Epic '300' Features Comic Book Imagery, Haunting Soundtrack

The original motion picture soundtrack to the upcoming feature film "300" will be released by Warner Bros. Records on March 6, three days before the movie opens nationwide. The film, which stars Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, and Rodrigo Santoro, is based on the epic graphic novel by comic book writer and artist Frank Miller.

“300” is a retelling of the 480 BC battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonides (Butler) sends an army of 300 Spartans to battle against King Xerxes’ army of more than a million Persian warriors. The Spartans' valiant fight to the death inspired all of Greece to unite and fight against the advancing Persians, securing the future for Greece and democracy.

The upcoming film, written and directed by Zack Snyder ("Dawn of the Dead”), translates Miller's imagery through a process similar to that of a previous Miller film, “Sin City.” The heavy use of green screens and the vivid colors chosen for the backgrounds, props and costumes create a unique hybrid of realistic and comic book imagery, producers said. When the first public scenes were shown at the 2006 Comic-Con International, the dramatic look of the film, as well as the presentation of the story, went over well with an enthusiastic audience, studio officials said.

The film’s score was written by Tyler Bates, a composer best known for his work on the zombie horror films “The Devil’s Rejects” (directed by Rob Zombie) and 2004’s “Dawn of the Dead,” directed by Snyder.

Bates was asked by Snyder to develop a score that would heighten the audience’s emotional reaction to the Spartans’ heroism and sacrifice. To do that, he created a sweeping orchestral and choral soundscape, recorded at the Beatles’ famed Abbey Road Studios. Iranian-born singer Azam Ali, whose haunting, exotic vocals have been heard in various television and film soundtracks, including, “Battlefield Earth,” “The Legend Of Earthsea,” “Dawn Of The Dead” and “Matrix Revolutions,” supplies the voice of Sparta and the Persian threat.

"My intent was to stay true to the inspiration of the film and that of the Spartans’ freedom and will," Bates said in a release from the record company. "The greatest challenge was to bead a musical thread throughout the film’s ever-changing landscape of visual art, while sustaining its epic and emotional qualities. I had to approach it in a style as inventive as the film itself."

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