We’ve been bringing you all manner of casting news of late for “Battleship”, the Universal blockbuster, loosely (and I mean loosely) based on the Hasbro board game. Whereas the board game requires you to guess where your opponents ships are located and try to sink them, the Peter Berg-directed film is about a global alien invasion and the battle for survival that ensues on land, sea and in the sky. So not much like the board game at all, then.
After Alexander Skarsgard, Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker and Rihanna all signed on recently (you can catch on set shots of Rihanna here), Variety are now reporting that Liam Neeson is joining the film as Admiral Shane. It all then seems to get a bit cosy, since Brooklyn Decker is playing the Admiral’s daughter, Taylor Kitsch is playing her fiancé and Skarsgard is playing Kitsch’s brother.
Variety seem to be saying that Kitsch’s naval officer will be one of the key characters, leading the fight against the aliens. Whether Neeson is “on board” (sorry) to add a little gravitas to an otherwise relatively youthful cast is only really speculation. Certainly Neeson seems to have found new life as an action hero after Taken and The A-Team and the combination of acting chops and believable physicality that he brought to those two roles as well as Batman Begins and Kingdom of Heaven should be a real asset to what is shaping up to be a very big film indeed.
As for director Peter Berg, he seems to have been working his way up towards this sort of scale project. Having started with lower-key fare such as Friday Night Lights and Very Bad Things, he has since moved on to The Kingdom and Hancock, both of which demonstrated an increasing skill and ease with larger-scale action and special effects sequences.
I must admit that when I first heard of a “Battleship” film, I inwardly groaned, but as the casting continues and the plot points have been disclosed, this is sounding a more appealing prospect all the time. Shooting has now started and so hopefully we will be able to bring you more on-set news before too long.
