Gaddafi ruled over Libya for 42 years until his people grew tired enough of his rule that they banded together and ousted him. This, of course, is one of the risks of dictatorship. The trade-off is that you get to live in a palace and keep lions as pets. Still, you could do that as a heavyweight boxer too. I guess dictating requires less hours in the gym.

The point that I should have got too dozens of words ago is that dictators are bad. Movies taught me that. In fact, why don’t you go ahead and read the seven evil movie dictators that deserve to be shot in the street. If you want to that is. No pressure from me. It’s a free country.

M. Bison – Street Fighter

M. Bison is proof that powe taken by force corrupts the soul. He started his evil career in the drug trade like so many others do, and rose through the ranks to the position of drug lord. With a fictional South East Asian nature under his thumb, it wasn’t long before he took the title of General and held humanitarians for ransom.

Bullies like this make me ill. And Jean Claude Van Damme can’t always be around to give them their comeuppance. It’s up to us — we, the people — to band together and shut down a threat like this. No matter the cost.

General Garza – The Expendables

As far as brutal dictators go, General Garza is kind of a pussy. He’s easily pushed around by Eric Roberts and Stone Cold. Hey Garza, whose island is it anyway?! He deserved to be dragged into the street because of this lack of force. Oppress or get off the pot!

6 photosLena Headey

Unknown‘s Jaume Collet-Serra and Die Hard 5‘s Noam Murro are the final two in consideration to be passed Zack Snyder‘s ceremonial directing headdress to take the helm of 300: Battle Of Artemisia (formerly known as Xerxes). Snyder, who is currently busy with Man Of Steel, will come on in a producer’s capacity and force both men to try to kick one another down a deep pit of doom. The same pit made famous by the film Meet the Spartans. (Deadline)

ComingSoon caught up with Mark Canton and asked him about the 300 prequel, Xerxes, only to find that maybe Zack Snyder is no longer the man for the job.

“I can’t say. I mean, he’s got Superman. He’s busy. We’re busy. I don’t think we’re going to wait two years. But we’ll work together with him and figure out who the filmmaker should be if he doesn’t direct it.”

Then Canton tearfully returned Snyder’s class ring, saying, “My ride is leaving. I’d better go.” He got into his dad’s idling Cutlass Ciera, loaded down with the heft of his personal belongings, and headed off toward Vassar and a world of new opportunity.

This is madness. This is Warner Bros.

After director Zack Snyder‘s run of box office disappointments about owls – the funny to say Owls of Ga’Hoole and Watchmen, which featured that crazy/awkward Owlship sex scene - it seems like Warner Bros. may not be so keen on Mr. Snyder. There are rumors that his Superman: Man Of Steel script has major third act problems and recent test audiences feel like they got sucker punched after watching Sucker Punch. Mr. Snyder must be suffering from a major hoot-ache right now. (I was going for an owl/”headache” joke, not an owl/”footache” joke, but only time will tell how that pun gets interpreted.)

A sign that things have gone south between the WB and Snyder? They’ve offered director Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes) the sequel to Snyder’s box office smash 300. Called Xerxes, all we know for now is that it’s called Xerxes and will likely center around that Prussian king… y’know, What’s-his-name… Baldy McChainface. The real insult is that the story for the sequel – also based on a Frank Miller graphic novel – was developed for the screen by Snyder, with intentions to direct it himself.

Ho boy. Looks like Warner execs just kicked Snyder into the pit on this one. (Vulture)

Zack Snyder has finally agreed to make a sequel to 300. He was always hesitant to commit until he saw how Frank Miller‘s Xerxes comic turned out. If it wasn’t awesome and didn’t loan itself to unnecessary slow-motion, then it wasn’t going to happen. Luckily for ab-crunching actors everywhere, Miller’s comic made the grade. Snyder tells the LA Times what we can expect from the sequel:

"This movie follows Themistocles and the Battle of Artemisium, which coincidentally happens on the exact same three days as the Battle of Thermopylae [which was the basis of '300']," Snyder said. "This one starts off with a quick retelling of the why of the Persian wars. It starts off at the Battle of Marathon and then it goes back to Themistocles  finding out that Persians are invading again. and off we go over to learn a little bit about why Xerxes is the way he is."

I’d always assumed he was that way because of a handsy uncle.