Peter Berg Talks Battleship – With Aliens
Posted by Rodneyon 02. 12. 2009in News Chat
Peter Berg is getting the ball moving on his adaptation of the strategy board game Battleship. And while we hoped it was blind rumours, it seems that it will infact feature battleships vs aliens.
We Are Movie Geeks grabs tidbits all over the net from various interviews with Peter Berg in which he mentions the project:
* The villain of the film is going to be a race of aliens known as The Regents. They have come to Earth with a specific goal, not just domination or to wipe us out. Berg says their overall goal is similar to BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI. They will be realized using a prosthetics/CG combination that Berg likens to Davy Jones in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.
* The aliens presence and their goal brings them up against a five-ship fleet, the commanding officer of one being the main character of the film.
* Pre-production concepts were shown of the alien ships. They are described as “giant water bugs” with giant legs that allow them to race across the water. ILM is creating them.
* The technology of the alien race is not all that advanced beyond our own, and the film will incorporate strategic warfare in the battle between man and alien. Berg also explained that there will be elements from the board game utilized in the story.
* Someone at some point will exclaim, “You sank my battleship.”
* They are currently casting.
* Berg plans on filming some of the scenes in 3-D, and they are definitely looking at an IMAX release for this one.
Specific goal? Like Bridge on the River Kwai? So they are sent on a specific mission to take out a target instead of invading? Ok. I can buy that. It just means the scale of the film is not outright alien invasion, but rather an isolated encounter. Why remains to be seen.
The only game element I can see bringing this together is if somehow they are blinded by each other’s position and make random stabs at each other until a lucky hit tips them off to a location. Then shoot all around that spot til you find the whole vessel!
Of course someone will say “You Sank My Battleship” because otherwise how could you tie in this completely unrelated plot to the simplistic concept of the strategy board game??
I guarantee there will be a tie in version of the board game that will have one side represented by 5 Alien craft while the other side stays traditional Navy Vessels.
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I keep expecting someone to come out and explain that this movie is just an elaborate joke.
Kinda like that William Shatner show on SciFI where he made a fake movie in Iowa…
“You sunk my battleship!!!” I think this will be the most anticipated line in a movie since “I’ve had it with these mother fucking snakes on this mother fucking plane”
This actually sounds like it could work, minus the Battleship tie-in.
O.K the scene or scenes consist between battling ships and like you said blinded, systems down, offline-whatever, we get the “blue 2″ analog nav system we get the “red 11″ after a series of hits on the weaker ship we all know what happens….
fill in the blanks with a copy of alien ablibs and theres your 80 million dollar blockbuster..
that said, I like Peter Berg flicks.
I can’t wait to see this on opening night just so I can hear everyone in the audience belt out with laughter at the line “You sank my battleship” and I can finally let go of that last shred of hope for mankind.
How about just, y’know, making an interesting alien invasion movie and losing the whole boardgame tie-in?
I understand its a question of marketing, but I actually think brand awareness may hurt the movie rather than help it in this case. People aren’t going to rush out and see this film because its based (loosely) on their favourite board game, but they might avoid it because they think the idea of basing a game on “Battleship” is crass at best, and absolutely retarded at worst. I love alien films, but its going to take a lot for this film to win me over
And in other news: will the red and white pegs be in the game?