Battle LA gets director

For quite some time I’ve maintained that Jonathan Liebesman is a director with potential. This is despite the fact that I haven’t enjoy either of his two features – DARKNESS FALLS or TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING. Liebesman wisely ditched the horror world and went on to direct a political thriller titled THE KILLING ROOM. That, perhaps, gave him the confidence to go in and pitch Sony his vision for the upcoming big-budget sci-fi action flick BATTLE: LOS ANGELES. Liebesman beat out other directors by showing off a “whiz-bang” presentation to Sony execs and producers that showed his vision for the project (which he describes as a cross between BLACK HAWK DOWN and INDEPENDENCE DAY). Liebesman actually went out this summer and shot sequences from the script adding CGI aliens and created a pre-viz alien invasion sequence. Sony picked up the script by Chris Bertolini in April (which Latino Review subsequently called a “mediocre arcade game”). No word on when filming might begin but Sony and producer Neal Moritz are looking to get production underway quickly.