A Studio Executive’s Character Notes For 300: Rise of an Empire

300 6Xerxes: Faggy???? BUT TALL. don’t SAY faggy, obviously. Jewels, naked, autotune mouth. Think The Burning Man from Burning Man.   

day of the deadSaw a Day of the Dead thing the other day?? Incorporate that into costume/makeup somehow, seemed like a lot of fun

Screen Shot 2014-03-09 at 10.58.45 PMSex scene: NOT ENOUGH CHOKING??? at least four cuts where there is absolutely NO CHOKING. unacceptable

– could be more choking here

– good choking in this scene

– if these two stay in the same position for more than 2 frames somebody’s getting fired

– no choking at end??  ?

im a poetneed this character to talk about poetry, remind main character Greeks write poetry at least once

300: BATTLE OF ARTEMESIUMArtemesia: apparently SURVIVED battle of salamis IRL? fix

300 4image: think PARAMORE CONCERT ATTENDEE (get them for soundtrack??)

R4_V10D3_80813_CO3_PULLS_01rl_0045.tifIMPORTANT QUESTION: enough ear studs?

xenia 2what’s that condition where sex and evil make women go crazy –Xenia from Goldeneye?? that

themistocleswho is this I don’t know who this is

remember: CAPES yes, SHIRTS no, ARMOR definitely no

suicide bombinghave bad guys invent suicide bombing but keep parallels SUBTLE

don’t think we can get away with this as an actual line but character note: when Themistocles returns from Artemesia’s barge and his men ask “what did you learn” the unspoken thought should be “dude he banged her”

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35 Comments

  1. anninyn +78

    ‘don’t forget to make it oddly homophobic for a film about a culture that did lots of gay sex, also all the main characters are shirtless and oiled’

    1. osutein +100

      From the historically accurate director’s cut of 300:

      Leonidas: “Not like those boy-lover Athenians.”
      Spartan # 293: “Sire, we’re Spartans. We actually have a much more developed system of pederasty than the Athenians.”
      Leonidas: “Shut up and OIL ME DOWN, SPARTAN!”

      1. thewhelk +59

        “We sure to love freedom unlike those Persian tyrants.”

        “Yeah! Now lets go ritualistically beat and murder the slaves that run our entire insane cult society!”

        “Oh yeah, I mean there are SO MANY slaves you gotta keep them in line.”

        “Totes. I hope we don’t become a backward sideshow attraction for Roman tourists eventually.”

        “That would be soooooo embarrassing.”

        Also weren’t Spartan women shaved bald? And more or less engaged in a non-stop drunken wrestling match?

        1. osutein +70

          Leonidas: “Men will know that 300 brave Spartans died here defending freedom”
          Spartan #293, gurgling his own blood: “Actually, sire… the Persian Empire… outlawed slavery… whereas we Spartans… not only have legal slavery… but conduct regular terror purges of the slaves… to keep them docile…”
          Leonidas: “Well. Shit.”

          1. shahea +29

            Spartan #293 sounds like the only guy in the kingdom who made sense. Clearly, he had to die.

          2. Vera_Knoop +7

            This thread is so much more enjoyable than the movie (I only saw the first one, but still)

        2. mkpatter +14

          Spartans did actually have shitloads of slaves. That’s part of the reason they were so militaristic, in case there was a slave uprising.

          1. Sugar&Spice +14

            Was it here that we were talking about how the Spartans would declare war on the helots every year, just so that it was legal to kill them if, you know, a Spartan felt like it?

        3. queenofbithynia +45

          Spartan women’s lives were one half naked gymnastics, since any old strenuous physical activity could be justified on the grounds that it built up the strength one might need to bear strong sons that you would later tell to go die in battle and stop bothering you, and the other half basically the ancient AU version of Diderot’s The Nun since all the men were conveniently off in the men’s barracks having intense bonding sessions and leaving the women to make their own fun. I dropped out of classics grad school so I am a reliable source on this.

          1. Sugar&Spice +26

            As a person who once listened to an online course about ancient Greece, I officially confirm this.

  2. boosterseat-2 +75

    “Remember, why we’re making this movie— pranking straight dudes into questioning their sexuality.”

  3. EPWordsnatcher +49

    “CAPES yes, SHIRTS no, ARMOR definitely no”
    300 in a single thought, perfect.

    edit: Also no to body hair, apparently.

    1. rkfire +122

      You know who I think of when I think of hairless men? Men from the Mediterranean region, obviously.

      1. Danielle B. +9

        literally the best comment ever.

        (I’ve started referring to my continual hair-removal as “conquering my Greek genes.” Yay summer. And that I mean ARGH.)

    2. literaltrousersnake +23

      Mediterraneans have no body hair, what are you talking about. No body hair ever anywhere near Greece.

  4. literaltrousersnake +21

    The screencaps of Eva Greene alone are an entire art degree’s worth of poor girlfriend decisions, summarized for all to see. She is the avatar of all that we ever considered a _great_ idea at the time./

    Of course, so are all the men.

    1. literaltrousersnake +5

      I really can’t get over how many snakes someone is going to end up learning important life lessons about from this photo.

  5. mkpatter +1

    Hahaha I was reading about the sex scene on Vulture last night, and was wondering if you were going to talk about it, Mallory.

    1. ThatOtherWench +4

      Brush! Your! Teeeeeth!

      (My work computer blocks youtube, but it can’t block me from repeating that video from memory. I also enjoyed the parody one with “Tonight we dine at Olive Garden!” at the time, but Caketown really has stood the test of time better.)

  6. Guesty +5

    Yo, I know that the point is to make fun of studio execs… but the use of faggy here is really getting under my skin. The Toast has all kinds of cred with me–please don’t use that to sling around slurs. 🙁