After their panel presentation at WonderCon 2012, Brooklyn Decker and Peter Berg talked about the decision to start revealing more glimpses of the aliens and the machinery in the film, the fact that the aliens don’t act unless acted upon, the balance between the action and the love story with Taylor Kitsch and Decker’s characters, the Naval warfare aspect and what went into the decision of which ships to use, the process of designing the aliens, how much the board game is actually an inspiration for the film, Steve Jablonsky’s score, and the mini Friday Night Lights reunion, with both Kitsch and Jesse Plemons in the film. Check out what they had to say, thanks to Collider.
You keep showing more and more glimpses of the aliens and the machinery in this film. How did you decide how much to tease people with?
Peter Berg: There’s a lot that we’re not giving away. I don’t like alien films where you don’t get to see the aliens. We spent a lot of time and money, frankly, designing what I think are really awesome aliens. We worked with the best designers in the world at ILM, not only on the aliens, but the ships that they use and the equipment that they use. To us, the aliens are characters. They’re not just generic killing machines. They behave. They clearly have feelings for each other. They rescue each other, when one of them is in trouble. They didn’t come here to fight. We actually started the fight. So, it was important to me, knowing that there would be inherent skepticism and comparisons to other alien films, to do our best to quickly get out in front of that and say, “You may or may not respond to it, but I think you will judge it as something unique.” It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen.
We’re going to feel sorry for the aliens?
Berg: I think we push it right up to that edge, yeah. I don’t know that you’ll feel sorry for them ‘cause they are quite violent. At the end of the day, they did come here to check this planet out. If it’s of interest to them, they’re going to do whatever they can to take it and they’re pretty fierce, if they need to be. But, we actually start the fight.
Brooklyn: Something that I found interesting, that evolved as the movie went on, was that the aliens don’t act unless acted upon. Everything that they do is reactionary and in defense. They’re not really out to attack us. They’re researching. They come down, initially, to find out more about our planet because we sent them a message. So, as an audience member, you’re conflicted because you’re like, “Well, they’re not really out to attack or kill everybody,” not that there’s necessarily any sympathy for them. At the end of the day, we live on Earth and we want our planet to survive. However, it definitely adds an interesting dynamic. They’re not just these mercenaries that come to our planet. There’s a lot more to it. Their scientists and researchers come to check out the planet. It just makes for something a little bit unique and a little bit more interesting then you’re typical alien kill movie.
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