Construction Project of TV Series '300'; Touraj Daryaei: Iranians Must Introduce Their History to the World

Informed sources in Hollywood have reported the start of the project to create the TV series '300' by Warner Bros. According to an exclusive report by Variety, this series, whose details are still unclear, will focus on events preceding the story of the film '300' directed by Zack Snyder, which was released in 2006. This epic fantasy film was adapted from a graphic novel of the same name created by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley. The story revolves around the historical battle of Thermopylae between the vast army of the Achaemenid Empire and the few Greek defenders, which has gained worldwide fame. The film narrates the story of Leonidas, the King of Sparta, played by Gerard Butler, who stands against the 300,000-strong army of Xerxes, portrayed by Rodrigo Santoro, and ultimately dies after a long resistance. Initial negotiations for the production of the series are underway, and it is said that Zack Snyder will be the director and executive producer of this series. Some other crew members from the film are also likely to participate in the production of this series project. Warner Bros has not yet officially confirmed this news. Although the film '300' was well-received at the box office, grossing over $450 million, it faced criticism, especially from Iranians. Critics accused the creators of distorting history and misrepresenting reality, and some considered '300' to be an insulting and anti-Iranian work created with specific goals. Touraj Daryaei, a professor of Iranian history and the head of the Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies at the University of California, Irvine, told Voice of America: 'Hollywood films are often influenced by the political climate of the day. We see this in the Alexander film from the 1950s, where the Iranian army was portrayed more like the Russians and the Greeks like the American army. Oliver Stone's Alexander depicted Alexander more historically and angered the Greek people, who sued him.' He adds: 'The film '300' was also made in the aftermath of bin Laden's attack on America, and both the historian of the film and the filmmaker had a poor view of the Middle East. They portrayed Iranians as terrorist bombers and depicted Xerxes in an unpleasant way for American and Western society.' Mr. Daryaei states: 'At that time, I wrote several articles about how the film '300' misrepresented Iranians, and then I addressed the filmmakers and their political views. This film was neither historical nor documentary, and it only attempted to portray Iranians as evil. The worse aspect of '300' was that it was based on a comic book or graphic novel, which also attracted the attention of young people.' According to Touraj Daryaei, it is the Iranians who must strive to introduce the importance of Iranian history and the status of Iranian historical figures to the world, and this work has been partially accomplished. He adds that in Iran, history is politicized, and producing such films and series will be very difficult. However, this history professor hopes that with the expansion of Iranian influence in countries like America, such works will be produced in the near future. After '300', another film titled 'Rise of an Empire', based on the unpublished graphic novel 'Xerxes' by Frank Miller, was released in 2014 but was not as successful as the first film. With the expansion of streaming networks, these companies have shown great interest in producing series from popular past films, and these series usually deal with events before or after the main film's story or narrate the stories of side characters. This article was compiled using reports from Variety and Deadline.