Even with the mighty power of Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes production company behind it, Paramount's planned reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise isn't quite strong enough to go into production. Citing script problems, Paramount has shut down production on the film, which was in pre-production up in Vancouver. According to THR, the planned release date of December 2013 has been shifted to May 2014, though the message that went out to those working to prep the film said the work stoppage was "indefinite," which gives us no idea of how permanent that May 2014 date might be.

Jonathan Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles, Wrath of the Titans) had been set to direct the film with Bay and the Platinum Dunes team producing. The project had already drawn plenty of geek wrath thanks to Michael Bay's glib comments that the turtles would now be "from an alien race… tough, edgy, funny, and completely lovable, which then led to a title change that dubs the reptiles simply Ninja Turtles. Bay remained defiant throughout, telling fans that the turtles "are exactly the same," and promising that Liebesman was "NOT GOING TO LET YOU DOWN." (those caps are his, not mine)

Clearly somebody at Paramount was letting us down, though, and hopefully we can be grateful to the person at the studio who was willing to shut it down and lose a major holiday tentpole next year so they could get it right. After all, Paramount has recently learned their lesson about going into production without a solid script, going back for seven weeks of reshooots on the expensive zombie drama World War Z, and hiring Damon Lindelof to rewrite the film's ending. Clearly they're trying to avoid the same mistakes on Ninja Turtles, but right now it's unclear how much of the original production team will stay on board, or what exact changes they'll be making.

It ain’t easy getting work in this industry, especially a film like Wrath of the Titans, but boy did director Jonathan Liebesman take on, well, a monster. While Clash of the Titans went on to make a killing at the box office, $493.2 million worldwide, many moviegoers weren’t particularly happy with the experience. In a way, not only is Liebesman responsible for making his own movie good, but also for making up for the last one a bit.

Sam Worthington is back as Perseus, who is now a father. With the gods’ power waning, Zeus (Liam Neeson), Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Poseidon (Danny Huston) are unable to maintain control of the Titans and, led by their once banished father Kronos, they threaten humanity yet again. Perseus has no choice, but to leave his son and quaint life as a fisherman behind to go head to head with some of the most vicious monsters of the underworld.

Kronos, Chimeras, Cyclopes, explosions an ever-changing labyrinth, some of the most prominent actors in the business, an extra dimension and more – forget the franchise’s past; Liebesman had his hands full regardless. Now, in honor of Wrath of the Titans’ March 30th release, Liebesman took the time to sit down and run through the entire process from the preparation needed to do 3D right to the steps to making the real world elements blend with those digitally created and much more. Check it all out in the interview below.

How does something like this fall into your hands?

Jonathan Liebesman: It doesn’t really fall into your hands. [Laughs] In my case it took like ten years now that I think about it. You work on movies and then I did this film Battle: Los Angeles where I had to fight for the job really hard and fortunately on this one they approached me. And obviously the cast is incredibly and the subject matter is fun and the budgets they give you are amazing, so it’s kind of a no-brainer as an opportunity.

So after you get this great opportunity is there ever a moment where you go, wow, now how am I going to pull it off?

There’s always that. Even when you’re doing a student film, you go like, ‘Fuck, how are we gonna do this?’ There’s the exact same anxieties. It’s no different. It’s just as big a part of your life.

And how about the fact that there’s another film in this franchise and that that film made a ton of money, but some people didn’t necessarily think it was worth theirs?

Well, it’s hard because you hope that they’ll pay for this one and come back and see it. Everyone acknowledges and wants to make something better and, you know, they’re such talented people whether it’s the cast, the crew, everybody. Look, if you’re gonna go into something completely intimated, don’t do it. I think what money gets made is out of my hands. There’s The Hunger Games this week, which no one expected, which is destroying the universe. So you can’t expect these things; you just try and make the best movie you can make.

How about the 3D because a big reason people weren’t thrilled with the first is you pay so much money for the ticket and then the 3D wasn’t that great?

The thing is, that was an easy solve because the 3D on the last movie was shit because they finished the film and decided to convert it and gave it six weeks to be converted, which is 1,800 shots in six weeks, no shots were even planned to be 3D shots, no sequences were planned to be 3D sequences. You can’t win. We knew we were gonna be a 3D film so you plan everything for 3D, you have a stereographer on set everyday, you start your post conversion a year in advance instead of six weeks in advanced and you create moments that suit 3D. It was a different ballgame. Those poor guys were set up to fail. This was a completely different situation. We had a great team from Harry Potter that did great conversions, so we always had our best foot forward with the 3D on this movie.

Now how does that affect your preparation process in terms of storyboarding or whatever it is you do to get ready to shoot?

You think in terms of what can we bring into negative space or what happens often, I had to learn this, negative space means when something is in the audience and so if you bring Perseus and Pegasus into negative space, there’s an effect where they feel miniaturized, but we actually used that to the advantage, say, in scenes with Kronos, because you really feel like Perseus is tiny and Kronos is massive with the 3D. So the 3D really enhances things. Also I believe the best looking 3D is when you bring little things into the audience, like embers or water droplets or stuff like that, so we added a lot of that or showed a lot of that stuff so you could bring it into the audience.

Funny you say that, at one point there was this one ember that felt like it was coming right towards my eye and I actually winced!

I think that stuff works the best. For 3D to be good you can’t cut things off in the frame and so embers are tiny, so they’re not gonna be framed out and the longer something stays in frame for 3D, the more effective it is, so those are always best - bubbles, embers, dust.

So going from the highly technical to black and white, when you get a script like this what happens if you come across something that isn’t working? Do you have the ability to make adjustments?

Well, you ask a lot of people, you sit down with the writers. It’s always a discussion on a movie like this. Unless you’re Chris Nolan, it’s always gonna be a discussion of can we make this better, this is what I’m going for, it’s about fathers and sons, maybe we can push that more in this scene. That’s studio filmmaking. The benefit of a studio filmmaking is you get an incredible distribution and you get an incredible budget. The downfall is obviously you are responsible to the people giving you the money.

Speaking of the father son stuff, the added drama here kind of creeps into the action, too, specifically in terms of the use of close-up shots in the battle sequences.

I think for me the most effective action that I’ve seen is movies like Private Ryan or the Bourne movies where it is subjective and the action is character driven. In say Bourne, it’s like Matt Damon’s stress as he goes through situations or Private Ryan, the fear of the soldiers or even in M:I 4 it was really great the way they used Tom Cruise and he’s always under pressure in every scene and it’s about him so you don’t even think you’re in an action scene. You just know you’re in a scene where he has to win. So those are my favorite action scenes and we were just trying to, I guess imitate that kind of stuff.

How do you do that and also make sure that the audience understands the geography of a battle?

It’s interesting. I think it’s more important to know emotionally what the character wants. I asked that exact question to Paul Greengrass after I saw Bourne Ultimatum because I was like, ‘Paul, I don’t know how you managed to let me know where the hell I was because it was just so quick and fast.’ I said, ‘How do you know when to cut wide, when do you go in close?’ He didn’t really answer me, but what I realized was you just know what the character wants and you go with it and you feel like you know the geography. Of course you have a wide shot that shows you a vibe of the location, but it’s more about if emotionally you’re with the character, the geography matters a lot less.

Can you tell me about your locations? Obviously there’s a ton of green screen and CGI, but imagine a lot of the material must have been there physically, too.

We were on a ton of locations, which is important. We wanted to shoot as much on location as possible and I think effects have gotten to a point now that sometimes you don’t even know it was green screen. Especially in contemporary modern movies, you have characters in a city and the city wasn’t there and you’re like, really? There was a lot of stuff here where they put a landscape behind someone and it was like, holy shit, I forgot we were on a green screen there. So location as much as possible, but for practical reasons, sometimes you have to shoot green screen and just know how to light so you look like you’re outside.

How do you go about blending the real people with all your digital monsters?

If you want effects to work, they have to interact with the world and the characters as much as possible, so what you’ll do is set charges on trees that’ll blow a tree up and then the animator has something to interact with and it’s always gonna look real. With the Chimera running through a village, you’re blowing up walls and stuff. And also, Sam is excellent at creating things. There’s a shot where the labyrinth is coming apart and reconfiguring, and Sam’s looking all over the place and that’s giving everyone cues to do things. If the actor’s not giving you that, it’ll never seem real. It’s a lot of how you light a scene. I like hard sunlight on CGI because it blows out the highlights. When you design a creature, make sure the textures you’re picking for them are textures that computers render well. That’s why Transformers looks so good, because steel and plastic is very easy to render with CGI whereas flesh and biological stuff is difficult. So it’s just a lot of making decisions to make your life easier.

Speaking of that labyrinth scene, you’ve got one shot during the reconfiguration where it looks like a piece of the set legitimately slid under Sam’s feet. Is that practical at all?

That’s CG. That’s all CG. That was what blew me away. You want to know the one which really blew me away was where Bill Nighy is doing that thing with the door [mimics motions of Nighy grabbing portions of the door], the door isn’t there and I was like, ‘Holy shit.’ That, to me, blew me away when I started seeing those dailies. He’s just doing this to green blocks and they rendered it so photo-realistically, I was like, holy shit, I should have made like a door monster or something. [Laughs]

How was it working with guys like Bill, Liam and Ralph? You’ve had great casts before, but these guys are some really heavy hitters.

Fantastic. These guys are incredible and you feel stupid directing them because they’ve been directed by like geniuses in genius movies and you feel not worthy and stupid, like you’re gonna fuck their career up.

Was there ever an awkward moment, like maybe the first day you were directing them, and you just didn’t know how to do it?

There’s always awkward moments, but, as the director, you must always pretend you know. Even when they go, ‘That’s a stupid idea,’ you’re like, ‘It’s a joke guys. Calm down. Did you think I’d really ask you to do that?’

Does that trick work on a set with hundreds of crewmembers and extras?

Always. Always works. ‘Guys I was just joking. Come on! We don’t have to do this,’ you know? [Laughs]

What’s the hope from here with this movie? I assume if all goes to plan, there’ll be round three.

I hope it makes some money!

Is there any option in your agreement to return?

No option in my agreement, but I hope it makes a lot of money and they want to keep going. That’s up to them, not to me.

If you hold a special place in your heart for the pizza-munching sewer-dwellers known as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, chances are you've heard Michael Bay is producing a reboot wherein the high-kicking, wise-cracking team will no longer be mutants transformed by some strange and secret green ooze, but aliens. (Yes, aliens.) You may also be aware that Bay doesn't care what you think about it, because he insists his team is building, "a richer world," for the Turtles that is supported by co-creator Peter Laird. I'm sorry to admit, I'm here to deliver the latest turn of the blade from Bay's Platinum Dunes to TMNT fans.

Bleeding Cool has uncovered that the newest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie will be dropping "teenage" and "mutant" from the title, being called simply Ninja Turtles. While it's apparent Bay's take makes the word "mutant" untenable, a secretive source explains the name change "seems to be driven by marketing. Think of John Carter and how Disney wouldn’t allow for a title with either 'Princess' or 'Mars'." Obviously with Disney admitting HUGE losses on John Carter, it's not the best inspiration for titling advice, so is it possible this in fact has more to do with Bay's "richer world?"

Funded by Paramount and Nickelodeon and produced by Bay, we can presume Ninja Turtles will be a big-budget PG-13 adventure full of special effects, some of which Bay declares will be incredibly real looking alien turtles. While Nickelodeon is, of course, known for family-friendly fare, they've hired Jonathan Liebesman, helmer of Wrath of the Titans and Battle Los Angeles, to direct, which leads me to suspect the more humor-driven aspects of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise will be abandoned along with their identities as mutants - and possibly even teenagers. Far from the spirited adventures with a dark edge we remember, it's looking more and more likely that Bay will try to force in more edge and force out any semblance of goofiness. It's hard to imagine how Michelangelo fits into this proposed new world at all.

When you think about how many posters, stills and trailers we've seen for both John Carter and The Hunger Games, you begin to realize that Wrath of the Titans is really falling behind. All of those films are set to be released this March, yet there have been far fewer marketing materials available for the sequel to 2010's Clash of the Titans. So consider this article to be the movie playing a bit of catch-up.

Two new posters and two new banners have arrived online for the upcoming release, which was directed by Battle Los Angeles' Jonathan Liebesman and stars Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Nighy, Edgar Ramirez, Rosamund Pike, and Toby Kebbell. The artwork not only re-introduce us to some of the human and god players, but also shows off some of the big bad titans that they will be doing battle against. Check out the posters and banners below and see them full size over on Yahoo!

Wrath of the Titans sees Worthington return as Perseus, who has spent the last 10 years after defeating the Kraken trying to live a normal life. That's all disrupted, however, when Zeus (Neeson) is betrayed by both Hades (Fiennes) and Ares (Ramirez), who team up with the titan Kronos to imprison Zeus. While all hell is released on Earth, it becomes up to Perseus, Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon's demigod son, Argenor (Toby Kebbell), and fallen god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), to free Zeus and save the world. The movie will be released on March 30th and you can see more from the movie in our Blend Film Database.

Wrath of the Titans, the sequel to 2010's Clash of the Titans, has a lot of "new" going for it. Director Jonathan Liebesman has taken over for Louis Leterrier. Unlike the first, which was written by Travis Beacham, Phil Hay, and Matt Manfredi, the sequel was scripted by Dan Mazeau, David Johnson, and Steven Knight. Hell, Rosamund Pike has even come in to replace Alexa Davalos as Andromeda. But while the personnel behind the film may have changed, we can likely expect that the aesthetics will stay largely the same. Need proof? Check out the first look at the film and tell me if you can honestly differentiate the image from any in the first movie.

Entertainment Weekly has run the first image from their film and you can check it out below. To see it full size, head over to The Playlist.

I will admit that one thing that has changed is the length of Sam Worthington's hair, which is considerably longer than the buzz cut he was rocking in Clash of the Titans. Other than that, however, the leather, metal and sand all pretty much looks the same.

Set 10 years after the events of the first film, Wrath of the Titans follows Perseus (Worthington) as he goes on a quest to rescue Zeus (Liam Neeson) from Hades after he has been betrayed by both the god of the underworld (Ralph Fiennes) and the god of war, Ares (Edgar Ramirez). The sequel's impressive cast also includes Bill Nighy, Danny Huston, Toby and Kebbell. The movie will arrive in theaters on March 30, 2012.

When the Clash of the Titans remake was announced, we all had a pretty good idea of what the film would be about. After all, why stretch too far from the 1981 Desmond Davis movie? But with a sequel going into production, it's been a mystery as to exactly what the new story would tackle and what characters/actors would return. Today we get the answer.

ScreenRant has received a press release announcing that Clash of the Titans 2 - apparently no longer called Wrath of the Titans - has gone into production, and included is the full cast list and plot details. Set 10 years after Perseus (Sam Worthington) defeated the Kraken, the hero is trying to live a quiet life as a father to his son, Helius. But while this is going on, things are going a bit crazy on Mount Olympus, as the gods can no longer control the imprisoned titans due to the humans' lack of faith. The leader of the titans is Kronos, who also happens to be the father of Zeus (Liam Neeson), Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Poseidon (Danny Huston). But when Hades and his son Ares (Edgar Ramirez), the god of war, team up to help Kronos capture Zeus, Perseus is called back into action. Bringing a team together that includes Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Argenor (Toby Kebbell), son of Poseidon, and Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), a fallen god, they head into the underworld to rescue Zeus.

One name that you might notice is missing is Gemma Arterton, who is currently filming Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, suggesting that she's known for a while that she wouldn't be involved. Directed by Battle: Los Angeles-helmer Jonathan Liebesman, the film is currently scheduled to be released on March 30, 2012.

Battle: Los Angeles may be a loud and action-packed alien invasion movie, but Aaron Eckhart definitely didn't treat it like your average blockbuster. The actor known for his verbally dexterous work with Neil Labute or in Thank You For Smoking describes his dream movie as one in which "I just run around and grunt," and threw himself forcefully into his Battle: Los Angeles role as Staff Sergeant Nantz, on the brink of retirement when an alien invasion throws him into direct combat with a team of young Marine recruits on the bombed-out streets of Los Angeles.

Before the movie even had an official green light from the studio Eckhart met with director Jonathan Liebesman to film test footage on the Sony back lot-- you can read lots more about that in my on set interview with the two of them. And before filming began, Eckhart and his costars underwent three weeks of boot camp training, to the point that "the line was very blurry between whether we were actors or Marines." He admits that his intense focus on the role kept him at a distance from the rest of the cast, but that he was also there to encourage his younger co-stars-- "Whenever I saw them lifting off the gas or whatever, I was right in their face." Just like an actual Staff Sergeant would be.

W Below is the rest of my interview with Eckhart, in which he talks about showing the movie to Marines, why he still wears khakis every day, and yes, how he and Liebesman are already talking about what they'd do for a sequel.

I visited the set in December 2009, and you and Jonathan were so enthusiastic about the film then, and you seem to have kept up that energy level this whole time. It's amazing to see you still so pumped about it.

But it's not a front. I am so proud of Jonathan, and I have to say Sony and myself. When this was an embryo, Jonathan said we want to make a documentary war film. And I think we've achieved that within the genre of an alien film. I've never seen anything like this.

You committed to this so early on, shooting the test footage on the back lot of Sony. What was it about Jonathan and this film that made you want to jump into this with both feet?

Jonathan came in and from the beginning was ultra-prepared. He let me see what he was seeing. He did that through YouTube, showing me a video of Marines going house to house in Fallujah, said "That's what this is going to look like." Then he says, "This is what the aliens are going to do, this is your character." And he was very open to my suggestions, and throughout the filming I very much felt part of the creative process and defining my character in the film.

You showed the film to Marines on two different bases. Did you have to convince them that even though it's an alien movie, it's really a Marine movie?

Yes, of course. First of all, any actor playing a Marine, they're skeptical. Then throw aliens on top of it. But then watching them come out of the movie, hearing them in the movie. Within the first five minutes I heard the theaters in both places erupt. Movies, certainly within the last decade, have been cynical-- there's a lot going on in the world. Not every war movie or movie involving the armed forces is a love letter. I think this movie is an entertaining look at that sort of thing, and I think they appreciate that.

Did you worry you were painting a target on your back by playing a Marine?

I remember doing my first costume fitting and putting on my uniform, I think I scared the costume designers. I took this role far too seriously. If I'm going to go out and make an alien movie, I'm going to do the best damn war alien movie I can do, for my craft. I see no sense in going to do a movie for months in which I'm not pushing myself as an actor. I had to prove it to myself, and I had to prove it to the Marines, and I had to prove it to the other actors playing Marines. You cannot let up. If you let up and give them an excuse not to work hard one day, you're dead. This movie had to be believable. Whenever I saw them lifting off the gas or whatever, I was right in their face.

You go through so much training and bulk up, so when you get in front of the camera, are you just reacting as the character? Does that change your acting?

That's the only way to do it. You're talking three weeks of intense boot camp training where you're around each other every day. By the time we even started filming the line was very blurry between whether we were actors or Marines. If I have to call out, "Lanahan!" I don't know his real name. They call me Staff Sergeant. It has to be that way, because the audience is dealing with aliens, so they already know it's not real. They have to fight all of those preconceptions to get you to sit back and lose yourself. We have to be absolutely convincing so we make the job that much easier. If you sit there and think "That doesn't sound like a Marine," then you're fighting two battles at once-- the Marines and the aliens.

How do you get this kind of thing out of your system when it's all over?

I didn't. I love this guy. I absolutely love him. I know it's weird to say, but I went home and started at a wall until the sun came up.

Has that happened to you on other films?

Yeah, that's what I do. On Rabbit Hole or whatever it is. For this movie I was so tired at the end of the day, but-- I still wear khakis every day. I'm ready.

So when the invasion hits, we need to find you.

[Laughs] Yeah. When the invasion hits I hope they'll be friendly.

Rabbit Hole is an interesting contrast, because it's so verbal and based in language, and this movie has so little dialogue. That switch has to be interesting.

I think there's way too many words in movies. My dream movie is I just run around and grunt. I think it's fun for the audiences to watch actors express themselves behaviorally instead of verbally. We have a tendency not to trust ourselves, and rely on a writer's version of something. That's why everybody loves 70s movies. The Steve McQueens of the world, the Mitchums, the Eastwoods-- they give a look and it says so much. especially in war, you don't have time for that kind of stuff.

You and Jonathan have talked to openly about wanting to make more of these. Have you guys talked details, or are you waiting until the movie comes out?

Yeah, I think so. We would be happy if this weekend this movie were successful so we could make another one, we've talked about it.

It all depends on how the movie performs, if people like it or not. Sony hasn't said anything to me. In the poster it says something like "This isn't the only place." I don't know what it is, but I would very much look forward to doing anything.

When you think Battle: Los Angeles, odds are, you think of Aaron Eckhart. Well, Eckhart may play the leader of a platoon of soldiers going into battle against invading aliens, but it's be worth your while to get to know some of the Staff Sergeant’s men.

Adetokumboh M’Cormack is Corpsman Jibril Adukwu, the group medic. Like his co-cast, M’Cormack had to go through boot camp training, but he had the added assignment of learning the ins and outs of being a Marine medic as well. The key to this role was being as in touch with the character as possible and in that sense, M’Cormack and the rest of the cast went above and beyond.

During our recent interview, M’Cormack shelled out tons of details from the entire process from working hard during training, to taking what he learned to set and even the friendships that remained after shooting wrapped. Based on our conversation, it seems as though Battle: Los Angeles might actually not be your run-of-the-mill alien invasion film, rather a wholly real-feeling experience and, if that is the case, we really have something special to look forward to. To hold you over until the battle begins on March 11th, check out what M’Cormack had to say about working on the film.

Can you tell me about your character?

Adetokumboh M’Cormack: I play a character called Corpsman Adukwu. He’s originally from Nigeria and basically, my character’s a medic that goes along with the platoon lead by Aaron Eckhart’s character and we go into battle. We try to save the world against the aliens.

Where does he fall amongst the other soldiers? What makes him stand out as a person?

I think his history. The character originally is from Nigeria so he has a different background from the other characters and he brings definitely a different back-story. Before we started the film, the director asked us to create back-stories for our characters; my back-story was really interesting because it told of a character that went through war, that went through a lot of problems and ultimately came to American to just try to become a better person, become a doctor. It’s interesting that he came to be a better person and try to get a better life and then ultimately ends up being part of this war against an alien species he’d never imagine to encounter.

How’d you approach this back-story work? Did you keep a journal as your character or something like that?

I wrote a journal. He also gave us a little bit of a back-story and I went off and made my own and just made my character more complete and more multifaceted, so to speak, and just made him more interesting. When you see these characters on screen, you buy that they are people with lives and with histories. It’s more relatable that way so you’re just not seeing these two-dimensional characters on the screen; you’re actually seeing real people.

And in terms of the physicality of the role, I hear the boot camp you guys went through was pretty tough.

Yes, I went through three weeks of boot camp prior to filming, which consisted of waking up at five in the morning and running several miles and learning how to shoot those weapons, like M4s and M16s and 50 cals, and we ended up learning the different terminology that Marines use just so that we could be as authentic as we could. [Director] Jonathan Liebesman really wanted to make a movie that felt real on all levels and so that meant us going to boot camp and getting our butts kicked. [Laughs] But, ultimately, he wanted us to just appear to be real Marines on screen.

Was there any one part of that boot camp that kicked your butt the most? Neil Brown Jr. told me he wasn’t a fan of the running.

[Laughs] That was hard! Yeah, the running was hard because I do a lot of running as is, but seeing these men, the Sergeants who were assigned to do our training, just seeing them run so much faster, do everything so much stronger, so much harder, that was the difficult part because you’re thinking, ‘I’m in really good shape,’ and when it came down to it, you realize you’re not in that great shape with someone who is twice your age and kicking your butt. [Laughs]

Did it change your impression of people in the military?

It did. I have an enormous amount of respect for people in the military. I think our training, it wasn’t a real boot camp in that sense. I think it was a close as we could get to being real Marines and just the amount of work that goes into it, the amount of physical, emotional work that goes into being a Marine, it’s really intense and I definitely respect them so much more at the end of it.

How was it bringing what you learned in boot camp to set? Did you go right from one to the other?

Yes, as soon as we finished boot camp we went straight into work and we used everything we learned. The way that we handled the weapons, the way that we walked in and cleared a room, just the way related to each other, the way we fired our weapons, we brought all of what we learned in boot camp into the film. Jonathan Liebesman, sometimes he would ask us to improvise and so I’m really glad we had that boot camp training because it allowed us to pretty accurately improvise dialogue in certain situations. In addition to my boot camp, I also had to learn certain things medics would do in the field, so if someone had a certain type of injury I’d have to learn how to use quick clots to stop the bleeding or have to learn to bandage a wound a certain way. Jonathan would actually call on you to do things like that just out of the blue sometimes. He’d be like, ‘Listen, if this situation happens like this, what would you do?’ and then film it, so you’d have to be on your toes at all times. For four and a half months you were living and breathing this character.

Did anyone on set actually ask you for medical help?

[Laughs] Yeah, that would actually happen! They’d be like, ‘Doc, I need help with such and such,’ and sometimes I’d actually know what to do! I’d actually have a kit, you’ll see in the film, there’s this item that I carry and it has all this first aid equipment and so I was always ready should something happen. And that kit was really really heavy. All through the film you actually see me carry around a real life first aid kit and the idea was that sometimes when people were injured I would have something on me and I could offer my medical assistance. We also had real medics on board as well, so if it was something too serious of course I wouldn’t [laughs]. We definitely blurred the lines between reality and unreality.

And what about for your stunts? Did you do all of your own stunts or did you need a double for anything?

Jonathon really encouraged us to do our own stunts and we did a lot of the time. Ne-Yo did a lot of his own stunts and I did a couple of my own stunts as well. Actually, also [Jonathon] really didn’t want people to be taken out of the reality of the film, so what you’re seeing when a lot of the stuff happens is that you’re seeing the actual actors do their own stunts. And, of course, the more dangerous ones we would have our stunt doubles do those, but sometimes we did pretty risky stunts and thankfully we were okay. We never felt that we were in harm’s way. We had Joey Box, who is one of the best stunt coordinators in the business; he was fantastic and just made us feel really safe and went through each stunt over and over again and you have a team of people who made sure that we were completely comfortable and made sure that we never did anything that we didn’t want to do,

What was the shooting process like during those stunt-heavy moments? Were there a limited number of takes per shot because of heavy effects and explosion?

Ideally you don’t want to spend a lot of time on a stunt. Sometimes you’d have maybe two or three takes to get it right, sometimes just one. The rehearsal process was pretty intense. We’d rehearse it over and over again and sometimes they’d have the stunt double rehearse it two times, so you’d see the stunt double do it and then you go ahead and do the stunt. They tried to make sure you got it within the first couple of takes, if not the first take.

And what about just organizing all of the primary cast and extras?

We shoot fast. Thankfully we had really good production assistants and assistant directors who were able to just gather everyone together and just make sure that the scene flowed really well. If you think about it, you have scenes where you’re on the Santa Monica streets and you have hundreds of extras and just coordinating them was almost like coordinating a little town!

You also mentioned Jonathan wanted you to improvise quite a bit. How was it incorporating that in such a structured environment?

It was interesting. We’d shoot the script pretty much a couple of times and then sometimes he’d ask us to adlib a little bit and the great thing was, because we were all so in tune in our characters and in tune with our relationships with each other that we were able to just go, but still stick within the confines of the story and ad lib within the structure of the story, so it wasn’t too far off. I’m just looking back and I just watched the film for the first time last week and it works so well. We just all knew our characters so well and we knew each other so well, we knew our relationships, who we liked, who we didn’t get along so well with, who our best friend was in the platoon, who you’d die for, who would be your best man at the wedding, all of those things. Those were questions we all asked ourselves during boot camp just to make sure that when filming started, it wasn’t something we thought about, it was just something that organically happened.

Even beyond just coming up with your own dialogue, you also had to come up with some of your own visuals. How much of what we’ll see on screen did you actually get to interact with on set?

Well, there was actually a balance. There’s a lot of green screening. There’s the highway sequence, for example, where there’s a lot of explosions and alien aircrafts and all these things, so a lot of that was just using your imagination. We had to call on our imaginations a lot during this film, but then there were also a lot of times where you have real life explosions and they had tons and tons of explosions going off simultaneously and that made you really feel like you were essentially in a war. Sometimes in a scene you would have the props/weapons guy, he’s firing bullets off screen and then an explosion goes off to your left and another explosion to your right, so you’re responding to real explosions. You don’t really have to imagine [laughs], it’s actually happening right then and there. And then of course, with the aliens, sometimes we’d have to imagine the aliens were there, but sometimes they would have these guys in these motion wrestling suits and they were on these elevated pogo shoes and so we would basically be responding to them. They would be representing the aliens and sometimes it was terrifying because these guys were just so great at embodying the aliens and the way they moved, and the way they attacked and so it was great to have that to respond to.

Wow, it sounds like you guys had to know exactly what was going on everywhere as much as Jonathan did!

[Laughs] I definitely felt like it was a collaborative process, but Jonathon definitely held this movie. The man is a genius. I think he’s completely retimed the alien, sci-fi, action genre. It’s the way we have the battles; battles are urban combat, you’re not being sought after in the sky. You’re actually engaging in a war on the ground. He really created a film that I’ve never seen like this before. Watching it just blew me away. I was completely blown away by what I saw because he asked us at the beginning of filming just to trust his vision. He had an idea and he showed us a presentation of test footage that he shot on Sony lot prior to coming down and I remember thinking, ‘Okay, how are we going to set ourselves apart from any other sci-fi alien invasion film,’ and then I watched that and got completely blown away and completely trusted his vision and I’m glad I did because it’s truly amazing.

He’s directed a few movies, but never anything on this scale. Do you think not being saturated in Hollywood blockbusters helped make this a more grounded production? Do you think he’s the right guy to do the second Clash of the Titans film?

I think possibly because he was able bring just a reality to this film. He was able to bring something different, so it’s not just a big blockbuster film; it’s a film that’s gritty, it’s real, it has a lot of heart and I think that’s probably what he’s also going to bring to Clash 2. It’s going to be something that people are going to just be able to relate to more with action, but also with a lot more substance. So, yeah, Jonathon definitely is the man. I think he’s the next director to look out for, honestly.

Can you tell me about working with some of your co-stars? Who’d you get to work with the most?

It’s funny; these guys now are like my best friends. [Laughs] At the end of the experience we felt like we’d gone to war and back. I’d say I had a lot of my scenes with Cory Hardrict, who is just a tremendous actor, and also, of course, Ne-Yo. Neil Brown Jr. was a lot of fun to work with. He always made us laugh. He’s very similar to his character, funny enough. And Will Rothhaar, great guy, definitely a lot like a brother to me. And, of course, Michelle Rodriguez. I spent a lot of time working with her and getting to know her and she’s just a wonderful lady.

Do you have anything else in the works?

I’m writing and producing a movie that’s set in Africa and I’m starring in it as well. And we start production pretty soon actually, so that’s my next big project that I’m focusing on.

How do you feel about wearing three hats for one film? Have you ever done anything like this before? Write or produce?

Only with shorts and things like that, so this will be my first venture into putting on the producing hat for a feature as well and so that’s a whole different experience. It’s a lot harder than I thought it was going to be [laughs], but it’s a lot more fun because it’s basically bringing something you created and seeing it to fruition. I’m excited about it. I think the character that I play in this is a lot closer to who I am and I think a lot of people don’t really see that in my work, so it’ll be interesting for people finally to see something that’s very close to me.

As unnecessary and unwanted a sequel to Clash of the Titans may be, the cast has been subject to some positive upgrades. Joining Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and the rest thus far have been Edgar Ramirez, Tony Kebbell, and possibly James Franco. Now they are close to adding another.

Deadline reports that Rosamund Pike is close to a deal that would see her play Andromeda in the Jonathan Liebesman-directed Wrath of the Titans. The role was played by Alexa Davalos in the first film, but she will be unavailable for the sequel. In the first film Andromeda plays a large role, as Hades wants to sacrifice her to the Kraken, but Perseus is able to turn the sea monster into stone with the head of Medusa and save her. The report says the the role remains a major one in the sequel.

Pike was recently rumored for the role of the non-Lois Lane female lead in Zack Snyder's Superman, but it would now appear that she is out of the running. Only time will tell if that was the best career decision.

Yesterday I brought you my report from the Louisiana set of Battle: Los Angeles, the Jonathan Liebesman-directed "war movie with aliens" that stars Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Pena and rapper Ne-Yo, among others. Today I've got excerpts from my interviews with many of the film's stars, director and producers, all of them talking about the intensity of the experience on the set, the extensive military training they underwent, the elaborate video Liebesman shot to convince the studio to make the film, and how crappy war scenes on TV look to them after this whole experience.

Check out the interviews below, compiled from two different roundtable interviews conducted on the set in December 2009. Battle: Los Angeles hits theaters March 11.

The project started when director Jonathan Liebesman got a look at Chris Bertolini's script, which he described as "the type of movie I would line up around the block for." What got the studio to give a greenlight, though, was a massive presentation Liebesman gave, complete with visual aids and test footage he had shot on the Sony backlot, along with Aaron Eckhart. Liebesman downplays the presentation a bit before the producers give him proper credit.

Eckhart was on board even before the film was greenly to shoot the early test footage; it's hard to overstate how passionately both he and Liebesman spoke about the project together, even starting with the day they shot 100 set-ups on the destroyed Sony back lot.

The actors underwent four weeks of boot camp to get in something approximating Marine shape before shooting; that included Eckhart, who is a solid 15 years older than most of the rest of the cast, and rapper Ne-Yo, making his acting debut in the film. All 13 slept under the same tent that they put up themselves each night, under the supervision of three different actual military Sergeants.

Eckhart's character is the oldest of the Marines, but he's not in charge of the unit-- that job falls to Ramon Rodriguez's Lt. Martinez. Not only is Rodriguez more experienced than any of the younger actors in terms of large action movies-- he had a supporting part in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen-- but he had to deal with being their boss onscreen.

Liebesman and his cast are all well-aware of how many alien movies and war movies have come before this one, and are deliberately drawing influences from both previous films and, maybe even more influentially, the hyper-real war video games of the last few years. Michelle Rodriguez was playing Call of Duty frequently when off the set, and everyone, Liebesman and even his military adviser included, happily acknowledged the similarities between their movie and the games-- and how much realism the games actually brought to the movie.

The alien creatures in the movie will be represented with a mix of physical puppets, actors in suits and CGI, which made for a challenges for the actors doing battle against creatures who weren't actually there-- particularly Ne-Yo, the freshest actor of the group.

As of today, Battle: Los Angeles is 50/50 on trailers. The first teaser trailer was absolutely brilliant, setting up the mood, showing off action and was fueled by an awesome soundtrack choice. The second trailer was clunky and weighed down by unnecessary voice-over that erased all of the subtly of the first. Today the Jonathan Liebesman alien invasion flick tries to raise its average.

The third trailer for Battle: Los Angeles has popped online, courtesy of Yahoo! In the film, Los Angeles is under attack by an aggressive group of extraterrestrials a small marine platoon is charged with fighting them off. The film stars Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Pena, Ne-Yo, and Bridget Moynahan and is set to be released on March 11.

Check out the trailer below or in HD over at Yahoo!. For my reaction, check out the paragraph under the video.

My verdict? We're up to 66% successful. While the newest look at the film shows off it's cast much more than it has previously, the tension is palpable and the movie simply looks too intense for words. The helicopter getting hit and Eckhart's reaction are perfect, not to mention the fact that they brought back the song from the first trailer. Count this one in the win column, ladies and gentlemen, and start looking forward to March 11.

For Battle: Los Angeles info, images, and video visit the Blend Film Database.

Despite the fact that it was, uh, Clash of the Titans, the sword-and-sandals disaster spectacular directed by Louis Leterrier managed to make $493.2 million worldwide earlier this year, helped partly by the fact that it opened in the spring without much competition around it. And while we have plenty of reasons to expect the forthcoming sequel to go better, new director Jonathan Liebesman being the biggest one, there's no reason for Warner Bros. to fix the one thing that wasn't broke the first time: the release date. According to Coming Soon, the studio has set Clash of the Titans 2-- probably called Wrath of the Titans-- for March 30, 2012 release date.

This also makes sense given what Liam Neeson said a week ago about shooting starting in March. A little under a year of post-production on a project this big sounds pretty necessary, especially given how much heat they took for the lousy special effects the second time around. Sam Worthington will be reprising his role as half-god warrior Perseus, with Neeson and Ralph Fiennes also back to play squabbling gods. Gemma Arterton, who seemed unsure about her participation a few months ago, seems to at least be contractually obligated to return as well. I'm sure she's hoping, as we all are, that things go a little better this time around.

Liam Neeson, who hasn't met a silly blockbuster he didn't want to be part of, is gearing up to star in next year's Clash of the Titans sequel, which was rumored back in November to be titled Wrath of the Titans and possibly star Javier Bardem as Ares and James Franco as Agenor, father of Europa. When the Belfast Telegraph caught up with Neeson recently he couldn't confirm any casting rumors, but he did let them know that the sequel, to be directed by Jonathan Liebesman, will kick off in early March:

For all the grief the first Clash of the Titans got about its incoherent script, it's hilarious to me that the sequel seems to be going through the same cobbled-together process, and that they're handing out half-finished versions to the cast. As much faith I have in director Liebesman, who brought us next spring Battle: Los Angeles and seems to have real talent, this sequel seems to be following the same doomed track as the first film. Hopefully Neeson will at least once again look like he's having a ridiculous amount of fun, especially if they put him in another suit of glowing armor and give him a line half as crazy as "Release the Kraken!"

The big story that broke yesterday was the news that Christopher Nolan has officially begun the search for a Superman director. A short list of five potential directors to take the spot - Tony Scott, Matt Reeves, Zack Snyder, Duncan Jones and Jonathan Liebesman - was revealed and it was an interesting mix to say the least. An argument can be made for every director on the list and an argument can be made against every director on the list. Apparently, word has gotten back to some of them, and now their responses are available.

First up is Snyder, who I feel is the strongest candidate, as his visual style could work perfectly with the storytelling of the Nolan brothers and David S. Goyer. Sadly, it's not to be. A few days before the news broke, Snyder did an interview with Latino Review in which he mentioned that he was approached about the project, but turned the opportunity down.

Next up is Jones, best known for directing last year's critical hit Moon. Coming Soon caught a comment by the director on his Twitter page about the news (it appears to have been deleted since). According to the site, the director said, "About Superman... I'm going to say something really cheesy; Can't talk about it, but an honor to be on the list. Interesting times!" Correct me if I'm wrong, but that sounds like a confirmation to me.

Lastly, JobBlo got a quote from Reeves about the story down at Fantastic Fest in Austin, where his new film, Let Me In, is showing. Said the director, "I was surprised. I really have no idea if any of that is true. It's certainly an amazing project, but I would be surprised..." So pretty much the complete opposite of Jones. It sounds as though Reeves knows nothing about his inclusion, which may or may not mean that his appearance on the list was conjecture.

The only two directors that have not yet commented are Tony Scott and Jonathan Liebesman, but, as I reported in my original article, they are also the two that are already booked on other projects. While I'm sad to see Snyder fade from the project, Jones would definitely be my second choice of the five. I unabashedly loved Moon, and while it was certainly a smaller project than Superman would be, he has shown me enough that I could have faith in him.

The selection process for a Superman director has been as up and down as any casting for a superhero film. Since it was announced that Christopher Nolan would be producing the project, there has been plenty of speculation as to who would take the reins, be it Christopher's brother Jonathan, Chris Columbus or someone else entirely. Apparently the list is down to five.

Deadline has revealed that Nolan and producer Emma Thomas have begun meeting with a short list of directors for the project that have included Tony Scott, Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In), Jonathan Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles), Duncan Jones (Moon), and Zack Snyder. Some members of the list, however, already have prior commitments, including Liebesman, who has signed on to direct Clash of the Titans 2, and Scott, who has four other projects on his plate at the moment. This leaves Reeves, Jones and Snyder, who appear to have open schedules, though it's possible that this isn't a finite list.

Certainly an interesting mix, no? Fair arguments both for and against everyone above can be made, but I think that the most intriguing one is Snyder. His storytelling skills may not be fantastic, but few directors can spin movies that are as visually beautiful. Throw in the fact that the story is being taken care of by the team that includes the Nolans and David S. Goyer and you may have a fantastic combination. Xerxes can sit on a shelf for a little while. Let's make this one happen.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/UPDATED-Clash-Of-The-Titans-2-And-Deadpool-Still-Don-t-Have-Directors-But-They-re-Getting-Closer-20421.html

With its atrocious 3D and truly hilarious dialogue-- "Calm your storm!"-- Clash of the Titans seemed like a ready-made cult classic and nothing more when it hit theaters in early April. Lo and behold, the movie has gone on to gross $162 domestically, and Warner Bros. still thinks a sequel is a good idea. We heard in late April that the second film would be moving forward without Louis Leterrier as a director, and now The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Jonathan Liebesman, a director you've probably never heard of, is first in line for the job.

Liebesman is largely an unknown quantity now because his only feature directing credits are either tiny-- Darkness Falls, The Killing Room-- or schlocky-- the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. The movie that is likely to get him the Clash job is Battle: Los Angeles, a Sony project that hits theaters in March of next year, and is a large-scale action movie about a military unit fighting a mysterious alien invasion. I visited that set in December and, knowing nothing about Liebesman beforehand, was impressed by his clear hunger to do good work in Hollywood, and the level of commitment he had to making an action movie that would distinguish itself from the rest. Sony has repaid Liebesman's dedication by moving the film from a planning February release to a prime March slot-- it's likely they've screened footage and liked what they saw.

The LA Times says Clash 2 will film quickly, not just because they want to cash in on the first one but because Sam Worthington will probably be shooting Avatar 2 next year. I have no idea if that information is based on something the LA Times knows and we don't or just basic conjecture based on James Cameron's endless hints, but either way it's interesting. Liebesman could find himself shooting Clash 2 as early as next January, before Battle: Los Angeles hits theaters and potentially explains why he's qualified for the job. Really, if Liebesman brings some level of passion to the project and the 3D isn't complete garbage this time, we could be looking at a sequel that's better than the original-- however low a bar that is to cross.