300 in 3D and the latest on Xerxes

Coming Soon got to corner director Zack Snyder at this year’s ShoWest 2010, squeezing out some answers not only on his upcoming animated feature Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and the live action Sucker Punch but some comic-related material as well.

Snyder is expected to come back and take on the reigns of yet another 300 film, but this time it will be for the sequel entitled Xerxes. Frank Miller, creator of the 300 graphic novel and other properties, is in the middle of developing the story. Last we heard, Miller is also creating a graphic novel that will be in line with the story that will be shown on the big screen.

Snyder spills a bit of what he knows so far on the impending sequel.:

CS: Was “Xerxes” Frank’s idea or was that your idea?
Snyder: That’s all Frank. There was a big discussion about what we would do for the sequel to “300″ and I said, “I didn’t tell Frank what to write the first time, and I’m not telling him what to write this time.” I’ll take it and I’ll adapt it and make it into a movie and I’ll write a screenplay, but I want him to do whatever he thinks.

I feel like at this point I’m still waiting to see it, but I’m confident that it’s going to be awesome. I’m not going to say I’m 100%, like that’s it, but on the other hand, I’m pretty confident it’s going to be awesome.

I don’t want to hear anything about it. They keep wanting to show it to me, and I’m like, “I don’t want to hear about it!” I just want to let Frank do his thing. (laughs) Why do you guys want to mess with him? It’s like crazy… it’s like if you hired an awesome painter (to paint something), you wouldn’t sit over his shoulder and go, “You know, a little more red would be good there. It’s cool if this landscape had more flowers.”

Then the topic changes over to the possibility of 300 being re-released in 3D.:

Not the whole thing. I haven’t seen the whole movie but they’re talking about doing the whole movie. I saw maybe like a ten-minute section that they’d just done. By the way, they did an amazing job. The way we shot it actually, it’s almost like a 3D movie anyway, so it really lends itself to that.

Seeing a sweaty six pack Gerard Butler in nothing but a cloak and a loincloth (practically) in the third dimension? That could get some people’s money right away, that’s for sure. Sucker Punch will be released in regular theaters and in 3D on March 25th, 2011 with Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole coming out this September 24th.