Will Battleship really degrade cinema? We catch up wtih what James Cameron has been saying about it...
Many rolled their eyes when Universal announced they would be making a movie adaptation of the popular Hasbro board game, Battleship. You could imagine it in your mind: two naval fleets beating the shit out of each other until our hero yells, "You sunk my battleship," and delivers a winning salvo, or something equally shit.
Howeve,r director Peter Berg threw us a curve ball when he said the enemy force would be alien in nature. In December 2009 (yes, the film has been in production that long and won't be released till mid-2012), Berg said of the aliens:
"They are known as The Regents, and will be portrayed by a combination of live actors with CG. They come from a world similar to ours, and aren't actually looking to take over humanity or the planet Earth. Instead, they're on a mission to build a power source in the ocean, which is where they come in contact with a navy fleet. The film will also show us both sides of the story, from the aliens' perspective, as well as the humans."
He also explained away the ridiculousness of having aliens come to Earth just to fight on the ocean by saying that while they do fly, "once they've come through the atmosphere they lose that capability." The aliens will also have ballistic-based weaponry to even up any naval battles, it would seem.
It's an interesting enough, yet ridiculous concept, but the one thing holding it back is the fact it's based on a board game and Avatar director James Cameron agrees.
Not one to be shy in his opinions, Cameron said of the upcoming adaptation, "We have a story crisis... Now they want to make the 'Battleship' game into a film. This is pure desperation."
Everyone in Hollywood knows how important it is that a film is a brand before it hits theaters. If a brand has been around, Harry Potter for example, or Spider-Man, you are lightyears ahead."
And there lies the problem. Because, unfortunately, these franchises are becoming more ridiculous. Battleship. This degrades the cinema."
The man has a point. Perhaps if the film wasn't called Battleship, the online community would be more psyched for it. As it stands, the film is deemed to be a ‘turkey walking' before any footage or photos are revealed, which is a pity.
Currently, the film is doing reshoots (which were planned) and when it is released on May 18, 2012 will star Taylor Kitsch, Tom Arnold, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna and Liam Neeson.
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