We Are Movie Geeks

Last Saturday at Comic-Con 2013, Noam Murro, Sullivan Stapleton, Rodrigo Santoro and Eva Green sat down with a small group of press to talk about 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE, a Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures film set to release March 7, 2014, and WAMG was there. Check it out below.

Based on Frank Miller’s latest graphic novel Xerxes and told in the breathtaking visual style of the blockbuster “300”, this new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield – on the sea – as Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war. “300: Rise of an Empire” pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), and Artemisia (Eva Green), vengeful commander of the Persian navy.

How difficult was it inching away from 300 and making your own movie with 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE without harkening back to Zack Snyder’s style too much?

Noam Murro: I think the idea for that was that Zack [Snyder] had Frank Miller in the back of his head in the movie 300, and this was very similar in that way. The idea was always to take that DNA from that movie, and being able to look back on it and put it as a reference really, and built upon it. There is enough DNA in RISE OF AN EMPIRE, enough 300 DNA, but I think there’s a lot of new stuff in it. The goal and the challenge is how do you give enough of it, and create something original?

I would like to talk about the cast about how they first came to come onto the project and what kind of affection do you all have for the Frank Miller comics and the Zack Snyder film?

Sullivan Stapleton: It was a real honor to be asked to make a film such as that. We’ve all seen the first one and I love it. I auditioned like everyone else, I think. I auditioned and luckily enough I got the gig. It’s an honor to be a part of it. It’s an epic film.

Eva Green: And for me, it’s my kind of first action film so that was really cool. I’ve done serious films before and it was all kind of pretty much in my head so that was kind of a challenge to kind of be violent, cut people in half, kill lots of people. Lots of fun.

Rodrigo Santoro: Well for me they thought I looked like the guy who played the first one. (Laughs) Just kidding. I was part of the first one and when I heard that they were doing the second one I was very excited. Actually in this one, there’s a little bit of Xerxes’ back story, so it was really cool to bring some humanity to this character and I was really excited about it.

With the first 300 movie people had various reactions to it. Some people found some humor in it, some people thought it was ultra-violent while other people just enjoyed it for pure entertainment. Can you tell us a little bit about the armies. Do you continue on that path or do you go a little more practical. And for Eva [Green], where does your character rank? You’re so good at playing intimidating women and where does your character in 300 rank in terms of the sheer fear that she inflicts on other people?

Sullivan Stapleton: She scares the shit out of me.

Eva Green: Yea, watch out!

Noam Murro: From a storytelling point of view, we kept the same mythology as you will as to how make this film in the sense that it was all done on green screen. And a lot of the imagery is about creating these massive, epic scenes in post. So we certainly kept that, but there was a very important character here, which was the water, which wasn’t ever created in the original 300, because it was all a land battle.  So that was the challenge but to create the opportunity to take the water and radically manipulate it to do what you want to do stylistically and thematically as you will. I think this is really what the wonder is. The sheer idea is this is all naval, it’s a naval movie really because it happens in the water. The complexity of telling a story in the water and navy battles was fantastic. I think we had the tools to do it now which I don’t think six years ago we could. There was a little bit of the underwater stuff. Some of it we did in London and we were able to shoot practically or some what practically. All the water, we shot it completely dry. I think all the water we had on set were things like this. [Holds up a water bottle] We did it intentionally and stylistically. It really allows you to create the world that you haven’t quite seen.

I’m a huge fan because I always think that you’re terrific in every movie that you’re in. Can you take us a little bit further into the character that you play?

Eva Green: It’s great because as an actress, it’s hard to find strong roles. You’re kind of offered the love interest or the boring girlfriend. In here she is full-on, she doesn’t do anything halfway. She’s an extreme character and completely obsessed with vengeance. I enjoy playing evil, but not kind of one-dimensional evil characters. I like when they have some cracks in the armor. She’s ruthless and badass.

Noam Murro: She’s badass, yea. The beauty of it is that there’s really a complexity there to her character and unapologetically so. A lot of roles in the strong women feel like they need to apologize. I think they feel like men don’t need to apologize for being ruthless and women somehow do. I think that’s what’s so nice here is, really we’ve talked about it from day one, is having a female role that’s not apologetic, and that’s pretty cool.

This question is for Sullivan. The original cast was subjected to physically grueling training regime before 300. Did you actually do that as well?

Sullivan Stapleton: Nah. I was already like this. [laughs] Of course I did it. It was ten weeks before shooting, they came into Africa and I was working on another show So I left that set and I was going to the gym. it was an hour and a half of swords, that was a warm up. That was hour and a half of weights. When I first saw it, you do this exercise, there was a couple of exercises, the training and you think that that was the workout, and that was the warm up. We went into the workout and it went on and on and on. When we were shooting, I thought how are we going to maintain this? I found out how to maintain that. While everyone else was at lunch, I was at the gym. Actually Noam decided to work out as well.

Noam Murro: You can see it on me. [laughs]

Eva, I wanted to respond to your comment that you haven’t done an action film before. You did do Casino Royale and I understand that your character wasn’t in action for most of it, but there was some pretty intense scenes like the sinking house. Does 300 make all of that look like a piece of cake?

Eva Green: I mean the scene when she’s drowning and all that, I had a bit of training underwater and it’s so different. Here I had to train double swords for two months before the shoot. It was very empowering. It’s kind of liberating. I surprised myself.

How close to the story is to the actual historical stats as far as the sea battles?

Noam Murro: I think that generally speaking we did our research and Zack’s story did when they wrote it, but the beauty of this is this is a movie being told through a storyteller’s point of view. So like any group of stories is going to be hyperboles, and there’s going to be exaggeration, and the historical accuracy, we’re going to get a couple of letters that’ll challenge the historical accuracy of this film. I think that’s the liberating thing about doing a movie like that, is that you’re not making the history channel documentary. You’re telling a story based on the history. There’s certainly a history there and it’s certainly based on the history, but like any good story it takes off.

I would love to hear the perspective of the director and also the actors about the trailer for this movie which I believe is one of the most popular trailers when it premiered. It blew up all over the internet, twitter and youtube. From a director’s point of view, we know that directors sometimes may or may not have a role in what gets in the trailer. Can you tell us a little bit about that, and for the actors, are you on social media and what are some of the things you experienced from your perspective after the trailer came online? Or maybe just feedback from the fans even if you’re not on social media.

Noam Murro: I saw the trailer. The Warner Bros. family is wonderful, and its one of those things where you get the trailer, you look at it and you think “I did this?”. You need to know when to shut up. So I looked at it before it came out and it was just awesome. It was incredible. So there was no real, nothing to say other than to go “Okay, that’s great.” Then when it broke… I didn’t quite understand the power of it until I really saw it. There was no marketing on it, it kind of came out and then all of a sudden exposed on the internet… somebody told me it was the most tuned subject for four days or some crazy thing, I may be exaggerating. I think it was really beloved. First there’s the power of that on one hand, and the second thing is really understanding how many people are really invested in the story of the movie and the mythology and how good it was.

Sullivan Stapleton: Facebook. I saw it on Facebook when it came out. My friends had found it, put it all over my page, so I returned the favor, posting myself in front of a blood wave saying “who wants to go to blood beach?”

Eva Green: I’m not into social media. I’m in another century so… (laughs) Two friends of mine saw the trailer so maybe this is a question for my friend next to me!

Rodrigo Santoro: I’m probably from the same century. I got emails and it was great feedback from friends who said “Did they shoot that back then? Six years ago? It looks like the same character.” I was like “Yea man, I got back in that shape! We did it again!” The response was really great. I wasn’t surprised that it was going to look great but I was excited when I saw it. It looks really good.

You talk a little bit about using the visual DNA from the first film and from the book. Can you talk a little bit about the music choices that you made, what you carried over and what you have added?

Noam Murro: I think that there is two things here. There is an operatic quality to a movie like that, and really that is at the heart of the music choices. I think that there’s a couple of components here, one is an ethnic component that’s going to be dominating here but also there’s a tempo and there’s a dramatic thing. There’s also… it’s a rock opera. it’s going to be something different. I think really that’s the heart of it to give it a point of reference musically that is ethnic but also give it tempo and feeling.

How foregone a conclusion was it to make this film told through the eyes of a storyteller? And how much of that theme sort of run through underneath the story?

Noam Murro: I think that’s really the heart of it. This is again, in that way I think it is close to 300 in a sense that somebody is telling you the story, the history is being told through somebody. In that way it’s not just a linear sort of exposition of the story but through somebody’s perspective, so it’s gonna be subject and eventually the beauty of that is. So I think there’s a conscious decision right when writing the script and obviously shooting it, but that’s really the freedom that really is what allows you to create something that is exciting because who knows what’s true. Nobody was there.

This is an interesting take because it’s not like a lot of other prequels or sequels out there because you don’t have a lot of cast return. You don’t have the same director this time. I’m curious about how much Zack Snyder was involved in the day-to-day production because obviously he was off making Man of Steel.

Noam Murro: Well preproduction, I think the fact that he wrote it. He wrote it with kirk, so he was pretty involved with that I would say. Certainly in that component he was really involved, but I think the really great thing working with Zack is that he’s a filmmaker, and at time was a busy filmmaker. So really what allows it.. it’s a graceful operation because it allows you to have an access to him or his knowledge or his instinct or whatever you needed, but also he allows you to have the freedom or the hands-off when you need that. So that is really the best way, that’s all you really can ask for. That really was the nature of the cooperation and it was incredible.

Sullivan Stapleton: Vincent Regan and he just told me evil stories. You’re gonna get hurt. Vincent actually, he was one of the most successful, one of the biggest success stories of all the guys training. He was apparently quite a lot bigger, and they used him as an example, so as far as his development. I heard about that. Then I heard Dave Wenham, I heard some stories from him as well, and then I got to work with him which was kind of a highlight as well.

Did you use any of the same crew that worked on the first film?

Noam Murro: We used some of the same crew. We kept some key people on with the cinematographer, the costume designer, but there are some people that we kept because of their knowledge and the fact that we wanted to have some of the DNA from the first one and their experience. Also the good thing they go “Yea, we’ve done that and let’s do this now.” It allows you to really understand how to push it sometimes. It was a strategical decision all around.

Rodrigo, you’re the only one up there who’s done this twice now. Was it any easy the second time or was it even harder the second time around?

Rodrigo Santoro: Not eating ice cream. That was hard again, harder this time. I kind of knew… I’ve played the character before, but the interesting thing for me was that six years later, I got to revisit a character and there’s some of his back story. How can I make this a fresh experience? And now I know the process of working against the blue screen which is a very particular way of working. Again, it was challenging. Makeup was still a long process and I was just trying to hold time to work little details and try to bring more and more humanity to Xerxes. At first you see him as the god-king but in this one you see how did he become the god-king. What was behind it. That was an exciting part for me especially.

I would say that Zack Snyder in the original 300 set this trend of slowing down action sequences. He does that several times in the original movie. Was that something you were mindful of when you made this movie?

Noam Murro: Look, I love 300. To me I never felt that really. I think this has a different trajectory in terms of fights, and they’re very different. They’re very distinct fighting styles and battles in this movie. They were designed to be that. They’re really four very distinct battles, actually five, that are in the movie and they are specifically tailored, both in the way that the fighting is happening, the action is happening, and weather/time/day/time. Really we’re cautiously trying to create a rich palette not only in the way that the movie looks but the way it progresses from an action point of view, how do you create interest that is not just repetition.

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300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE hits theaters March 7, 2014