Battleship Directed by Peter Berg
Starring Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neeson, Rihanna, Tadanobu Asano
Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13
Release Date: May 18, 2012
Prepare To Be Boarded… More Like Bored-ed
Battleship was first released by the Milton Bradley Company in 1943 as the pad-and-pencil game, Broadsides: the Game of Naval Strategy, and then as a traditional board game in 1967. Of course, if you’re reading Geeks Of Doom, you’re probably most familiar with the 1989 Electronic Talking Battleship and the classic catchline, “You sunk my battleship!”
After the success of toys-to-films franchises like Transformers and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, toy mega-giant Hasbro reviewed its catalog and selected Battleship as its next project, with director Peter Berg (Hancock, Friday Night Lights) at the helm. In the film adaptation, NASA discovers an extrasolar, Earth-like planet with conditions suitable for life. Using a high-tech communications array in Hawaii, NASA transmits a signal to the far-off planet in an attempt to make contact with potential intelligent life forms.
The Battleship panel at WonderCon 2012 today featured director Peter Berg, actor Alexander Skarsgard, and actress Brooklyn Decker. Berg began by explaining how his childhood revolved around the Navy, giving him the passion for helming a naval film.
Berg also explained that even thought at first Battleship may seem like a ridiculous concept for a film, this movie encompasses the brutality that the board game can bring. Berg expressed that, “When I say hit, I try to kill you as brutally and quickly and mercilessly as possible… that is good DNA for a movie.”
Berg introduced the first clip for Battleship saying, “At its core it is suppose to be a big rousing piece of Summer popcorn madness.”
Yet another new trailer for Universal Pictures’ sea-going alien invasion extravaganza Battleship has hit the web boasting more large-scale mayhem and extraterrestrial menaces that vaguely resemble Master Chief to make the last Transformers movie look like a German indie film.
You can watch the video here below.
Just about every CG-enhanced money shot in Peter Berg‘s board game-based sci-fi adventure has been crammed into these headache-inducing two minutes. The movie’s release is two months away so at this point anyone interested in seeing it has already made up their mind. Battleship looks like decent summer entertainment, nothing more.
During last night’s Super Bowl Universal Pictures debuted the latest preview for their summer alien invasion epic/board game adaptation Battleship.
You can watch the TV spot here below.
The minute-long TV spot is little more than a sizzle reel of destruction, awesome-looking aliens (where the writers and director Peter Berg playing Halo during the development process?), and a hard rock soundtrack. In other words this looks like the ideal summer event flick. I just hope there’s a really juicy steak among all this sizzle being sold, instead of that slab of rancid beef jerky that was Cowboys & Aliens.
While getting ready for his board game-to-movie action blockbuster Battleship to hit theaters on May 18, 2012, director Peter Berg (The Rundown, The Kingdom) offered up an update on the possibility of a Hancock 2 happening.
Berg basically said that everyone involved, including star Will Smith, wanted the movie to happen, and that it was just a matter of finding the time when everyone could actually do it.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press