In July of last year, director Zack Snyder (300, Sucker Punch) stated that he had begun writing the script for the compainion to Frank Miller‘s 300 called Xerxes with his 300 collaborator Kurt Johnstad (The Last Photograph). While Snyder and Johnstad did sign the deal to pen the script, when asked if he would be directing the film or not, Snyder said “It’s really going to depend on what the studio wants to do and what we do when we finish; I don’t have a directing deal in place but we are writing it, so call it intent.”

No, NYMag reports that Warner Bros. has an offer out for Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes) to direct Xerxes. The studio opting for another director for the film likely has a lot to do with Snyder being buried in his work on the forthcoming Superman Reboot (Superman: Man of Steel).

In September, Snyder stated that he was at the half-way point on the script for Xerxes and dropped the following details on the plot:

“This movie follows Themistocles and the Battle of Artemisium, which coincidentally happens on the exact same three days as the Battle of Thermopylae [which was the basis of ‘300],” Snyder added. “This one starts off with a quick retelling of the why of the Persian wars. It starts off at the Battle of Marathon and then it goes back to Themistocles finding out that Persians are invading again. and off we go over to learn a little bit about why Xerxes is the way he is.”

What I said to the studio is that ’300′ gave everyone a chance to fight alongside a super warrior, a chance to fight alongside these Spartan warriors that you could never fight against; but Themistocles is different, he is us, It’s much more about the everyman.

Themistocles is kind of the father of democracy. It’s much more about these guys choosing. The Spartans are, ‘We fight, we die,’ so that’s an easy choice for them, there’s no surrender. The cool thing about Themistocles and his gang is that it’s way more difficult. Things aren’t as clear or unchallenged. He has to be more political to get everyone to agree. It’s political, in the soap-opera sense of the word. There’s a relationship with Leonidas … and … well, we’ll see where it all goes.”

Update:

A Warner Bros. studio spokesman has told Entertainment Weekly that Guy Ritchie has not been “formally offered the job.” and Zack Snyder remains attached to the Xerxes project.

Xerxes is currently in development.