Rumors has circulated that Warner Bros. has offered the director job for ‘Xerxes’ (follow up to Zack Snyder’s ‘300′) to Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes). It is a bit of a surprise considering the success of ‘300′ and the visual masterpiece that it was, was because of Zack Snyder. Is this a possible slap in the face to Snyder by Warner Bros. Most likely not. Snyder was given the biggest job of his career when signed to direct the Superman reboot, ‘The Man of Steel’. On the other hand, considering how long its been since 300 original released, Xerxes could have been left on the shelf until Snyder is done with Superman. Is it possible that the relationship between Warner Bros. and Snyder has been strained due to Snyder’s latest flops? Since Snyder directed 300, the road has been everything but smooth for the visionary director. 300 was an huge worldwide mega-hit, but Snyder’s projects since has performed less than spectacular. Even with the great buzz and fan base behind ‘Watchmen’, the movie flopped and performed poorly. Snyder’s first animated feature, ‘Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole’ was a bust as well and recently became the butt of all jokes on shows like ‘30 Rock’. On top of that, there are trouble already brewing for Snyder’s next two projects. The newest project ready to release is the highly-anticipated, ‘Sucker Punch’. Considering people are going wacky for the movie after seeing the visually insane and sexy trailer, rumors have it from the front line that the movie is not testing well and audiences feedback is mediocre. This is worrying Warner Bros. and they are slowly losing confidence on the director. On top of that, the newest update regarding Superman is that there is a problem with script and Snyder and writer David S. Goyer (Dark Knight) is having problems with the third act. All these can contribute to Warner Bros. offering the director job to Guy Ritchie. So far, Ritchie has been able to produce a movie (Sherlock Holmes) that makes money for Warner Bros and he will be free once he wraps up on the sequel, ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’.

My thoughts are that Zack Snyder movies are overall great films. His directing abilities are on par with Christopher Nolan and James Cameron and he makes movies like no one else in Hollywood. Is it possible that maybe Snyder’s choice of projects is too big and over the top for the general movie goer? I really felt that people didn’t really give Watchmen a chance because they were not familiar with the graphic novel and it’s history in the comic book world. For the general public, Watchmen did not make any sense. For comic lovers like me, it was a beautifully done film. I truly believe Snyder will be back on top as a money making film producer once ‘Superman: Man of Steel’ releases, but until than it looks like Xerxes will have to go someone else. My prediction: Xerxes is going to be a bust.