Celebrity Byte

Speaking of 300, many reviewers said your movie looked and felt like a video game. What are your thoughts on this?

I think that's cool. That's my generation and games are one of my big influences. I do feel like a lot of people who wrote that don't really understand videogames, but that's okay. I think it's more the perception rather than the reality of what a videogame is. I'd love to play a game that looked and played like the movie 300.

Zack Snyder smiles for the lenses at Wondercon 2007.

Before, you couldn't get a game made for 300 except for the 300: March to Glory PSP game. Will that change for the movie's sequel?

If we do a sequel, they're going to go nuts to do a game. With 300, I believe they want to do a game and I believe they'd be inclined to do it. I'm just waiting for the powers that be to confirm it. We're not into it unless they spend a lot of money and make a super crazy, awesome game. So they're thinking about it right now.

And on the Watchmen side, do you want to do a game?

I'm definitely trying to do a game for Watchmen...a really cool one. It's still in early development, but that's what we want to do.

What do you bring to the table knowing the videogame medium when you work on a game like the 300 PSP or these upcoming adaptations of your films?

I guess I'm really hands-on. For me, I know what I like in a game and I hope that our videogames would have at least what I would like to play in a game.

Have you been able to play anything recently gaming-wise?

I've been swamped. I haven't been able to play anything. It's really a shame. I've been drawing the movie and it takes every free second I have. There are thousands and thousands of drawings. As soon as I'm done, I'm going to see what's happening in the games world.

On the mic at Wondercon 2007, Zack Snyder answers questions about the 300 movie.

What's the last game you played?

Gears of War.

Did you play all the way through?

Oh yeah. I played through with my son. I think it's cool what they can do with videogames today. It's a great game and I think it's great to see how when you watch the story, the way the cinematics are in the game, it's almost like you want to watch it, but you want to play too.

Epic actually put a lot of cinematics in the game.

It's interesting. You know the story with the commercial and how they used the Unreal game engine to make the commercial? That's pretty cool. I guess you could make a movie like that.

Do you feel that games like Gears of War influence you in your filmmaking?

I think you can't help from an action standpoint to be influenced by videogames if you see something cool and you think, "Oh, that's a great angle." I think it's a similar language and it's something that certainly influences me.

What are your thoughts about the Hollywood trend of turning games like Gears of War into movies?

I think the verdict's still out on that one. I always say that making a movie out of a videogame is sort of like making a videogame out of a really good porn film. The reason I say that is because the reason you watch a porn film is for the porn part. But when you make a movie out of it, you're focusing on the pool boy and the housewife and that's the story. You're kind of robbed of the reason you're there. That happens when you take a videogame and turn it into a film. It's like a paintball movie. Paintball's fun to play, but I wouldn't want to see a movie about it. Games are difficult to translate. I think it's out there and it can happen, but I'm still waiting to see it.