Don’t stop the music now (sorry, couldn’t resist) but pop/R&B star recording artist Rihanna will attempt to make that ever-so-difficult jump into the world of film acting in Universal’s Battleship movie adaptation.
Hancock director Peter Berg will be at the helm of Battleship (eek, more bad puns), which will also star True Blood‘s Alexander Skarsgård, Taylor Kitsch (aka Gambit from Wolverine) and possibly comedian Tom Arnold.
Battleship is being scripted by Erich and Jon Hoeber (Red) and will be “a massive Naval adventure across the seas, in the skies and over land as our planet fights for survival against a superior force.” I personally would have expected the plot to bear a stronger resemblance to that of Crimson Tide rather than War of the Worlds – go figure, I suppose.
Rihanna will certainly not be the first (or the last) musical talent to try and crossover into the world of cinema. So long as her debut performance is more than just a cut above that of Mariah Carey’s much-ridiculed turn in Glitter, the results should hopefully not be too painful to witness.
Memories of Sting in another sci-fi film – David Lynch’s warped 1984 adaptation of Dune – keep coming to mind. I would not recommend Rihanna follow his lead (see below).
Berg often makes extensive use of handheld cameras and gritty cinematography in his films – even big-budget projects like Hancock. Submarine pics like Wolfgang Petersen’s classic, Das Boot or Kathryn Bigelow’s K-19: The Widowmaker did a nice job of conveying the dirty, claustrophobic nature of life at sea. We shall have to wait and see whether Berg can bring anything new to the table.
Between Battleship and Tim Burton’s Monsterpocalypse movie, I would have to choose the latter as the upcoming, action-packed board game movie adaptation that I am most looking forward to. Not that there are many to choose from, but still… 😉
Battleship is tentatively scheduled to set sail in theaters in the U.S. on May 25th, 2012.
