As reported back in February, Zack Snyder is officially too busy with The Man of Steel to return to the oiled pecs and rhinos and hermaphrodites of 300 as originally planned. The rumblings of Guy Ritchie picking up the baton seem to have gone away though, with Deadline reporting that Xerxes** is about to be given either to Noam Murro or Jaume Collet-Serra.
Except it isn't called Xerxes any more. While that's still the working title for Frank Miller's as-yet-unfinished graphic novel, the producers of the movie have opted for 300: Battle of Artemisium.
Murro's only movie to date is Smart People, the 2008 comedy drama starring Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker, but his 300-suitability comes down to his FX-heavy commercials work on properties like Halo. He's also been linked to Die Hard 5. Collet-Serra, meanwhile, made this year's Unknown with Liam Neeson, and is preparing to get started on Red Circle, while simultaneously developing Harker.
The story this time focuses on how Xerxes became the peculiar god-like entity presented in the first film, following the death of his father Darius at the Battle of Marathon in 490BC (Darius tells Xerxes the Greeks can only be defeated by a god, so he decides to get on that...)
Artemisi_um_ was a naval battle in the aftermath of Marathon (in 480BC), while Artemisi*a *(of Helicarnassus) was Xerxes' only female commander, and a key player in the same year's battle of Salamis. Does the title have a dual meaning? Whatever: it looks as if we're in for ocean-going violence this time. Snyder's involvement hasn't fully ended with his decampment to Metropolis; he's still producing and has written the screenplay, as he originally said he would. He is, of course, promising "awesome"...