National Lampoon, purveyors of satire for decades, have once again turned their sights to movie spoofs, and the bare-chested male empowerment films are next on the plate to be skewered and roasted, reports Variety.  This fall, production will begin on "National Lampoon's 301: The Legend of Awesomest Maximus Wallace Leonidas," a takeoff on "300," "Gladiator," "Braveheart," and "Troy."  Ladies (and gents high on the Kinsey scale), line up for the beefcake.  Or not, as the hero is Awesomest, an "out-of-shape Spartan general who fails forward on a path to greatness."

National Lampoon CEO Daniel Laikin said, "As we aggressively move into the inhouse film production business, '301' is the kind of project we get very excited about.  This will be a great complement to our library."

It's been years since National Lampoon put out anything genuinely funny.  The spoof industry has been taken over by "Scary Movie," "Not Another Teen Movie," and "Epic Movie" folks (not all the same people, but there's overlap).  With this project, there's a chance NL can win back the crown.