end was brilliant, and he shouldn’t listen to what my aislemate said. Luckily, he said he fucked up when shooting that scene because there’s no way to edit it. Thank God.

As a side note, my friend and I asked him about Watchmen. He said a big hurdle with the studio right now is whether or not it’s important to set the movie in 1985. He’s pushing for it, they’re resisting it. Here’s hoping the success of this movie can help him get more of a say if they actually go ahead with that project.


As a side note, if WB would like to invite very, very discrete internet journalists to any MORE rough cut screenings…well, the words it out.

1 COMMENT

  1. Oh no. A watchmen movie? I have extreme reservations about that.

    There is such a risk in making a film from the book, simply because the book skirts the edge of being ridiculous so well, but it could have easily failed.

  2. The speech at the end sounded “too Republican”? What does that mean?

    Was it militaristic? If so, it was historically accurate. The Spartans were a militaristic society, and they didn’t take crap from anyone. Supposedly, newborns were left in the mountains for a few days, and if they survived, they were considered tough enough to be Spartans. That’s pretty hard core. But somehow, I just can’t envision a bunch of preppy Republicans (or Democrats, for that matter) surviving very long in a Spartan society. Or if they did, they’d be doing the wash and cleaning out the stables.