Berg Previews Battleship for IGN

Think what you will of the upcoming adaptation for the popular Hasbro board game Battleship, spend just five minutes with the film's director and you can't help but feel confident in Peter Berg's ability to actually pull the thing off -- his excitement for the project is that contagious. After all, he does have a rough road ahead of him. Not only is the actor-turned-filmmaker crafting a live-action movie out of an 80-year-old game with no real premise other than to blindly hunt down your opponent and "sink" his/her Battleship, but he's also adding a sci-fi component to the project by introducing aliens as the main antagonists.

"I've been hearing skepticism about how you can make a film about plastic pegs and grids, and to me that was never an issue," noted Berg during an edit bay visit IGN attended back in June. "It's always been about naval warfare -- about the modern Navy. And I've had the privilege of knowing the modern Navy, being on ships that you guys got to see. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Berg is referring to a tour of the U.S.S. Sterett -- one of the most technologically advanced Destroyer's in the U.S. Navy -- that he gave a handful of press (IGN included) prior to the start of production on Battleship.] Going out to sea and watching them operate and seeing what their weapons systems are and seeing how smart the men and women are that fight. I always knew there could be a film there. The reality of actually executing that is an awesome task."

Described as "an epic-scaled action-adventure that unfolds across the seas, in the skies and over land as our planet fights for survival against a superior force," Battleship poses certain cinematic challenges (i.e. the heavy use of CGI, filming onboard Naval vessels, filming out at sea, etc.) that frightened, yet excited Berg. And it was overcoming those challenges that drove the filmmaker to the project.

"I was saying to someone earlier today, it's by far the most creatively challenging thing that I've ever been presented with," he confessed. "I can't even remember when it was -- probably about three years ago -- I was talking to my partner, and I said, 'I think the future of our business is these big, special effects, epic, global movies. These films go all around the world at the same time and have a huge, huge impact and a huge audience. I want to make one. I want to be in that business.' And now I'm thinking I've gone crazy."


The son of a Naval Historian, Berg is quite knowledgeable --like, walking encyclopedia kind of knowledgeable -- of the capabilities ships in our modern-day fleet have to offer, as well as the various protocols these vessels practice while out at sea. As such, he's felt that today's Navy has never really been represented properly up on the big screen -- hence, his turn on this project. But that begs the question, why not just develop an original concept rather than adapt Battleship?

"There's no doubt that in today's film world, unless you're Jim Cameron and you've got a lot of time and an incredible amount of money to put a project together, if you look at films that are being made at this budget, it is a huge risk for these companies," explained Berg. "I mean, it's a real bonafide risk. So whether it's Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, obviously everything that Marvel and DC are doing... none of these guys are going completely alone. Jim Cameron -- hat off to him -- he is. No one else is. So to say it doesn't give the guys writing the checks a little bit of insurance to know that we've got at least some brand awareness, you're going to have a company -- in this case Hasbro -- that's able to open up marketing streams and help you get the word out."


But does that "brand awareness" and marketing support come at a price?

"One of the great things about doing this film was that there was never any mandate to have to say, 'You sunk my battleship!' Or, 'You've got to say, B-4,' said Berg. "But there are lots of references to the game throughout. Hopefully none of them will be offensive and will all be in the spirit of the film. An example of how we reference the game -- you know, Battleship seems to be such a simple game. If you and I are playing, I go to B-2 and you say, 'Miss.' And you say, 'B-4,' and I say, 'Hit.' There's not much to it, true. But what's interesting about the game is it starts with this empty board, and I'm trying to figure out where you are. I have no idea where you are. But as the game progresses, I start to figure out where you are. And there's a feeling of discovery that's inherent to the game. 'OK, now I understand where you're hiding. I understand what you were thinking and how you decided to try and hide, and I have found you. Now I'm going to kill you as quickly as I can before you kill me.' The game gets your heart going. And it's a very violent game. There's no, 'OK, I win. Nice try.' I only win if I kill you before you kill me. That's inherent to the DNA of this film."


Rather than continue to explain the film to the press crammed into his impressively large editing facility, the director turned to his computer to play a number of scenes he had carefully selected for us – scenes meant to showoff both the story, character growth and action of the flick.

Head on over to page 2 for a description of the footage we saw.