Zack Snyder struck a chord with his 2006 film 300. Nobody had seen anything visually like it before. Snyder adored Frank Miller’s graphic novel and sought to literally put it on the big screen... 300 quotes and all! 

What’s funny, Snyder said when Movie Fanatic met with him recently, is that much of what was accomplished visually was out of monetary necessity. “When we made 300, in truth, a lot of the movie was created with economic restrictions,” he said and laughed.

“We had this idea of the style of the movie we wanted to make and we knew it was a boutique-y movie. We thought it was a movie for kind of a small audience that would be into this kind of crazy, comic-booky sword and sandal movie. It was kind of a genre that didn’t exist… you know? There are sword and sandal movies and comic book movies, but the rules of mashing those things up weren’t really around.”

Snyder was busy making Man of Steel, and now doing pre-production on Batman vs. Superman, so he was not able to return to the director’s chair for 300: Rise of an Empire.

But, his influence is all over this film… as we stated in our 300: Rise of an Empire review.

He saw something in director Noam Murro and was especially impressed with him, given that Snyder had the Miller graphic novel to work from and Xerxes, the story this follow-up is based on, wasn’t even completed.

“The cool thing about what these guys have done and the movie has done… is that it took that language without a comic book -- because Frank hadn’t finished it! But, [it has] Frank’s inspiration flowing across it and echoed across in the movie.”

Snyder felt comfortable leaving the franchise he started, and knew it was in good hands across the board. As you can tell from the 300: Rise of an Empire trailer... Murro has nailed Snyder's visual style and even pushed the envelope further.

“We have an amazing cast and you can see that they’re funny and smart and physical and amazing actors,” he said. “We have an awesome director who made, I think, a picture that is true to that.”

If anyone’s surprised there is another 300 film, it’s Snyder. Once the first one was finished, he knew they had accomplished something special, but had no idea the cultural tsunami they unleashed.

“I was not 100 percent sure there would be another one. When we finished 300 -- they all died! I guess that’s it,” Snyder admitted. “We didn’t really think there could be another movie. But I think when Frank came and said this other thing happened on the same three days as Thermopylae, we were like, what? That’s cool. And actually it’s really fun for me to see these two movies kind of exist now next to each other.”

The challenge was how to meld the worlds that exist concurrently, which also needed to work as separate entities. Snyder is confident they have achieved success, but he wouldn’t mind seeing them completely melded together someday!

“We were talking about how you could cut them together, actually, if you were ambitious – and maybe some fans will do that,” Snyder said and smiled. “But it’s really satisfying for me because in a way it’s come full circle for me.”

Be sure and check out Snyder's first visit to ancient Greece and watch 300 online.