Universal Pictures has announced that Peter Berg will be the man to direct the next movie based on a toy or game from Hasbro, and that movie is Battleship. They also announced that the movie will be released on July 1, 2011.
At first, the announcement that a Battleship movie was even being made was confusing, but now that we’ve seen fellow Hasbro product G.I. Joe have a moderately successful theatrical showing, nothing seems too crazy. In a way, this will of course just be a Naval movie with the toy brand behind it, as no actual storyline exists from the game. Berg describes his vision of the movie as “a contemporary story of an international five-ship fleet engaged in a very dynamic, violent and intense battle.”
As it turns out, Berg’s father was a Naval historian, and the director’s childhood was coated with all things Navy, so he has been searching for a movie where he could use that untapped knowledge. The deal also came with the chance to direct a movie after Battleship that he personally wrote called The Lone Survivor, which follows a Navy Seals team who is attacked in Afghanistan.
Here’s what he had to say about the Battleship project:
I’ve been consumed with doing one of these since I tried to convince Tom Rothman at Fox to make a film about John Paul Jones, the founder of the American Navy,” Berg said. “As a kid, I was dragged from Navy museum to museum, and spent so much time on ships, listening to my father talk about the great battles of WWII, I did my high school thesis on the Battle of Midway. When this came up, it didn’t take me long to find a take for a film that is filled with raucous action-packed naval battles.
Berg is known both as an actor and director. He’s appeared in movies like Corky Ramano and Smokin’ Aces, and he has directed more popular movies such as Hancock and The Kingdom. He also has a new version of Dune set up, and of course, Hancock 2, both of which will come later down the road.
[Source: Variety]
