Jonathan Liebesman talks "Battle: Los Angeles" (plus some tidbits of "Wrath of the Titans"!)

Thanks to Dark Horizons for this very interesting interview with Jonathan Liebesman, the director of the upcoming "Battle: Los Angeles". Liebesman tried to sum up of what's actually happening inside this movie, and he bravely said that it is "no "Independence Day"". This is interesting because from what we saw from the trailer, "Battle: Los Angeles" seems to be about men vs alien war movie.

"The truth is… with this movie I didn’t want it to be about taking out the landmarks," Liebesman said. He pointed out that we won't get to see the buildings in Los Angeles demolished into pieces, like the other big-budget science fiction flicks (let's say like what Roland Emmerich did in "Independence Day" in which he destroyed White House through an alien spaceship, and Michael Bay in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" who broke off pyramid through Transformers' arch-enemy Devastator).

Los Angeles is being attacked by an enormous army of unfriendly alien in this movie. The US troops, led by Sergeant Michael Nantz (played by Aaron Eckhart) have to save the citizen as many as they can and to fight the alien. Even so, what Liebesman tried to emphasize in it is the bond and relation of the member of the troop itself. As the Dark Horizon described, "Battle: Los Angeles" will be more like "Black Hawk Down" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" than the other Hollywood UFO sci-fi flicks.

This might be disappointing for the audience who just want to see the alien or the action part. But to be honest you don't want to see anything like Michael Bay did in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", do you? I pointed out about this earlier that special effects alone won't do any good (except if you have a clear storyline, great screenplay, and good characterization like "Avatar" or "Lord of the Rings"). So I think if Liebesman wants to extend the emotional and humane side more than the action sequence, that is a good idea!

"My goal was 'I want to make a war movie with aliens'. Not an alien movie that happens to have soldiers… there's an 'incidental-ness' to the aliens. At the same time, what that allows me to do is not get into political reasons for ‘Why are we fighting this war? Is this a good war, or is this a bad war? I just want to watch… you know, guys who put their lives on the line, how they bond, what they do for us. That kind of stuff. That’s what I was interested in," explained Lieberman.

Another good thing is that Lieberman wants to bring an 'unindentified' enemy. Remember 2008's surprisingly damn good fake-documentary "Cloverfield"? Liebesman knows that with this kind of plot, there will be more tension and thrilling 'sensation' in the movie. "I do find it frightening when you don’t – you know, that old Spielbergian concept, say in 'Duel' or the first scene in 'Private Ryan' – where you don’t know your enemy. And I just thought that was pretty interesting. I think you can get a hell of a lot of brilliant depth when you get to know your enemy. That just wasn't the story that was in the script when I read it. But I think that creating a more frightening experience was the goal here. Just a visceral, 'we're in this shit with these guys, we don’t know what’s attacking us, we're trying to learn what we can to make it outta here'," said Liebesman.

Most interesting part from the interview is that I just found out that Liebesman is South African native. He grew up in Johannesburg before transferring to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Liebesman said that the sci-fi wave brought by James Cameron and Steven Spielberg have influenced him much, as proven by his fellow South African director Neill Blomkamp whose 2009's masterpiece "District 9" got nominated as Best Picture in the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. "So the influences are probably the same: Jim Cameron, or Spielberg references… so when you see certain scripts, you’re drawn to them, probably because of the same influences," Liebesman said.

Liebesman also gave some 'insight' about his upcoming project "Wrath of the Titans", in which he replaced Louis Retterier who directed the first movie "Clash of the Titans". In this fantasy epic movie Liebesman also wants to give more 'reality' by deepening the character and the sets. He even refuses to shoot "Wrath of the Titans" with 3D cameras even though it will eventually be released in 3D, because (again) he wants to emphasize the reality of the story than the effects. "I'm not saying it's as gritty as 'Battle: Los Angeles', but [I want to] bring a gritty realism to that genre that I haven’t seen in that genre."

Seems like "Battle: Los Angeles" will tend to be more like "District 9" than "Independence Day", which is AWESOME! Citing his Liebesman's previous work "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning", he might bring a 'horor' tone to this movie. And with his gritty style I think I am so eager to watch this movie, hopefully there's a miracle that Indonesian cinemas will start to showing foreign movies again.

"Battle: Los Angeles" opens March 11, 2011 for international release, and starring Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ramon Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, and Cory Hardrict.