300's Brazen SL Arrival

Not content with real world promotion for their latest blockbuster, Warner Bros took to Second Life last Friday to publicise the arrival of 300. Taking place on their own sim of Silver Screen Island, the focus of the event was a question and answer session with Frank Miller, creator of the graphic novel from which the film was inspired. As well as that, director and co-writer Zack Snyder, plus leading actors Gerard Butler, Lena Headey and Rodrigo Santoro were on hand to answer questions visitors from the world of SL and RL press had to throw at them.
The film itself deals with the battles between the Greeks and the Persians long, long ago in the real world, and as such, is something of a gore-fest. This is reflected in some of the artwork available to see on the island, a sim created by the Picture Production Company on behalf of Warner Brothers. It’s a nice sim, with a central hub, ‘the Auditorium’, acting as the core to the other four smaller islands leading away from it. Exploring the area leads you to four other islands coming off from the auditorium, each unsurprisingly a homage to the magnitude (and budget) of the film. The theatre is a modest affair, with 80 outdoor seats for those that showed up, and a big screen designed for the screenings of the film’s trailer. Most interesting is the gallery of artwork from the film, amongst other things. Nicely done too, is the exhibition of Frank Miller’s original sketchings - probably containing more artistic merit than the film itself.* Another gallery isle features plenty of shots of gruff blokes in gold and red whacking each other silly with steel objects. Cool.
Before the event began, there was also the possibility of exploring the 300 Movie Expo, an interactive experience which included a 3-D virtual set. That may be now gone, but some of the great costumes were still recently to be seen milling around the reading room. Designed by Sachi Vixen and Damen Gorilla, plenty of people thought it was a good idea to dress up in these and wonder around. And why not, it's a free world, isn't it?

*Of course, I haven‘t seen it. Or read the book. Whatever.