We reported the other day that Peter Berg is intending to inflict a “Hancock” sequel on us all, focusing on the mythological back story that none of us gave a shit about the first time around. Fortunately, the project already seems to be moving down Berg’s dance card, with the news today that he’s signed a two picture deal with Universal to direct board game adaptation “Battleship,” now set for a tentpole release on July 1, 2011, and Afghan war drama “Lone Survivor”. Berg, the son of a naval historian, has been linked with “Battleship” for a while, but has now officially signed, calling it “a contemporary story of an international five-ship fleet engaged in a very dynamic, violent and intense battle”. It sounds a little thin right now, but great films have been made from unlikely source materials, so it’ll all depend on the script. What’s that? The script’s by Jon and Erich Hoeber, the writers of “Whiteout?” Ah, well…
More intriguing is “Lone Survivor”, scripted by Berg himself, based on a true story about a Navy SEAL team ambushed in Afghanistan. Interestingly, Berg used his heat coming off “Hancock,” and their desire to make Battleship to bargain with the studio – “It was pretty obvious to me they weren’t jumping head over heels to make a war film in the Middle East right now” he says. “So they said, ‘what if you give us “Battleship” for July 2011, and we guarantee you’ll follow with ‘Lone Survivor?'”. It sounds like a real passion project for the director, and despite Hancock not being much cop, we do like Berg – “The Kingdom” was more subversive than some give it credit for, and “Friday Night Lights” is terrific.
This one-two punch means that Berg won’t be ready to shoot anything else, including “Hancock 2” and the “Hercules” movie he’s talked about in the past, until 2012 at the very earliest. But that doesn’t mean he’s sitting still, as he confirms in an interview with MTV that he’s still actively developing “Dune”. It sounds like Berg may need the time to get the script into shape – Josh Zetumer’s latest draft is close to 200 pages, and, from the sounds of it, may be split into two. Berg confirms he’s going for a different approach than previous adaptations (not casting Sting would be a good start…), telling MTV “I found it to be more of an adventure tale, more of a muscular action/adventure story. I think that’s my approach, not as an R-rated film, but as a pretty hard PG-13 film about a young man dealing with issues of vengeance over the death of his father and wanting some payback and having to come to terms with his destiny along the way.” Unless Berg is able to clone himself, however, we likely won’t see Dune for the best part of five years. (Incidentally, the latest issue of Empire magazine has a great article on the abandoned Alejandro Jodorowsky version of Dune – pick it up if you see it).
