Video:Jonathan Liebesman Battle Los Angeles Interview
with Rebecca MurrayAt the 2010 San Diego Comic Con director Jonathan Liebesman talked about what sets his alien invasion movie, 'Battle: Los Angeles,' apart from other alien invasion films and how his cast bonded as a team before shooting the film.
Transcript:Jonathan Liebesman Battle Los Angeles Interview
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con.
Jonathan Liebesman - Director of Battle: Los Angeles
Jonathan Liebesman: "I think what's different is we follow the invasion just from the perspective of one platoon, so it's very subjective. We don't cut to the President or anything like that. Think Black Hawk Down with aliens. We're just embedded with a platoon as they experience an alien invasion. Like, what would that really feel like from a military perspective? How would you take aliens on, if the aliens were organized like a military, like an army themselves."Is it a lot of CG?
Jonathan Liebesman: "The aliens are CG but we shot as much live action as we could. We went to Louisiana so we could shut down freeways and shoot as much practical, which is real, as possible."
Why is Aaron Eckhart the right guy to lead a platoon against aliens?
Jonathan Liebesman: "What I love about Aaron is he brings a realism to his character who's a staff sergeant. And Aaron is a very intense actor and the staff sergeant is an intense character, and he really is thoughtful. When you watch Aaron, he's thoughtful, just like a staff sergeant has to be who's in charge of this platoon and the lives of his men. Eckhart's really good at that."
So if we;re following one platoon was there a lot of bonding these guys had to do off the set in order to bring that to the screen?
Jonathan Liebesman: "Yeah. What we did was we had all the actors do a military bootcamp for three weeks where they'd have to sleep together in tents and really just, like you say, bond so that if any situation, if we're on set and I throw something at them - some sort of curveball - then they can react as Marines would. Aaron was their staff sergeant and they'd have to obey what he said. He knows now from bootcamp how to send them into rooms or anything like that. Anything to give it a real feel."
What do your aliens look like? Have we seen them yet?
Jonathan Liebesman: "No."
Are you going to show them off today?
Jonathan Liebesman: "No."
So you're going to wait? Don't give them away.
Jonathan Liebesman: "There will not be anything given away. In fact, when you watch the movie you won't see them either. No, I'm kidding."
We'll never get to see these aliens. Aaron is taking on the lead in this and you've got Michelle Rodriguez. Is she the only female in this or are there other females who are actually kicking butt too?
Jonathan Liebesman: "There are more females in this, but Michelle kicks the most butt - as is appropriate because she does kick the most butt."
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