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’300′ And ‘Act Of Valor’ Scribe Kurt Johnstad Takes On ‘Lost Legion’ Epic For Warner Bros

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday February 8, 2013 @ 12:56pm PSTTags: 300, Kurt Johnstad, Warner Bros
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Screenwriter Kurt Johnstad has covered both ancient warfare co-writing 300 and its sequel 300: Rise Of An Empire, and contemporary conflict with Act Of Valor. Now, he’s tackling a collision of completely different warriors in The Lost Legion, an epic action film he’ll write, with Dan Lin producing for Warner Bros.

The Lost Legion is about the first encounter between two of the most powerful forces in the history of civilization, the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty of ancient China. In 53 BC, a Roman legion was defeated in the Middle East and the surviving Roman soldiers were sold into slavery in the far east, North of China in what is now known as Mongolia. An intrepid band of Chinese warriors freed the legionnaires from captivity, and teamed up to defend China from the fiercest army in history.

Lin, who’s currently in production on the Chris Miller/Phil Lord-directed Lego, is producing and Lin Pictures’ Jon Silk, who found the project, will be executive producer along with Action Entertainment’s Chris Darling and Susan Feiles. Johnstad also scripted The Last Photograph, and he’s repped by WME, Untitled Entertainment, Parseghian-Planco and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern.

Lost Legion might seem like a mash-up, but it’s based on recent discoveries that indicate this actually happened. Archaeologists in Gansu province on the Chinese-Mongolian border, in one small village, found evidence of Han Dynasty artifacts dating back to 50 B.C., mixed in with ancient Roman architecture. Some of the town’s inhabitants, while Chinese, possess fair complexions, high-bridged noses, deep-set blue eyes and curly, fair hair. The town is called Lee-Chien, and has been for 2000 years, but the townspeople pronounce it “legion”. Many in the town are convinced they have Roman blood in their veins, and DNA tests support that theory, along with historical artifacts and documentation.

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‘Jane Got A Gun’ Adds Rodrigo Santoro

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Monday February 4, 2013 @ 10:55am PSTTags: 300, Jane Got A Gun, Movie Casting, Natalie Portman

Rodrigo SantoroEXCLUSIVE: The Last Stand actor has joined the cast of the Western action film Jane Got A Gun with Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender. Rodrigo Santoro will play the character of Fitchum in the … Read More »

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‘300’ Prequel Given Official Title By WB

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday September 12, 2012 @ 5:19pm PDTTags: 300, Warner Bros

Formerly known by the working title of 300: The Battle of Artemisia, the film will now be called 300: Rise Of An Empire, the studio said today.  The Legendary Pictures film is scheduled to come out … Read More »

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Warner Bros Dates ‘The Hangover 3′ And ’300′ Sequel For 2013, Shifts ‘Pacific Rim’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday March 22, 2012 @ 1:12pm PDTTags: 300, Pacific Rim, The Hangover 3, Warner Bros

Warner Bros The Hangover 3The studio today gave two of its biggest titles in the pipeline 2013 release dates, and moved its Guillermo del Toro-directed Pacific Rim from May to July 12 of that year. Warner Bros will release The … Read More »

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’300′ Sequel Brings Back Xerxes

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday March 16, 2012 @ 8:15am PDTTags: 300
Mike Fleming

Xerxes Rodrigo SantoroRodrigo Santoro is set to return to his creepily iconic and blinged-out role of Xerxes in the 300 sequel, opposite Eva Green, Sullivan Stapleton and Jamie Blackley for Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures. The film … Read More »

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Jamie Blackley Lands Lead in ’300′ Sequel

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday February 16, 2012 @ 5:34pm PSTTags: 300, Kurt Johnstad, Noam Murro
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Jamie Blackley has landed the co-lead in the 300 sequel that Noam Murro will direct for Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures. In the Kurt Johnstad-scripted film, Blackley will play Calisto, a teen whose desire to become the heroic man/soldier … Read More »

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‘Xerxes’ Pic Down To Noam Murro And Jaume Collet-Serra For ’300′ Spinoff

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday June 27, 2011 @ 4:34pm PDTTags: 300, Alex Proyas, Bradley Cooper, Charlie Hunnam, Guillermo Del Toro, Idris Elba, Jaume Collet-Serra, Kurt Johnstad, Noam Murro, Zack Snyder
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: The producers of the 300 spinoff known as Xerxes have retitled their film 300: Battle of Artemisia, and they have also narrowed their focus of potential directors to two: Noam Murro and Jaume Collet-Serra. The film, a spinoff to 300, is one that the film’s original director Zack Snyder was going to direct. That was until Warner Bros and producer Chris Nolan offered him Man of Steel, and Snyder and wife and producing partner Debra Snyder put Xerxes aside and moved on to rebooting the Superman franchise because Warner Bros needed it. The Snyders have been all over this director selection process. Snyder had written a script with his 300 cohort Kurt Johnstad. Like 300, it is based on a Frank Miller graphic novel that will be shot with the kind of stylized period green-screen action visuals that became the signature of 300 and helped the film gross $456 million worldwide. Xerxes was the Persian leader seen in 300. Miller’s graphic novel told the story of how Xerxes became this peculiar god-like entity. That mythology goes back to the death of his father, Darius, from injuries sustained at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. Darius had told his son not to attack the Greeks because they can only be punished by a god, and so Xerxes tried to transform himself into a deity to gain revenge. The new pic’s produced by the Snyders, Mark Canton, Gianni Nunnari, Thomas Tull and Bernie Goldmann. The prime mover on the film has been Legendary Pictures, which made the original with Warner Bros and has taken the lead on several big-ticket pictures since Tull recapitalized his producing/financing company. That includes the Guillermo del Toro-directed Pacific Rim with Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba and the Alex Proyas-directed Paradise Lost with Bradley Cooper. Read More »

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Long Partnership Between Italian Filmmakers Vittorio Cecchi Gori And Giannani Nunnari Unravels In Court

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday September 7, 2010 @ 9:50am PDTTags: 300, Gianni Nunnari, Immortals, Vittorio Cecchi Gori
Mike Fleming

For 300 producer Gianni Nunnari, the decision to sue former longtime employer Vittorio Cecchi Gori for getting axed in 2008 has so far proven as ill-advised as sending 300 Spartans to hold off the entire Persian army at Thermopylae.

A rather … Read More »

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