After hunting around for a director it would seem that the Warner Bros. brass now have the person they want to handle the 300 spin-off, currently titled Battle of Artemisium: Noam Murro will be taking up the sword, the spear, the shield and the megaphone for the job.
According to the Heat Vision Blog, the competition for the Artemisium gig narrowed down to a shortlist of Murro and Unknown’s Jaume Collet-Serra, who was instead given the less enviable task of trying to get the Akira adaptation up and runningon a thriftier budget.
Artemisium – which once went under the title Xerxes – has, naturally, been adapted from 300 graphic novel creator Frank Miller’s upcoming follow-up and will focus more on Xerxes himself. While he was one of the big villains in 300, he’ll get to tell more of his story, including his burning desire for godhood following his father’s death, his battles with Athenian warlord Themistocles and the titular battle of Artemisium in 480 BC.
Zack Snyder penned the script along with Kurt Johnstad, and had planned to direct it until a little something called Man Of Steel got in the way of his schedule. The plan, apparently, is to keep the new movie in a similar visual style. Murro better start brushing up on his speed-ramping, and hire some bonze camera filters.
He’s definitely an unlikely choice, since his only credit to date was indie pic Smart People, which starred Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker. But studio executives have clearly seen something in him or his work that leads them to believe he can handle blockbuster action: he’s also been attached to Die Hard 5…