"Meet The Spartans"
"Meet The Spartans Trailer" - First Look
"Meet The Spartans" - In Movie Theaters January 25, 2008
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"Meet The Spartans" - "Meet the Spartans" is a comedy spoof written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer - those guys who brought you the box office bomb "Epic Movie." (How and why, other than the film stars a bunch of has-beens and no-ones, and cost next to nothing to make, we know not why it was given the green light by 20th Century Fox.) What movies does "Meet The Spartans" spoof? Well, for starters, "300." "Meet The Spartans" also pokes fun at "Shrek 3," "Pirates Of The Caribbean," "Superman Returns," "Troy," "Alexander," "Stomp The Yard" and "The Sixth Sense."
"Meet The Spartans" also parodies George W. Bush, Lindsay Lohan, American Idol's Sanjaya Malakar, Ryan Seacrest, Kevin Federline, and Britney Spears.
STARRING: Diedrich Bader, Kevin Sorbo, Method Man, Jim Piddock, Sean Maguire
DIRECTORS: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer
STUDIO: Fox Atomic
RATING: PG-13 (For language, mock violence, mild nudity)
THEATER COUNT (Opening Weekend): TBD
RUNNING TIME:
TBD
TOTAL DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE: TBD
U.S. DVD RELEASE DATE: June 3, 2008
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"Meet The Spartans"
Behind The Scenes
The biggest challenge for the filmmakers was to emulate the look and size of "300" - but on a significantly smaller budget. To avoid costly computer generated imagery, Friedberg and Seltzer worked with production designer William Elliott to create "old school" visual effects achieved in-camera, or through other cost-effective means. .
Elliott replicated the original film's look at much as possible, avoiding over-the-top designs and sets. "We tried to keep the sets grounded in reality and let the laughs come from the script and the actors," explains Elliott. "The sets and locations were there to give them a good, firm foundation in which to work."
Elliott collaborated closely with director of photography Shawn Maurer to create the film's Sparta. "Bill [Elliott] and Shawn pulled off an amazing feat in getting so close to the look of '300,'" says Friedberg. "We told them what we wanted, what we were thinking and how much money we had - and those guys just made it happen. They're the real studs of the movie."
Like "300," "Meet The Spartans" was filmed almost entirely on soundstages, for exteriors as well as interiors. On two stages in New Orleans, stunt coordinator Keith Adams, whose credits include the "Kill Bill" films, had the challenging task of emulating some of "300's" massive battle scenes. Some of the members of Adams' stunt team had even worked on "300."
Special effects makeup supervisor Matthew Mungle also had his work cut out for him. He performed makeup magic on look-alikes playing real (or reel)-life characters, such as Rocky Balboa and Paris Hilton. He also painted on the impressive "six-pack" abs of the actors portraying the super-cut Spartans.
"Date Movie" and "Epic Movie" both featured elaborate song and dance numbers, so it was inevitable that the Spartans would warble and bust a move or two. "We use music in our movies whenever possible," says Friedberg. ""Meet The Spartans", we had a lot of fun with a scene in which our 13 Spartans sing the disco classic 'I Will Survive' as they merrily skip off to war." The tune is reprised by all the key actors at the end of the film. "It's like bringing all the actors out for a final curtain call," says Seltzer.
