Archaeologica.org

I wonder if Hollywood figured out how to work in a few car chases or explosions?

Before anyone laughs....remember the opening battle scene of Gladiator with the exploding firepots.

Minimalist wrote:I wonder if Hollywood figured out how to work in a few car chases or explosions?

Before anyone laughs....remember the opening battle scene of Gladiator with the exploding firepots.

As a matter of fact there were exploding firepots. Now how in the world did you guess? I didn't notice any car chases but I may have been distracted by the oiled bodies.

Now how in the world did you guess?

Just lucky.

Some guys remixed a PG version of the 300 movie trailer.

Check it out here:

http://www.break.com/index/300_the_pg_remix.html

Some people have waaaaayyyyy too much time on their hands.

Well i went and saw the film, and i have to say, its possibly ONE of worse movies i have seen in my entire life.... Action scene ok i give it to them was nicely done, and I am sure Xerxis really turning on his grave.

What actually amused me most was all the talk about freedom and how dare the persian come around and trying to take over, and is sparta gonna stand for such behavior and become slaves to the persian.... i think some one should have told them about level of slavery going on at that time in Sparta.

Yes i know, i know some of you gonna say, man chill it's only a movie, true but i haqve to say its a crap movie and leave it at that.

That's okay, I can work myself into quite a lather when Peter Ustinov and Jean Simmons go out the wrong gate of Rome at the end of 1960's Spartacus!

I am confused, I thought this movie was actually based on a comic rather than the historical event? I have not seen the movie (might see it after it comes out on DVD). But I have knowledge of the legend (history), and have seen the program on the history channel about the making of the movie. They indicate that it is not historically accurate at all. I personally would be more interested in seeing it if it were accurate (or at least tried to be).

The teenage audience that they market movies to are more familiar with comics books than history.

I personally really enjoyed Sin City, so would be happy just to see this film expecting it will be such a treat on the eye (and I don't just mean oiled muscles and beefcake thank you very much, I can still look up Dolph Lungren for beefcake and Sugar Ray Leonard for toned muscles when I need that)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg7AF0j0 ... ed&search=

When I bought Steven Pressfield's novel 'Gates of Fire', quite a few years back now (7 or 8 or more even?) which was again concerned with the Spartans, and which announced on the cover 'soon to be a movie', the 'story' was more concerned with the relationships between the main characters - how they had been raised and trained. History buffs should also appreciate that any story even loosely based on stereotypical Spartans likely to be a festival of endurance of the human spirit and courage - at least that's what I'm hoping for and I plan to see it at the weekend so don't go and spoil it for me now and say it isn't so!!

According to this guy, Hollywood is trying to get it’s hands around a whole new type of movie. The "Video Game Movie" (Not the "Comic Book Movie"?)
Note the marketing advice. In effect; find a small market and flood it for all it is worth, because tomorrow it is gone.

By Thomas K. Arnold, Special for USA TODAY
The blockbuster saga 300 is not technically a video game movie. But ask anyone who has seen it, and you'll probably hear about how the film, based on a graphic novel, looks, feels and even plays like a video game.
300 director Zach Snyder used such video game elements as ratcheting levels of foes and action and stylized special effects. Will his movie's success — a stunning $162 million in only three weeks, with no major star and a cost of $60 million — spawn copycats?
PHOTO GALLERY:A peek at the movie
"Movies like 300 have kind of blurred the lines between this business and video games and comics," says Chris McGurk, the former MGM vice chair who is launching his own company, Overture Films.
Borys Kit, senior film editor with The Hollywood Reporter, cautions against categorizing 300 as just a video game movie. "The way (Snyder) made 300 — with three cameras for those action scenes, zoom in, zoom out, and three different speeds — that is like a video game because there is that function where you can change your perspective," he says. But "that's also the way panels work in comic books."
Kit's hesitancy is understandable. Movies that try to be linear adaptations of games have had limited success. Though Lara Croft: Tomb Raider grossed $131 million in 2001, Super Mario Brothers in 1993 was a dud. In 2005, the $70 million Doom, based on one of the most popular games ever, grossed only $28 million in U.S. theaters.
"Video game movies simply are not successful at this point," Kit says. "They have not yet achieved that crossover success that comic book movies have."
Another movie that successfully incorporated the feel of a video game was 2006's Crank. It had non-stop action, quick cuts and split screens, and the graphic feel of a game. It grossed $27.8 million, more than twice its cost, and topped DVD charts in January.
"Gamers are avid movie watchers," says Lionsgate president Steve Beeks. "Crank writers/directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor are passionate gamers and realized that delivering the same action-packed experience that video game players feel to the big screen was a formula for success."
Still, there is trepidation about game-based movies. Last fall, Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson halted plans for a movie of the best-selling Halo game saga when 20th Century Fox and Universal pulled out, reportedly because of the $145 million cost.
"Movies that work generally are movies that have great stories and characters," McGurk says. "Taking a successful video game and trying to come up with a script based on that game doesn't always work."
But Hollywood is still trying:
•Columbia Pictures is negotiating with Konami Digital Entertainment to acquire the rights to PlayStation's best-selling game series Metal Gear Solid, described by the studio as a "character-driven futuristic spy thriller."
•New Line said last week that it will make a movie of the futuristic war game Gears of War.
Toby Emmerich, head of production at New Line, says the movie will be a prequel to the game. "Origin stories always work well," he says. "The mythology of this game, compared to a game like Halo, is not as elaborate or nailed down, so the filmmakers can be more partners with the game creator."
Emmerich believes there's a future for movies that embrace the feel and style of games.
"For the young people who are now playing them, games will evolve with them," he says. "I can't imagine all of this not influencing Hollywood."