Battleship hits Berg

B7. Miss! C9. You sunk my interest!

Studios are apparently quite serious about exploiting every possible brand and franchise, and so a movie based on the classic game BATTLESHIP is setting sail, with filmmaker Peter Berg (THE KINGDOM, THE RUNDOWN, HANCOCK) on the bridge.

Universal and Berg have presumably figured out a way to transform random guesses and the insertion of plastic pegs into a compelling and family-friendly movie about naval combat… and they want it firing cannons on screens on July 1st, 2011.

The movie is described as “a contemporary story of an international five-ship fleet engaged in a very dynamic, violent and intense battle.” Why that premise needs to be based on a board game is a different matter.

In an attempt to justify the decision and seeming waste of his talent, 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.”

It probably also helped that Universal agreed to let Berg follow BATTLESHIP with his own project LONE SURVIVOR, about a Navy SEAL team ambushed in Afghanistan.

Source: Variety

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