Peter Berg's water based epic action adaptation of the board game Battleship has been moved up a week. Universal Pictures will now open the film on May 18th 2012 instead of the last announced date, May 25th 2012. This decision was likely made to get distance from another alien sci-fi action film, Men In Black 3, which is set to open on the 25th.
Previously:
The story unfolds as "a massive Naval adventure across the seas, in the skies and over land as our planet fights for survival against a superior force." The superior force are aliens from another planet known as The Regents. They come from a world similar to ours, and aren't actually looking to take over humanity or the planet Earth. Instead, they're on a mission to build a power source in the ocean, which is where they come in contact with a navy fleet. The film will also show us both sides of the story—from the aliens' perspective, as well as the humans.
Written by the brother writing team Jon and Erich Hoeber, who gave us Whiteout.
Taylor Kitsch, who played Gambit in Wolverine and Tim Riggins in Friday Night Lights, and is the star of Disney/Andrew Stanton's live-action adaptation of John Carter of Mars, will play the main character, Alex Hopper, the Commanding Officer of a destroyer who is in charge of a team of five trusted shipmates which include the XO, a female Japanese commander, and a Scotty-like chief engineer. Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) was originally in talks for the same part, but could not accept due to "schedule conflicts". The character has been described as "wildly spirited" and "a great seaman but a lousy politician." Tom Arnold has also said he has a role in the movie.
The alien ships do fly to Earth, as well as through the atmosphere, but they lose that capability once they land. They're also not busting out any lasers or fantastical alien weaponry—their weapons will be ballistics-based just like ours.
They do not plan to shoot the movie in 3D. Universal could always change the plans before the Summer shoot, and they always have the option of creating the 3D in post production, like Clash of the Titans.
Battleship will now hit theaters on Memorial Day weekend — May 25th 2012
