300 is back. Sort of.

“We are in Bulgaria, where a vast crew and some 200 sandal-wearing extras are facing day 50 of a 74-day shoot.

“The time is 480BC. Rise of an Empire follows in the wake of 300, Zack Snyder’s spectacular adaptation of comic-book supremo Frank Miller’s retelling of the story of the 300 heroic Spartans who held off the invading Persian hordes.

“Everyone is at pains to stress that this is not a sequel as much as a parallel story – while the Spartans were fighting the emperor Xerxes’ slave troops at Thermopylae, the Athenians were fighting them at sea.

“You might remember Stapleton as Craig, one of the scary Cody brothers in Animal Kingdom; more recently he has been playing the lead in US television action series Strike Back, which is filmed largely in East Africa.”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au