The Brad Pitt movie that almost derailed Zack Snyder’s 300

SUMMARY

Zack Snyder recently appeared in The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
He revealed how Warner Bros initially rejected to make his movie, 300.
They rejected the movie in favor of Brad Pitt’s Troy.

Zack Snyder is a prolific screenwriter, director, and producer who made his directorial debut with the 2004 movie, Dawn of the Dead.

He came into the limelight with movies like 300 (2006) and Watchmen (2009), and then went on to establish the DCEU with movies like Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the directorial cut of the 2017 release, Justice League.

Recently, he sat with Joe Rogan for the latter’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, where Snyder shared many stories about his career.
Zack Snyder with Joe Rogan in The Joe Rogan Experience podcast
During the podcast, he talked about how if he got to make The Dark Knight Returns, that would be it for him – his legacy. He won’t need or want to make any more comic book movies if he gets to make TDKR.

He also said that though Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice had many plot points that touched on The Dark Knight Returns storyline, it still wasn’t the whole story. He also talked about how made 300, even though it took a lot of time before he could do it.

Zack Snyder Was Rejected by Warner Bros. In Favor of Brad Pitt

Zack Snyder and producer Gianni Nunnari tried to sell 300 for a long while before it was finally made into a movie. The first time they took it to Warner Bros. the studio rejected the idea in favor of a Brad Pitt movie.

At that time, Warner Bros. was making the Wolfgang Petersen movie, Troy (2004). Given both were epic historical action movies, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the production house favored a movie starring Brad Pitt instead of a director who had just made his feature debut.
Zack Snyder’s 300
In Snyder’s words, when they originally bought the movie to Warner Bros., they weren’t convinced. Speaking on JRE, he revealed the studio’s stance on the movie, saying:

“When we went to Warner Brothers originally with it, the literally were like – We have Troy, so why would we want this? We have Brad Pitt. Like literally, Brad Pitt is in our movie, what do you [have]?”

Thankfully, the director was able to convince the studio about his idea, and 300 was finally made three years later,  getting both critical appreciation and box-office recognition.

Brad Pitt Made Troy Because of a Deal He Later Regretted

The 2004 historical epic Troy, starring Brad Pitt in the lead role, was a box-office blockbuster. Written by David Benioff and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the movie is based on Homer’s Illiad, depicting the Trojan War.

Pitt was roped in to play the character of Achilles- a Greek hero because he had previously pulled out of a movie by Warner Bros.

This led to him making a deal with the studio that he would work with them on another project, which ended up being Troy.
Brad Pitt in Troy
Speaking to The New York Times, Brad Pitt spoke of making Troy years later, revealing his reasons for doing the movie.

“I had to do ‘Troy’ because – I guess I can say all this now – I pulled out of another movie and then had to do something for the studio.

So I was put in ‘Troy.’ It wasn’t painful, but I realized that the way that movie was being told was not how I wanted it to be.”

He further added,

“It’s no slight on Wolfgang Petersen. ‘Das Boot’ is one of the all-time great films. But somewhere in it, ‘Troy’ became a commercial kind of thing. Every shot was like, Here’s the hero! There was no mystery.”

Brad Pitt as Achilles in Troy
Peter O’Toole, who played King Priam in the 2004 movie, called Petersen a “clown” and walked out of the movie’s screening 15 minutes into it. Though the movie was a box-office hit, critically, it received an average response.