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'300: Battle of Artemisia' Includes Small Roles for Gerard Butler and Lena Headey

By: Perri Nemiroff on September 9, 2011 at 10:10AM Comments (0)

300: Battle of Artemisia may have a new director, but it looks as though Noam Murro might get the chance to bring back some elements of Zack Snyder's film. At a recent event Movies.com had a chance to chat up 300: Battle of Artemisia with producer Bernie Goldmann, who told us that the new film saves a little room for some old familiar faces. “It’s a different story," he said. "[However] there’s a small part for Lena [Headey]. There’s a small part for Gerry [Butler].”

While there is a small place for King Leonidas and Queen Gorgo in the new film, clearly this still means Goldmann and co. will be on the hunt for new leads. Based on Goldmann’s perception on casting, there’s a chance we could end up with some relatively unknown actors. “When you make a period movie like that, it’s great not to know the actors,” Goldmann explained. “For me, as an audience, it always brings me into the movie more. You can’t see Tom Cruise in a historical movie. You go, ‘That’s Tom Cruise!’”
 
As for snagging actors like Butler and Headey for the original, Goldmann recalled, “That was everybody not believing that that movie would be successful that allowed us to cast those actors.” He added, “We went and tried to get all these stars in it and nobody believed in the movie, we didn’t have all the money to pay anybody so we had to cast all these unknowns.” Well, they’re not unknowns anymore and while the soon-to-be series’ clout will likely get Goldmann almost any star he wants, his theory on going with less recognizable faces is quite valid and appropriate.
 
As for the tone of the film, Goldmann seemed fairly passionate about their approach to the first. “The cool thing about 300 was that our point-of-view going into that movie was we don’t have to be historically accurate and we created an incredible amount of freedom in telling a war story.” He continued, “It became a movie about telling the story to the truth before you go fight a battle and when you tell that story, you’re going to exaggerate because you want to get men fired up to go kill. So you could make the movie operatic.”
Sounds like 300 all over again, but with a new battle at the core and some fresh cast members. Who can argue with that?
 
Note: We reached out to Warner Bros. regarding the casting of Gerard Butler and Lena Headey, but have received no comment as of this writing.
 
 

 

Tags: Gerard Butler, 300

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