So the story wasnt yet there when you came aboard, so to speak?
I pretty much put the story together.
It was my idea to do it.
I didnt want to make a dark, realistic war film.
Thats my next film.
Its Americans fighting Afghans, and its very violent and rough and brutal and real.
Take off your critical hat, eat your popcorn, sit back, and have fun.
And that was my goal.
And that became a whole different, serious conversation.
The thing that I was interested in was the whole concept of the aliens not being straightforward invaders.
Then maybe we started the fight.
I knew there was going to be a fight, but what if we started it?
It wasnt our fault; we didnt mean to start it, but it happens.
Ive seen it happen in real life.
Weve all had it.
I have it with my girlfriends all the time.
I mean, what happened?
Theyre here, theyre checking the planet out, they come into contact with our military.
We sound the horn.
They sound the horn.
We fire a warning shot.
Before you know it, theres a brutal fight to the death going on.
In invading ships, you know, covering London.
I wanted to do something different.
What was the production of this film like, because youve obviously a lot of scenes in the ocean.
You think back to James Cameron and the problems he had on stuff likeThe AbyssandTitanic was this comparable?
And I dont know Kevin Costner.
And hes on the phone.
Im like, what?
And he has that unique voice, so I say, Hey, Kevin.
And he said, Can I come in?
So I said, Sure.
He had some logical adjustments.
You dont want to do this.
You dont want to do that.
And dont do this.
He talked for two hours about the mistakes you made.
Have you ever met him?
Im afraid I havent.
Oh, hes a great guy.
Hes such a smart guy.
Its a credit to our line producer that we just went at it, fuckin scared.
We anticipated all the things that could go wrong, andBattleshipis a really big movie.
We really were out in the middle of the ocean, and it was wild.
We were aware of the mistakes that other people made, and we tried to learn from those.
What was it like for the actors?
We took em out on boats for weeks.
They had to spend time on real destroyers and ships.
They dont have bathrooms on those things, you know?
Thank God, that was our question to all of them Do you get seasick?
Actors, generally, are prone to lying in auditions.
Do you speak French?
Yes, of course.
Can you ride a horse?
Can you ride a horse backwards, bare-back?
Yes, of course.
Can you play football?
So, Do you get seasick?
theyll say, No, of course not.
So you say, Youd better really not get seasick!
Now, they said that they didnt get seasick, and they really didnt.
That sounds like a joke, but an actor getting seasick really sick youre shut down.
We had sharks show up.
We had crewmembers fall off barges, we had equipment break, boats break.
But we always had a back-up, and that was one of the smart things we did.
The movie didnt run over budget we came in under budget and under schedule.
We didnt fuck around, we were squared up.
So I take it youve used real battleships in the films, and not computer generated ones?
The ship you saw was a destroyer.
We put a lot of resources into creating these ships.
Some are real and some are not.
How have things moved on for you as a filmmaker since those movies?
To realise that you really, as a director, Oh, thatll be special effects.
The Theyll fix that in post… mentality.
it’s crucial that you do that.
Because they wont do that.
Theyre not film makers.
They need you to give them direction.
Im going to walk out of the room.
Well, there are a trillion different ways that can go down.
How are you going to get the head there?
Youll show me CG sketches of things along the way youre doing.
Theres no real different from a big alien ship.
Its just a lot more conversations.
But Ive learned to get very involved, and make friends with the designers at ILM, for example.
I have such trust in them now.
We have a great relationship.
Theyll do it, they always do.
If you push them to greatness, ILM, they always give you greatness.
Even if they have to put 600 bodies on it and farm some work out.
Theres probably some kid in London in a garage somewhere working on a little moment inBattleshipright now.
But Im not worried about those guys.
Have you got any ideas for a possible sequel?
But I wont talk about that until we see how this plays.
But yes, we have ideas.
I was interested to notice that Battleship isnt in 3D.
Im not a big fan of 3D.
I find that it gives me a headache.
It was never revisited.
You mentioned your next film earlier, which isLone Survivor,I understand.
Its a book by Marcus Lautrel, and its the true story about how complex war is today.
Theres a mission in Afghanistan where 15 bad choices are made.
Its as violent and tragic as anything Ive ever read.
Peter Berg, thank you very much.
Battleshipis out in UK cinemas on the 11th April.
