http://chud.com/nextraimages/300poster01.jpgThe people who made it into the 300 panel at this summer’s San Diego ComiCon got a real treat in the form of three minutes and change of footage from the film. I was on set last December and we saw some concept footage of what the final film would look like, but watching the half-naked men sword fighting in front of a big green screen seemed so very far away from the desired effect. When I saw that Con footage all my misgivings dried right up – what they showed was fucking fantastic, and the final digital effect, called “the crush” looks gorgeous. It creates a real painterly aspect. The one thing I didn’t like in the test footage was the way the speed kept changing – slowing down, speeding up, going regular – and unfortunately those same speed ramps seem to have made it into the final film, but otherwise 300 looks fucking stellar.

Now that footage (sort of) is online at iFilm, and you can all make up your own minds. I say sort of because this looks like a PG-13 version of what was R-rated at the Con, but that could very well be a function of my shitty computer, which renders most streaming video into a stuttering mess like Richard Thomas in It. Click here to see it. This footage gives me chills it’s so good.

By the by, I just saw Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, and I have been gearing up to write an editorial about how much I love “non-traditional” movie scores – Coppola’s period film uses post-punk and new wave songs. I imagine the Nine Inch Nails track over this teaser footage is just for this footage, but I loved it and wouldn’t mind having 300 scored with something less in the boring bombastic movie score tradition, and maybe it would be cool to bring Trent Reznor in to do the whole thing.