Peter Berg May Sink Your 'Battleship'
Filed under: Action, Universal, RumorMonger, Movie Marketing, War
Of all the stupid ideas in all the world, why do they have to raid my precious memories of childhood board games? Who is holding their breath waiting to see Ridley Scott's Monopoly, or Michael Bay's Ouija Board? How about the latest marketing move, an adaptation of Battleship? Writers have been signed, and Peter Berg is in talks to direct a film version of the game, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The idea, apparently, is "to make an epic naval action adventure." Of course, with tens of millions of dollars at stake in development, production, and marketing costs, no one wants to just make an original naval action adventure. They want a movie with a built-in tag line -- "You sunk my battleship!" -- and consumer familiarity so that everyone will know what the movie is about. The last epic naval adventure was Peter Weir's Master and Commander, but I guess it's cheaper to license board games than novels.
Peter Berg has proven with Hancock and The Kingdom that he can handle action scenes, but he's also got (possibly) Hercules: The Thracian Wars and Dune on his plate of potential projects, so who knows when he could fit this one in. First they have to get a workable script. Here's my idea: robots! Yeah, robots can pilot the ships, and humans can control the ships from thousands of miles away, and the plot involves the conquest of ocean territories to secure the bad guy's conquest of the free world. (Obviously, this is why I'm not a highly-paid screenwriter.) What are your ideas for making an epic out of a board game?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-18-2009 @ 4:37PM
Matt said...
They should just make a movie about Risk if they want to make an epic movie out of a board game. It would be like a World War movie but set in coloniel times. That would be interesting
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5-18-2009 @ 4:54PM
Dennis Cozzalio said...
To hell with board games. Let's just move straight on down the food chain, if you will. If "they" want a pre-sold sea adventure, one with a character attached, then what's stopping some genius from developing CAP'N CRUNCH-- THE MOVIE, preferably directed by someone like Kenneth Branagh, or maybe Martin Scorsese, or maybe even Greg Mottola, just so we can throw another indie director into the gaping maw of Hollywood tent-pole hell never to be heard from again?! Get Jerry Bruckheimer behind it and not only do you have the breakfast cereal and toy marketing tie-ins sewn up, but you could shoehorn a cameo from Jack Sparrow in there as well.
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5-19-2009 @ 1:43PM
victor de la torre said...
Sir Ridley Scott's Monopoly will be nothing short of mesmerizing.
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5-18-2009 @ 5:48PM
Batzarro said...
Make it about to blind ship Captains takng their fleets against each other. Sorry if that sounds offensive, but that's the purest description of battleship I could think of.
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5-18-2009 @ 5:55PM
Eric H said...
He needs to get going on that Dune remake.
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5-18-2009 @ 9:42PM
drewtheg said...
a movie based on a board game is possibly the most idiotic idea i've ever heard...wtf?
Reply
5-19-2009 @ 12:12PM
Ryan said...
Hey Hollywood directors:
Good luck topping the greatest board game-based film of all-time: Clue.
"Mrs. Peacock was a man?"
Reply
5-30-2009 @ 4:22PM
Trevor said...
I can't wait to see Michael Bay's exploding Ouija Boards!
Reply