Looking for someone to blame for Universal’s Battleship? How about physicist Stephen Hawking?
Director Peter Berg says that the statement by Hawking a few years ago about how humanity might not want to meet alien civilizations exploring our universe was part of the inspiration behind the movie.
Berg tells USA Today that statement coupled with his desire to make a movie about the U.S. Navy led him to direct the $170 million summer movie.
“Yeah, it’s simple,” Berg says about the classic board game that serves as the starting point for the movie. “But five ships hunting and fighting five ships: Those are elements that lend themselves to the beginning of a movie.”
As for why the aliens were included, Berg says, “”Humans fighting humans would be too bloody for a summer popcorn movie.”
Berg insists that he wanted to make a “fun summer movie” with Battleship and wasn’t aiming for something higher than that.
And while domestic critics, bloggers and others are already taking swipes at the film, it could be Universal who has the last laugh. The film has been out in territories outside the United States for as long as a month and has pulled in $216 million in international ticket sales.
That success could spell the start of a new trend for Hollywood, leaving U.S. audiences waiting months to get new releases after they open internationally.
“There could be some annoyed fanboys if they have to wait months for their superhero,” says Jeff Bock of industry tracker Exhibitor Relations.
Suits me. Living in Australia, for decades we have usually always been last to see big movies. If the studios want to flip that around, I won’t complain 🙂 A couple of years ago, they were going to delay a Harry Potter movie here by something like 3 months – but a big internet fan campaign made them see sense, and it was released within a day of the US/UK.