Director Guy Ritchie has just barely put away the magnetic poetry kit and titled his Sherlock Holmes sequel, but already the Internet is holding meetings to decide what he should do next. While we’re hesitant to believe the idea originally floated at Bad Ass Digest that Ritchie is considering a remake of Cannonball Run with George Clooney inheriting the Burt Reynolds role—mostly because Clooney already did his version of the wacky parade-of-stars caper, it was called Ocean’s 12, and Brad Pitt made a shitty Dom DeLuise—the normally reliable Vulture reports that Warner Bros. has already offered Ritchie the directing gig on Xerxes, the 300 sequel that Zack Snyder had been developing before landing Superman: Man Of Steel. Apparently the studio wants Snyder to spend all of his time concentrating on reviving its superhero franchise—particularly seeing as “insiders” say it has “major third-act problems”—but it doesn’t want to wait until Snyder’s finished charcoal-tinting every bead of Superman sweat for him to get to work on its other potential blockbuster.
Of course, Vulture has another theory as to why Snyder may have Xerxes taken away from him, passing along the rumor that Snyder’s upcoming Sucker Punch may have issues of its own, seeing as recent audience test screenings didn’t go so well. According to another “insider” quoted in the piece, “It was bad; like, really bad. They’re [Warners brass] really not happy with it over there.” Of course, those kinds of test-screening rumors don’t really mean anything—and obviously Warner Bros. wouldn’t have handed over its precious Superman franchise if it really didn’t think Snyder was up to it—so it’s more likely this is just a matter of timing, not a crisis of confidence. (After all, Snyder made a dragon and blimp fight; what’s there to worry about?)
And while Ritchie has yet to accept or even confirm the offer, it’s not the first time his name has been attached to something like this: Last year Warner Bros. reportedly had him in mind to direct a version of Warren Ellis’ Excalibur (a film that’s still listed on Ritchie’s IMDB page even), so it definitely seems like the studio is increasingly intent on utilizing his knack for spicing up history and mythology with ‘splosions and sass-back.
