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300: The art of war

COMIC-CON: We interview director Zack Snyder about the DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray

By Laurence Lerman -- Video Business, 7/26/2007

300 bows on DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray on July 31.

JULY 26 | COMIC-CON: We tracked down 300 director Zack Snyder a few weeks back as he was scouting locations for the upcoming Watchmen and got him on the phone to speak about the DVD of 300, which Warner is issuing on Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD/Combo and standard formats on July 31. We also managed to sneak in a few questions about the much buzzed-about screen adaptation of Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ famed 1986 graphic novel.

VB: There’s no denying that 300 is a bona fide industry benchmark—for the adaptation of graphic novels into movies, for the commercial potential of said adaptations, for the DVD industry, hell, even for Comic-con, where the DVD release is being celebrated with a big screening on Friday, July 27—

Snyder

SNYDER: —at Petco Park. Yeah, it’s gonna be great!

VB: We imagine you’re psyched for the DVD release.

SNYDER: Oh yeah! I think 300 is one of those rare movies that’s awesome in the theater, but in some ways, it’s made for DVD. I always say that so much of it is digital that it almost plays better at home if that’s even possible when you compare it to how freaky it is on screen.

VB: Was 300 your first encounter with such staggeringly high-end filmmaking technology?

SNYDER: I’ve got to say yes to that, because no one has ever worked like this. It’s a crazy technological movie for anybody, even people who work on tech movies all the time. The thing that’s awesome is that it’s technology mixed with an organic element. It’s not a slave to the technology, which I think has come to the point where it doesn’t necessarily get in the way of the movie.

VB: Tell us a bit about the DVD.

SNYDER: The most interesting thing about the DVD is that, you know how you get extras about what goes on behind the scenes? We have things that really are behind the scenes. There’s a reason to look behind the curtain on this movie, because the curtain is so friggin’ huge! In the HD DVD/Combo format, the blue-screen picture-in-picture version runs the entire time! Check it out, and you’ll really be seeing behind the curtain.

VB: The three formats—HD DVD, Blu-ray and standard—each have exclusive features, right?

SNYDER: Yeah, the extras thing is hard right now with this whole Blu-ray versus HD thing. It’s like Betamax versus VHS all over again. [The studios] need to decide. It’s hard for me when I’m making the thing and I’m thinking, ‘OK, this one will be for this disc, and this one will be for the other disc.’

VB: Lots of material?

SNYDER: SO much. When I got out of film school, I started collecting laserdiscs because I was so into the bonus features and all the coolness. And that was awesome. We live in a time with DVD where if you love a movie, you pretty much figure out everything about it that you want. The movie in theaters has become a commercial for a bigger movie experience, which includes hours and hours of bonus materials.

VB: The days of just throwing on a making-of, at least for production spectaculars like 300, appear to be over.

SNYDER: They really are. I love the fetish quality of DVD. If you want to just watch the movie, that’s great, but if you really want to take it apart, that’s also there for you. As a film fan, you can just geek yourself into oblivion trying to get to the essence of what it took to make the movie.

VB: Well, the geeks have shifted into high gear as you ready to go into production on Watchmen.

SNYDER: Yeah, so I’ve seen. There are a lot of rumors flying around.

VB: Are the rumors substantial?

SNYDER: Some of the ones I’ve heard are very substantial—almost like there has been a mole in my office. I’ve been going, like, ‘Who the hell has been on the Internet?’

VB: Are you going to be employing a lot of the high-tech methods that you used for 300?

SNYDER: I think Watchmen will benefit from what we learned on 300, but it’s not a slave to technology. There are a lot of real sets and stuff like that.

VB: What’s the shooting schedule?

SNYDER: We start shooting around Sept. 17, and we’re going to go until the beginning of February. It’s a shorter schedule than I’d like, but if you’re making an R-rated comic book movie and it happens to be Watchmen, then you’ve got to give a little bit.

VB: Is anyone from the original Watchmen graphic novel involved directly in the production?

SNYDER: No, but I talk to [illustrator] Dave Gibbons all the time. He’s creating a cool poster for us for Comic-con.

VB: Any involvement from Frank Miller?

SNYDER: He’s working on The Spirit right now, so the answer is no, apart from when he and I went to Japan for 300 and we were sitting on the plane talking about Watchmen the whole time. He’s a huge fan, and he’s got huge knowledge. If you were a fly on the wall, you would have heard us talking about some good stuff.

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