City gets good reviews from cast and crew of Battle: Los Angeles, which recently wrapped shooting locally

By LISA TRAMONTANA
Advocate News Features staff
Published: Jan 1, 2010 - Page: 12-13

The cast and crew of Battle: Los Angeles are back at home now, but just two weeks ago, they were packing up and saying goodbye to Baton Rouge. The big-budget sci-fi action film stars Aaron Eckhart as a Marine leading his platoon in a fight against an alien invasion.

Thanks to Louisiana’s tax credit incentive and the superb soundstage facilities at Celtic Media Centre, Baton Rouge was able to attract the Columbia Pictures film, hosting cast and crew from mid-October to mid-December. Residents in several Baton Rouge neighborhoods got used to the sound of machine guns and explosions, and the sight of thick smoke and balls of fire, both on and off the Celtic campus.

Days before their departure, at a special on-set press day, the cast, crew and filmmakers discussed the film and their Louisiana experience.

Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight, Thank You for Smoking) says he loved his time in Baton Rouge, and was able to remain fairly anonymous. “I lived right by the LSU lakes,” he said. “At night, I would sit on my swing and read. I had my favorite coffee shop to go to in the mornings. I went tailgating. I got to know my neighbors. I’m an avid photographer and I shot pictures all up and down River Road. It was great being here, and I loved the people.”

Eckhart plays Sergeant Nantz, a Marine with “a hard ass reputation,” he said. “He has put in his time with the Marines and he’s just about out. Then, the aliens invade. Now, all of a sudden, he’s pulled back in &hellip”

James Dever, retired USMC Sergeant Major, served as military adviser for the film. He guided the cast on everything from how to properly hold a gun to social rules according to rank.

“We had to act like Marines and think like Marines,” Eckhart said. “We showered together, ate together, trained together. To this day, I don’t know their real names,” he said laughing and looking at the group of young Marine actors around him.
(He’s kidding, of course.)

Grammy winner Ne-Yo is one of those. He talked about the “boot camp” conditions he and the others endured during their pre-film training. “Before this movie, I had never gone camping in my life,” he said. “I had never slept in a tent. It was freezing that first night and there were no blankets! This was just two stories above Hell for me.”

But as the days went by, Ne-Yo and the other “Marines” bonded. In between sit-ups and hiking with heavy backpacks, they talked often about what life must be like for real soldiers in real war zones, and they collectively discovered a newfound respect for the military.

Michelle Rodriguez, who starred in The Fast and the Furious and the recently released Avatar, also co-stars in the film. Meeting her in person, it’s easy to see the tough girl persona — she’s clearly “one of the guys.” At a group interview, she teases her young male co-stars about their physical attributes and inferior video game skills, using colorful language that makes all of them laugh (and at least one &hellip blush).

It’s clear that the cast has become close during their stay in Louisiana. They praise the food and the genuine “niceness” of the people they’ve met. They laugh easily as they describe a Halloween road trip to New Orleans. They follow the Saints. And during down time on the set, they sometimes blast Ne-Yo’s music.

Another thing they share in common is their admiration for the director, Jonathan Liebesman.

“I love the guy,” Rodriguez says. “He’s awesome. You rarely get to work with a director who is so honest. He lets you grow as a character and listens to your input. He doesn’t just shoot what’s in the script. He takes the story where it needs to be.”

“It’s science fiction, but I wanted it to feel real,” Liebesman says. “So what we have here is a war film &hellip a war film that also happens to have aliens in it.”

Because of its premise, the film has action, humor, sensitivity, and yes, the sci-fi element. (What the aliens look like is a big secret among the filmmakers.) But it’s the war aspect that gives the movie its heart.

“Yes, it’s an invasion movie,” Liebesman said. “It taps into the things you felt on 9/11. It speaks to things like loss of security. But it also tells about those 19- to 21-year-olds who are willing to lay down their lives for others. And since the enemies are aliens, we didn’t have to be political. There was no “is it right or wrong to invade or fight them?”

Liebesman and the other filmmakers say they are pleased with what they accomplished here. Shooting in Baton Rouge (and in Shreveport before that) let them stretch their dollars without sacrificing quality.

“Filming in Louisiana allowed this movie to be bigger than it could ever have been in Los Angeles,” said executive producer Jeffrey Chernov. “Cinematically, we were able to do so much more. In L.A. it would have been difficult to shoot a Humvee chase scene at 3 in the morning. No, it would have been impossible. But we could do that here.

“Being in Louisiana, we could mix the talent and technology to create effects that looked absolutely great and let us make a bigger and better picture. And we’re excited about that.”

Battle: Los Angeles will be in theaters in 2011.