How to make a realistic, reverent war movie…with aliens

In Battle : Los Angeles , hitting theatre tomorrow , Aaron Eckhart leads a Marine platoon against an all - out alien intrusion .

The motion picture follows Eckhart ’s Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz as his platoon head into the bombed out ruins of Santa Monica to find any survivors of a devastating – and on-going – exotic encroachment . As metropolis around the world fall to the mysterious invader , this one platoon takes on the foolhardy project of save Los Angeles from total annihilation .

Last workweek , we had the chance to visit a very un - destroy Santa Monica to mouth with director Jonathan Liebesman and stars about the movie ’s origin , the intense pre - filming boot refugee camp , and where this story could go next .

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Aaron Eckhart explained to us how he got involved with the project and why this was a movie he wanted to make :

I got the script from my agent and it was kind of just an alien motion-picture show , you acknowledge , and I very [ uncertain ] , and Jonathan [ Liebesman ] did n’t have the task yet , but he was urinate a caper for it . And so I fulfill him , and he had done all these mock - ups of aliens on his figurer just using form of generic software and [ it was ] very impressive stuff . And at the closing Jonathan testify me a page of YouTube and it was Marines going house to house in Fallujah . And it was both unionize yet chaotic because it was unpredictable , you know , these guy wire showed their training and showed their youth . And Jonathan say , “ This is what the moving picture ’s get to look like , ” and I said , flop then and there , I said , “ I ’m in . I will die for this part . ” And I sense like through the filming and to the final cut that we achieve that goal , which the destination was this is a war movie , a docudrama kind of warfare movie with aliens in it . And that , for me , I was like a kid in a confect store .

Still , Eckhart was quick to delimitate between the tangible horrors of war and him and a bunch of actor getting to play make - believe . Indeed , he fancy one of the primary functions of this moving picture being a tribute to the armed forces and the outstanding sacrifice of those who serve their land :

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This is an entertaining moving picture , but I hope it ’s an court to that , I hope it shows some sorting of , you know , reflection , some sort of account , a toll is study . This movie , in my view , is mean to be a beloved missive to the Marines . We had their full cooperation , they had my full cooperation , I prove to get it right . I think this movie is very worshipful towards the military and reverent towards the ranks , both the military officer and the grunts . I do n’t see how any Marine can see this film and experience at all taken advantage of . I think this is going to be an “ Ooh - rah ” import for them , and I ’m going to Quantico , lead down to San Diego , these guys are go to have intercourse this pic .

Director Jonathan Liebesman explained why he call up alien movies have such an enduring appeal , peculiarly when it ’s possible to we d them with the state of war movie music genre :

I ’m fascinated by outer infinite , we all wonder if there are alien , if they are and they arrive to visit us are they run to get fuck us up or come in peace . I think it ’s bully to have a common enemy , you know , where everyone can come together and fight the same matter and there ’s no political relation and we all go through the experience of being shocked and awed . And I think that ’s a unwashed fear . I recognize I felt it on 9/11 when I saw the news study and I saw what was happening and other people have mat up it since around the world . At least with aliens you all get to get behind the same squad . So I reckon that [ movies with ] aliens will always be around , always .

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As he explain , a net ton of thought went into making the outlander a realistic , believable scourge – but , crucially , not too minatory :

I think the take we did on the unknown and it was crucial to me was that even though they ’ve come from outer blank space , how can we ground this so they do n’t destroy us in four second base ? And I think with the designs we tried to make something that you infer that even though they ’re further than us in certain ways they ’re the same as us in other way of life . There was a big deal to maintain a credibility of why we do n’t get pass over out in four instant . So there are certain things – they ’re a very used up U. S. Army , they ’ve in all likelihood fought a bunch of war , they ’re likely deplete too , they get injured , they ’re not invincible – and that was a big aspect .

] The movie was shot on location in Shreveport , Louisiana – as Aaron Eckhart explained , there ’s not much existent movie - making in Los Angeles these day outside the studio lots , and there ’s no agency they could get away with simulate this much urban destruction in LA itself . To get ready for their military roles , all the Marines ( as well as Michelle Rodriguez ’s Air Force sergeant ) attended “ boot camp ” to get them in the right strong-arm and genial shape . Eckhart tell this training was utterly crucial :

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First and foremost , the training was the most important affair . I trained for months working with weapons system and with the strong-arm aspects of being a Marine in this situation . Also , getting to know the Marines , stimulate to know the heirarchy , the brainpower , the psychology . And then we went through boot coterie , three week in the middle of Louisiana , hotter than hell , we slept in tents , we exhaust in rank , all that sorting of thing , showered , the whole deal . Which was interesting , because we go from a bunch of actors who did n’t know each other , some who had experience and some who had n’t , and on the spur of the moment we had to forget that we were actors and go into this very regimented workout scheme . And it was interesting how far some thespian would go and how much they would grease one’s palms into it and believe it . Because when you ’re out there and I ’m cry at you in character , the player ’s like , “ Dude , I ’m just an actor ! ” [ Laughs ] It was a good way to sort of erase our tangible life and get into lineament , which help immensely in the movie .

struggle : Los Angeles leave the attacking aliens very much a mystery , not revealing much about them beyond what it takes to kill them . As Liebesman explains , this was a function of the story they were distinguish , but when we asked him about how much thought went into the cryptic backstory of the aliens , he explained :

There was a hell of a lot . There was a guy name Ty Ellington who helped us design who wreak a batch with [ James ] Cameron , he even goes as far back as A.I when [ Stanley ] Kubrick was doing it , and we formulated a whole story of where the aliens get along from , what their satellite ’s like , why did they fare here , why do they need specific resources , so it ’s stuff that was very interesting to me and less authoritative , less interesting to other hoi polloi .

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He then explained that these are the sorts of affair he ’d love to lucubrate upon in a sequel :

But if there ’s a sequel to the movie , if the picture show made enough money and people want to see something , there ’s a whole wealth of stuff and nonsense I ’d want to make for . This was a movie that was just a unsubdivided search and delivery mission , I think there ’s a whole lot more interesting stuff that was not done here that could be done in a subsequence . [ In a sequel ] we can get into some more issue , some moral issue , but again , this was just an in - and - out experience , this movie , more of an entertaining playfulness thing . I recall there ’s a whole humans in advance of me that has n’t been touch that hopefully can .

Aaron Eckhart was very clean that he ’d love to do a continuation , and he ’s hopeful that a sequel can turn this into an international , globe - hopping risky venture , although he admits that might be a challenge :

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I think we ’re thinking with child than [ the US ] . I think we ’re call back like Paris , Tokyo , Rio , you have it off we ’ve got to think of plaza we all want to go to … and then we ’ll go to Vancouver . [ Laughs ] How would we make Shreveport reckon like Paris ? tidy sum of baguettes and chapeaus … You could n’t shoot a movie like this [ in Paris ] .

When we asked Michelle Rodriguez where she would wish to for a sequel , she was a short more realistic about where Marines could go . But , like Eckhart , she ’d wish to not have to return to the incredible heat of Shreveport :

I wish it was some alien nation but we ’re maintain America , are n’t we ? So it would have to be here . And if it were here , hmm , where … there ’s so many cool places … Miami ! I desire to go somewhere lovesome … wait , Miami would be really , really hot in those outfits , so somewhere cold … Can we do Battle : Los Angeles … in spring ? Like that ’d be great .

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She also turn over the hypothesis of conflict : New York , which she enunciate would be epic , but decided that it ’s probably still too soon to do any sort of aggregated end like this in New York City . This was a point that costar – and World Trade Center actor – Michael Peña very much seconded , enounce that urban destruction like that seen in struggle : Los Angeles want to be warranted by the story , and not just there for stupor value .

Indeed , that was a point that everyone stressed – yes , this is trying to be a realistic war movie , and Jonathan Liebesman excuse it borrow freely from actual war figure of speech , but this is ultimately about making an entertaining action movie , and no disrespect is intend . Indeed , Liebesman explained how he attract on everything from real epitome of war to his favorite television game :

On the reality front , there was a lot of embed Iraq footage , a huge amount of that was looked at and Vietnam War picture . On the movie front , movies as recent as District 9 or Black Hawk Down , Saving Private Ryan , all those kinds of thing were inspirational . Then thing such as , I think there ’s some amazing visuals and work that hold up into telecasting games , Halo , Call of Duty , Gears of War , there ’s some awful design on stuff . So it was just everything I was concerned in I stress to synthesise .

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