The director of Immortals believes Universal Pictures and Relativity Media made the wrong decision in comparing the fim to 300, an epic mythology adaptation based on a Frank Miller graphic novel.
If you’ve seen any of the marketing material for Immortals, then you know just what Tarsem Singh is talking about.
The commercials and posters, well, everything wants to make sure you know that the same people who produced 300 were involved in this film.
This is a typical marketing ploy, used to get people to relate the new film with a past film which the studio knows was popular.
Of course, it helps when the films are very similar.
But Singh begs to differ.
“I had a big fight early on, and I had to let it go,” he told the Hollywood Reporter in relation to the marketting connection.
“Not too many people will show up if you say ‘From the director of The Fall,’” – a reference to the last film Singh directed, back in 2006.
He went on to explain that the style of his film is completely different from the style of 300. That film was gritty and dark, and specifically sought to evoke the look of the graphic novel it was directly adapted from.
Immortals, by contrast, is a bright film, in which Singh has attempted to evoke classical paintings of Greek conflict.
“It’s not true to the Greek times but I thought it would be interesting in how someone from the Renaissance would paint the Greeks,” he said. “So the composition is quite old school but the action is quite contemporary.”
Of course, fans of effects-heavy action films are not known for their discerning palate, so it’s unlikely that anyone will come out of the theater feeling duped by the 300 comparison. Still, it does give us some hope that the film, like 300, will have a overriding visual motif, and will present as an artistic work, rather than just a sword-fest.
Then again, If I were Singh, I would actually welcome such comparisons to 300.
