An all-star roster of actors has joined Warner Bros. Pictures’ new action adventure SUICIDE SQUAD bringing DC Comics’ super villain team to the big screen under the direction of David Ayer (“Fury”). The announcement was made by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures.
The film will star two-time Oscar nominee Will Smith (“The Pursuit of Happyness,” “Ali,” upcoming “Focus”) as Deadshot; Tom Hardy (“The Dark Knight Rises,” upcoming “Mad Max: Fury Road”) as Rick Flagg; Margot Robbie (“The Wolf of Wall Street,” upcoming “Focus,” the “Tarzan” movie) as Harley Quinn; Oscar winner Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club,” “Alexander”) as the Joker; Jai Courtney (“Divergent,” upcoming “The Water Diviner”) as Boomerang; and Cara Delevingne (“Anna Karenina,” upcoming “Pan”) as Enchantress.
In making the announcement, Silverman said, “The Warner Bros. roots are deep on this one. David Ayer returns to the studio where he wrote ‘Training Day’ and brings his incredible ability to craft multidimensional villains to this iconic DC property with a cast of longtime Warner collaborators Will Smith and Tom Hardy, and other new and returning favorites: Margot, Jared, Jai and Cara. We look forward to seeing this terrific ensemble, under Ayer’s amazing guidance, give new meaning to what it means to be a villain and what it means to be a hero.”
Ayer is also writing the script for SUICIDE SQUAD which is being produced by Charles Roven (“The Dark Knight” trilogy, upcoming “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”) and Richard Suckle (“American Hustle”). Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Colin Wilson and Geoff Johns are serving as executive producers.
This Veterans Day, Tuesday, November 11, to thank America’s troops for their sacrifice and service, active military personnel and veterans will be admitted to FURY free at any Wehrenberg Theatre featuring the film.
The special invitation to America’s military personnel and veterans who show proper (active or veteran) military ID is valid only on Tuesday, Nov. 11. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis at each participating location.
All showtimes throughout the day are available (up to theatre capacity), excluding shows in Five Star Lounge. Show times are available at www.wehrenberg.com.
Fury is the critically-acclaimed war film from Sony Pictures. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone calls it “stunning” and Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood raves it’s “the best war movie in 30 years”!
Fury is set in April 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Out-numbered, out-gunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany. The film stars Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf and Logan Lerman.
Participating theatres are:
Arnold 14 Cine 1912 Richardson Rd. – Arnold, MO
Campbell 16 Cine 4005 South Ave. – Springfield, MO
Cape West 14 Cine 247 Siemers Dr. – Cape Giradeau, MO
Des Peres 14 Cine 12701 Manchester Rd. – Des Peres, MO
Eagles’ Landing 8 Cine 1300 Barred Owl Ln. – Lake Ozark, MO
Galaxy 14 Cine 1111 Wylie Dr. – Bloomington, IL
Galaxy 14 Cine 450 THF Blvd. – Chesterfield, MO
Galaxy 14 Cine 4340 Maine Ave. SE – Rochester, MN
Galaxy 16 Cine 5340 Council St. NE – Cedar Rapids, IA
Mid Rivers 14 Cine 1220 Mid Rivers Mall Dr. – St. Peters, MO
O’Fallon 15 Cine 1320 Central Park Dr. – O’Fallon, IL
Ronnies 20 Cine 5320 South Lindbergh – St. Louis, MO
St. Charles Stadium 18 Cine 1830 First Capitol Dr. South – St. Charles, MO
Town Square 12 Cine 7805 Hwy. N – Dardenne Prairie, MO
Director David Ayer’s gripping World War 2 film, FURY, is now in cinemas and took in $23.5M at the box office to claim the #1 spot this weekend.
Over the course of 24 fateful hours, five men of the Sherman Tank “Fury” – Wardaddy, the commander; Boyd Swan, the gunner; Grady Travis, the loader; Trini Garcia, the driver; and Norman, the assistant driver – take on 300 enemy German troops in a desperate battle for survival. Ayer’s movie resonates with common themes of brotherly love, friendship, and trust.
The closing night film at the BFI London Film Festival, Sony Pictures’ FURY stars Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, and Scott Eastwood. FURY opens in UK cinemas on October 22.
The creative behind the scenes artists are cinematographer Roman Vasyanov, production designer Andrew Menzies, film editors Dody Dorn, ACE and Jay Cassidy, ACE, costume designer Owen Thornton, and composer Steven Price.
Price’s haunting score is filled with machine-like sounds, Germanic chants and intimate themes. Last year, I spoke with the Academy Award winning composer prior to the release of Edgar Wright’s AT WORLD’S END and Alfonso Cuaron’s GRAVITY.
Just as Price did on his Oscar-winning score for GRAVITY, where the sounds of radio waves were incorporated into the score, Price was able to find a distinctive voice for the music of FURY by using unusual and unconventional instruments in a fusion with the orchestral, choral and solo writing featured throughout.
Having not slowed down since his Oscar win six months ago, WAMG recently discussed with Steven Price his work on FURY, collaborating with David Ayer and a trip to Downing Street.
WAMG: The last time we spoke at The Academy’s “Oscar Concert” you were Steven Price… composer. Now you’re Academy Award winner Steven Price.
I hope AMPAS continues every year with that concert.
Steven Price: That was one of the great memories for me from the week.
WAMG: Now you have FURY. I have to tell you, for those of us whose grandfathers served in WWII…
SP: I’m one of them too.
WAMG: It’s very personal. It’s very emotional.
SP: Absolutely! Certainly made me wish I had the presence of mind when they were around to ask them some questions. No one in my family ever discussed it.
WAMG: My grandfather was a survivor of a ship that was sunk in the English Channel on Christmas Eve 1944, recovered, and then kept trudging along up to Battle of the Bulge.
SP: You can only imagine what they must have gone through. It was never discussed for the next 30 years, as in my granddad’s case. Definitely makes you think.
WAMG: From the first note of the score, you don’t pull any punches. Did you read the script beforehand?
SP: Once again, I was involved quite early on. I got some of the script when they just started shooting. It turned out they were filming 40 minutes away from where I live, so I was on set a couple of times. I was able to watch a couple of scenes being shot and spent a bit of time with David Ayer. We were discussing it in October of last year which gave me lots of time to do research and working out how I was going to help tell David’s story with the score.
WAMG: What did you think of the set and location where David Ayer was shooting?
SP: It was remarkable. The first time I went, they were doing long shots on the first big battle of the film. Basically what you see in the film is what I drove into. Huge, big tanks with the troops lined up behind them – it was like entering a war zone. The explosions were real. No CGI. It was a very weird thing I drove into.
You got a sense at what David was going for – a real authenticity. When I met the man himself, you got the sense of this being a very honest look at a very dark time in the War. He told me, as he was hitting his stomach, “I want to feel, I want to feel.” That was the agreement we had, music-wise, to help take you on that kind of journey. It was clear from the start that it was going to be quite an emotional score to do.
WAMG: World War II Soldiers were in the rain, mud, and sleep-deprived. 1940’s War Movies were almost too clean, too sanitized. FURY is definitely not.
SP: It’s really very brutal and visceral in many ways. Every now and then I would see a scene and think, “was that real – that guy getting run over by a tank?” Ayer’s research on the photography of the time was incredible. He’s kind of a huge expert on military history of that time anyway, so there’s nothing there that’s gratuitous really. FURY is a small window on how horrible it was. It was hell basically.
In the film, the American tank column faces their most deadly threat: a German Tiger tank – ultimate tank of war. A Sherman really stood very little chance against a Tiger – it’s set up as a formidable weapon.
On this film, Price had access to recordings made on the set, and later, weapons, and parts of the tank itself were called back into duty as percussion equipment in the studio.
WAMG: You can hear a lot of different elements with your score, including the tanks, the metal and even the dogtags.
SP: One of the crucial ideas behind the score was this was a war of mass mechanization where everyone was building these machines to kill. You were there to kill your opponents before they killed you with these tanks. Within those tanks were the humans trudging forward and the guys in Fury who had been working together and living together for 3 or 4 years, were exhausted and broken down. It was a way of finding music that encompassed all of that.
The music constantly grinds forward. There’s metallic, grinding noises and some were derived from actual source recordings off the tanks themselves.
Then you’ve got the choir which is constantly chanting in German. The idea being there, whilst three weeks away from the end of the War, you assume for the Allies, victory was in sight, when actually they were surrounded in Nazi Germany. They were totally unsafe every single moment. The choir is the embodiment of evil – chanting sometimes far away, sometimes close whispering – with the constant unsettling presence.
The orchestra is carrying more emotional ideas, more character themes. All of those ideas to give the sense of the hell they’re in, in the midst of exhaustion and constant motion.
WAMG: The echoes of that Germanic chanting are chilling. When did you decide to utilize that effective theme?
SP: That was quite early on. One of the cues halfway through the film, one where they’re travelling in the tanks to the next horrible thing, I wanted this sense of threat and exhaustion. I fell upon the idea of this inhuman chanting, followed by the idea that it could be this German chanting where they’re constantly singing and reciting extracts from the Lutheran Bible. It has lots of references to invasion and the pain of war, so it felt kind of timeless and accurate to what we were doing.
Really until we got to the recording session for it, I wasn’t totally sure it was going to work. But I got it all set up in the studio with big charts and all of these phrases that I had selected and literally going through it cue by cue. With each scene, for this one we’re going to use this bit, and we did this through the whole thing. There are no emotions in their voices – it was meant to sound like this machine.
The first moment that we did it, there was a shiver in the control room. It felt very unnerving. It became a feature of the score from then on.
WAMG: You added some beautiful piano solos in two tracks – “Wardaddy” and particularly my favorite “Norman”.
SP: That was one of the earlier themes I wrote.
WAMG: Both just about bring you to tears. These themes and their relationship are the soul of the film. Both tracks are so pure.
SP: A lot of the work on the film was their relationship and introducing them at the very start. We don’t know Wardaddy – he’s very cold and abstract. As we see more aspects of him, that develops. When we first meet Norman, his theme is this skittish kind of thing. He’s very unsettled. His eyes are flickering around all over the place. He’s landed in this place he never expected to be. It’s only later in the film that he develops more of a sense of where he is and it’s there that his theme evolves.
WAMG: FURY is the closing night selection at the BFI Film Festival. Plus you’ll be making a special trip.
SP: My wife and I are off to Downing Street, which is something I never thought I’d say, for an Academy Event to initiate the new members. It’ll be a bit weird being in the home of British government.
WAMG: What was Oscar week like for you both?
SP: It was a totally surreal experience. It’s a lot longer than what you see at home. We were told at the start, it would be two and a half hours before they call your category. As the time went on, it became more surreal and after two hours into it, it became more amusing. I’ve seen the clip when the announcement is made and I’m still not totally convinced it’s me. I have very little recollection of it.
WAMG: And then they swoop you back stage.
SP: The room for the photos was the most blinding room I’ve ever been in. The whole thing was such a wonderful experience and a very fun night.
Today at a Time Warner investors meeting, Warner Bros.’ Chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara outlined an aggressive content strategy for the Studio aimed at increasing profits while “doubling down on outstanding content, working with the best talent and maintaining the culture that makes Warner Bros. so great.”
As part of his presentation, Tsujihara announced a bold expansion of the industry’s broadest theatrical slate, built around the largest, most important global franchises.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release three LEGO-branded films over the next four years, building upon the enormous success of this year’s “The LEGO Movie” ($468 million worldwide box office), starting with “Ninjago” in 2016, directed by Charlie Bean and produced by Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
Batman will take a star turn in “The LEGO Batman Movie” in 2017, directed by Chris McKay, and the sequel, “The LEGO Movie 2,” will debut in 2018.
The Studio will release three pictures, in 2016, 2018 and 2020, based on best-selling author J.K. Rowling’s original story and screenwriting debut, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” Set in an extension of her familiar wizarding world, featuring magical creatures and characters inspired by Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbook and its fictitious author, Newt Scamander, “Fantastic Beasts” will be directed by David Yates, who directed the last four Harry Potter movies, and reunite the filmmaking team of David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram.
And, in a massive expansion of the Studio’s DC Entertainment-branded content, Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema will release a slate of at least 10 movies—as well as stand-alone Batman and Superman films—from 2016 through 2020 that expands this prized universe of characters:
“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” directed by Zack Snyder (2016) “Suicide Squad,” directed by David Ayer (2016) “Wonder Woman,” starring Gal Gadot (2017) “Justice League Part One,” directed by Zack Snyder, with Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and Amy Adams reprising their roles (2017) “The Flash,” starring Ezra Miller (2018) “Aquaman,” starring Jason Momoa (2018) “Shazam” (2019) “Justice League Part Two,” directed by Zack Snyder (2019) “Cyborg,” starring Ray Fisher (2020) “Green Lantern” (2020)
On the television front, Warner Bros. Television Group is the undisputed industry leader, providing 32 shows to the five broadcast networks and an overall roster of more than 60 shows among network, cable, first-run syndication and animation. WBTVG will grow its leadership across multiple fronts, including cable, premium platform and kids programming as well as further its precedent-setting activities in SVOD and international television production and format sales.
Among the Studio’s programs are network TV’s #1 entertainment series in “The Big Bang Theory” and #1 unscripted series in “The Voice,” as well as favorites such as “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Gotham,” “The Middle,” “Mom,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Bachelor” franchise, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and many more.
For Turner, Warner Horizon Television’s “Rizzoli & Isles” and Warner Bros. Television’s “Major Crimes” are two of the top three scripted series on all of basic cable for 2014, and the #1 and #2 shows, respectively, on TNT. The Studio has a number of future projects set up at TNT, including a pilot production order for an untitled drama set in the unpredictable world of the Florida cocaine trade in the 1970s, from Jerry Bruckheimer, Michael Bay and Michelle Ashford, and is in development on “Titans,” from Academy Award-winner Akiva Goldsman and Marc Haimes, based upon the DC Comics characters.
At HBO, WBTV’s first series for the premium television company, the critically acclaimed “The Leftovers,” debuted this summer and has already been picked up for a second season. WBTV has also produced the pilot “Westworld,” from executive producers J.J. Abrams, Jonathan Nolan, Jerry Weintraub and Lisa Joy, and starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris and Evan Rachel Wood, and has a number of other projects in development at the company.
FURY, the all new David Ayer film, hits theaters this friday. Recently, WAMG was invited to attend the film’s press day where writer/director David Ayer joined stars Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, and Jon Bernthal in a press conference to discuss the accuracy of the film, boot camp, and working with Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf. Check it out below!
FURY takes place in late-war Germany, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
The film also stars Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, and Scott Eastwood.
Logan, I was going to ask you about your character, because he goes through this transformation from somebody who is just a clerk typist to becoming a die-hard soldier. I was just wondering, for you, did you feel like you were going through a kind of boot camp yourself in terms of being involved in this? Did you guys hang out beforehand? Did you feel like buddies?
LOGAN LERMAN : Yeah! We had a long, long training period on this film. A lot. David is kind of known for putting his actors through a pretty tough training process. We had, you know, months where we did so many different things to feel comfortable with this world that we were living in, and then also get to know each other. We had a good, solid month where we spent every day fighting each other in the mornings, and learning about the tanks, and our positions in the tanks. Most importantly was that last week. We had a boot camp, and we got to know each other very well, and we did become close in that period of time.
MICHAEL PEÑA : I just wanted… I remember Logan came in, and we started sparring. I think, from my point of view, there’s something that changed in him. I mean, a couple of times we’d beat him up, you know what I mean? Not gonna lie. We had gloves on, and gear, and all that good stuff, but there was, at one point… I don’t even know when it happened… You don’t try to really beat each other up, but you try to get some good shots, and you can tell when you get hurt, or you hurt the other person, and he learned. He’s like “I don’t care if I get hurt. He’s going to hit me once really good.” and that’s the change. Something, because we did end up in the barrage together, and there’s something that happens when you spar. It really does activate this kind of animalistic instinct that you have, and you really get to bond in a weird way. I did it with Jake Gyllenhaal, and I did it with these guys. There’s something that brings out a lot of honesty when you’re getting punched in the face.
LOGAN LERMAN : And it just breaks barriers, you know? Once you feel comfortable with punching someone in the face, you can do anything with them.
MICHAEL PEÑA : Yeah, so David Ayer has that weird, like- You know how, instead of theaters moves, or whatever it is, it’s trust exercises! Yeah!
My question’s for Jon. So, killing zombies or killing nazi’s? What kill is better? It’s a joke question, but… [Laughs] What was your mental preparation for some of you guys for just getting into – you said almost animalistic – for just getting into that zone?
JON BERNTHAL : Since you asked me a joke question I guess I’ll take it. You know, look, to echo what these guys said I think we were all enormously grateful for the preproduction on this movie. It’s not about putting us through hell, or anything like that. This movie mattered so much to our boss, and it mattered so much to all of us. The level of commitment and the level of investment, you know, three-four months before we started, was there. We were all kind of asked to go outside of our comfort zones, all asked to take steps together that we might have been a little afraid to do on our own, but we all kind of pushed each other and got there. We were constantly being tested, and constantly being pushed. I really feel like we became a unit before we walked on set. I’ll never forget the first time we came out for our screen test. Normally screen test is a kind of serious day on most movies, but I remember this time it was sort of our day to meet the crew, and I think – and I don’t mean this in a weird way – but I think people were genuinely afraid, you know. We came out there, and…
MICHAEL PEÑA : We also smelled…
JON BERNTHAL : Yeah. We had really been through it by that point. Through the boot camp, through the fighting, through the tank training… Honestly, our rehearsals were really more violent than the fighting… to be honest with you. Anything and everything happened there. Again, I think that part of David’s genius is that he gets you to commit, and gets you to take steps and go way beyond your comfort zone, and this thing was like life and death before we started.
My question is for Logan. Was your character’s relationship with Brad Pitt seems more like a brother relationship, or more of a father relationship? I couldn’t really decide. How do you see it? On the set between takes, what is it like to work with Brad Pitt?
LOGAN LERMAN : There’s definitely a father-son relationship there, and he is critically, in this very short time of a day, educate his new recruit… this son, on how to survive. Working with him was great. He was really generous with everything that he gives when you’re working with him. He gives a lot and asks for very little. It’s incredible to work with him.
Is he a funny guy?
LOGAN LERMAN : Is he a funny guy?
Did you laugh?
LOGAN LERMAN : We didn’t have many laughs. No. Not a lot of laughs. There wasn’t a lot of levity. He’s a nice person, though. We definitely worked hard together.
I really enjoyed the film guys. Congratulations. David, I thought Shia’s performance was fantastic. I thought he gave a great performance, and it’s much different than what we’re use to seeing him do. Could you talk about casting him, and casting him as that type?
DAVID AYER : I’m trying to remember how he ended up in my kitchen, but he did. I’m a big believer that there is a right role for the right actor at the right time in their life, and in our conversation, what I got from him was the sense of commitment, and a willingness to commit and transform, and be immersive, and really submerge himself into this role… let the role take over his life. To that end, he did a vast amount of prep work. He embedded himself in a National Guard unit, he shadowed the military chaplain so that he could understand how to minister the troops, and how scripture related to the soldier’s life. He really went deep with it. He understood the time period in a great way. He’s a fantastic actor, and there’s an incredible rawness to him. One thing he did… it’s easy to show up as an actor. You get to set, and you wanna be seen. His goal was to disappear into the fabric of the film, and feel like the mother of this family, and become the emotional center of it… this sort of conscious of the tank. He really did a fantastic job at being that.
David, in preparing for this film, both as writer and director, what type of mental preparation did you do to take on such a project? And with such talent?
DAVID AYER : Well, it’s interesting. For me, when I’m on set and we’re shooting I tell my director of photography my big joke… we’ll, it’s not really a joke. “Don’t think! Just do!” and for me, it’s kind of the same thing because as a director you’re a manager. You have this huge amount of resources, this incredible pressure, this timetable… You come up with a series of complex plans that you develop with your department heads. You hope it all works out. You hope the tanks don’t break down. You hope the weather’s favorable. It’s a vastly expensive endeavor, and the world’s watching so it’s really easiest to simply put one foot in front of the other and take it day by day, and to have a vision and to have a goal. The shorthand answer is don’t think.
My question is for David. I was just curious about the logistical aspects. The tanks in this are quite specific to the reality of what happened. I’m curious what kind of help you had? Maybe from the military? Also, if you kind of consulted with any World War II tank vets in getting the authenticity as real as it was?
DAVID AYER : So, one of the complaints that you see in a lot of movies about World War II is that the armor’s inaccurate. It’s interesting because the film takes place at the end of the war, so you have this sort of admixture of every iteration of the Sherman tank in the film, which is accurate. As far as accuracy goes, you could try to build tanks but it’s never going to be correct. There’s a lot guys out there that are fans of the World War II genre, we call them rivet counters, and they’re gonna wanna look up the foundry marks, and serial numbers on the turrets, and figure out where each tank actually was because all of those records are out there. Every bolt, every detail… is the aircraft gun mount correct? Is that the right shovel in the shovel slot? Is it the post war version? Is it the 1951 British export version? People note these details, so that accuracy is important. We worked with certain European collectors. As we started researching the movie, we started realizing that the movie’s in Europe because a lot of this armor and these vehicles weren’t out during the London lease program during World War II, but it’s actually illegal to re-import any of it. This material that went overseas stayed overseas, and there it is now in the hands of these collectors. It’s interesting in working with a collector…
‘Can we paint your tank?’
‘No.’
‘Can we light it on fire?’
‘No.’
So, it becomes a challenge but fortunately we found people who were really game, and they let us paint their tanks, and modify them, and get them absolutely correct to April, 1945.
David, what do you pinpoint as the toughest day of filming? And Logan, considering the lack of experience and knowledge about what he’s been thrown into, what would you say was the most difficult thing to understand about the character and his situation?
DAVID AYER : So as far as the toughest day of filming, it’s interesting; one would think that standing in the mud at 3 a.m. with the rain and pyro and explosions and tanks and all sorts of things like that happening would be the toughest day. That’s actually where I’m at my happiest. The toughest day for me was the dinner scene that we shot in the apartment. It’s…nobody came out of there in tact, let’s just say. It was bare-knuckled acting, and it’s the kind of thing where the next day you shuffle over to the actors and look at your feet and [say], ‘Hey, are we…are we still buddies?’ I still don’t know the answer to that.
LOGAN LERMAN : I would say the toughest aspect to working on this film and figuring out how to portray Norman was mapping his arc and his change from afraid to kill to killer. There’s a lot of things that happen to him on this day that this movie takes place, and to make it realistic, you try to have a gradual change and pick the right moments. That was probably the most difficult aspect to portraying Norman.
When you made HARSH TIMES you took a financial risk in mortgaging home. Looking back, was that the best risk you’ve ever made in your career?
DAVID AYER : Rule #1 in Hollywood is: don’t make a movie with your own money. I’m going to follow that rule in the future, and it’s going to make my wife happy that I do that. It’s still terrifying to think about that and that risk that I took. I’m not a film school grad. I’m sort of a wrong-side-of-the-tracks guy. No one was going to hand me a directing opportunity unless I created it for myself.
Have seen plenty of WWII movies, great tank warfare, and the first I can recall with a Latino in the lead. What kind of research did you find on Latinos in the military?
MICHAEL PEÑA : It was actually way harder than I thought it was going to be, to be honest with you. It’s good to have a buddy who has written a Latino in every movie he’s had. END OF WATCH was an amazing role, and I had to read it three times to make sure I did have that part. But there’s not a lot on Wikipedia; there’s not a lot just in standalone newspaper clippings. It was shocking, to be honest with you, because there was about half-a-million Latinos that actually fought in World War II. So we just started creating a character, really, and estimating what it would be like. So we made him a zoot suit-er; that’s why he was wearing the chain outside. I had a lot of help on this, because every time he would give me direction, he would speak to me in Spanish and for the cadence, because there’s not a lot of that way of talking in any other movie or in videos that I saw. I started watching some of the older movies – if you guys remember, there’s a top hot [reference], and I thought Gordo probably watches all of these movies and thinks they’re really cool. So I tried to put in a lot of stuff that I think would be cool in ‘30s and ‘40s movies. I think the biggest one is just us talking about this guy, how it was tough at home, because it seemed nobody really liked him at home, and then here he is getting shot by Nazis. So there was a level of depression I try to deal with, with drinking in the film; that’s the way he was coping. It’s hard to imagine somebody being hated on both sides, so that was my crutch in the movie.
You have some funny lines you say in Spanish…in the script or ad libbed?
MICHAEL PEÑA : That’s David going, ‘Hey, say this shit, dude.’ I’m not kidding. But it would be funny.
DAVID AYER : But it’s a little bit sad that Latinos made a huge contribution to the war effort in World War II, not just in uniform; between 250,000-500,000 served and there’s no records, so it’s hard to say. And then obviously on the home front as the white boys went to fight, they had to fill these jobs in the factories, and it was really the first period of franchisement for the Latino community in America because they had jobs, they had money, and they were fighting for their country and their freedom. What people don’t realize is there are 17 Hispanic Medal of Honor winners in World War II that won our nation’s highest honor. It was an incredible contribution. As I looked at the period photographs of these tanks crews, you start to see more and more Latinos. I’d show Mike and [say], ‘Hey, look at this guy!’ and you start to see it once you look for it. You realize how prevalent and how present they were in the war, but unfortunately in a lot of these films they just haven’t shown that aspect; they haven’t shown that diversity.
MICHAEL PEÑA: But also what was interesting…I did End of Watch, and that was a completely different character. I remember reading it and being like, ‘Oh, man,’ I was really excited and was like, ‘Thanks for writing me the part.’ And then I was like, ‘Shit!’ It just seemed like a very difficult part to do because he wasn’t like a – me, Jon Bernthal and Shia would get together and say, Logan’s got a storyline, Brad’s got a storyline, use three have to form Voltron in a way. Shia was like, you’re the head, I’m the – I was like, wait, let’s figure this out. But literally, months and months of that. It was really cool that it wasn’t like anything I’ve seen of Shia. He really didn’t care, shining or not. We basically made a pact – you’re as strong as I am, and I’m as strong as you are – and tried to form that triangle and really help the scenery for the movie and paint the picture of war.
For Michael, I liked the Gordo name, which wasn’t really explained. But considering your contribution to the Latino community, do you have plans for doing a Spanish or Mexican film production?
MICHAEL PEÑA : Oh, yeah. I worked with Alejandro Ińárritu, and I worked with Diego Luna, and I’d like to keep on working with those guys. I remember growing up and people changing their names and turning their bank on Latin roles, and I just decided a long time ago that I wasn’t going to do that, that I wanted to do something for my people and be inspired just like Edward James Olmos did in STAND AND DELIVER. I ended up doing calculus in high school because it was just a strong image in my head that that’s what I wanted to do. But I would love to do movies in Spanish. I might have to get better at Spanish; I’m not too bad. He can tell you how the name Gordo came about.
DAVID AYER : There was a comic strip that came out in 1941 called “Gordo,” and it was one of the actual first positive depictions of Latinos in U.S. media. The author of the strip – I don’t remember his name – actually ended up serving in World War II, but because of that comic strip, it was sort of common for Latinos to be given that nickname, Gordo.
Brad is one of the most famous movie actors, someone people think they know a lot about. During the early bonding period, what was something intriguing, unexpected or fun you learned about his during that?
JON BERNTHAL : Look, I’ll be honest with you, man – I can’t say enough good about Brad. I understand a lot of people kiss his ass, and I guess if we’re here I’ll just have to kiss it. I felt like he was completely, not only willing, but eager and desperate to dive in every inch as far as the rest of us. At no point did he try to separate himself or hold himself on a pedestal. I respected him immediately for that. And it seemed to me that the colder it got and the wetter it got or the tougher it got, the bigger the smile on his face was. I don’t know what it’s like to be a big movie star and all, but I would imagine that he enjoyed the fact that David in no way let him get away with anything. He was one of the guys and had every bit as much responsibility as we did – that goes for the bootcamp, that goes for the fighting, that goes for the tank training – and he wanted that; he craved that. Any time the chips got down at all in bootcamp or whatever, I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s kind of cool just looking over and being like, ‘Man, that’s Brad Pitt. If he’s doing this shit, I better do it, too!’ You know what I mean? And there’s something to that. He’s a lovely guy, he’s a family man, and I’m proud to call him a friend.
This film has been rated R by the MPAA for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout.
WAMG has your passes to one of this Fall’s most anticipated films.
FURY takes place in late-war Germany, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
The film also stars Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, and Scott Eastwood.
FURY opens in theaters on October 17.
Stop by the Gamlin Whiskey House Guy’s Happy Hour on Friday, October 10 from 5-6PM for half priced appetizers, drink specials and FURY giveaways.
WAMG invites you to enter for a chance to win passes (Good for 2) to the advance screening of FURY on Wednesday, October 15th at 7PM in the St. Louis area. We will contact the winners by email.
If you are a winner, you will need to head over toSONYSCREENINGS.COMand register to receive your two passes.
Answer the following:
Director David Ayer garnered widespread acclaim and accolades for his hyper-realistic portrayal of life behind the blue line in END OF WATCH(2012). Ayer co-wrote what WWII submarine thriller starring Matthew McConaughey?
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This film has been rated R by the MPAA for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout.
On October 17, director David Ayer’s film FURY opens in theaters. For many whose fathers and grandfathers served during World War II over in Europe, this movie will undoubtedly take on a very personal meaning.
Sony Pictures has released six powerful new clips and photos from the movie.
FURY takes place in late-war Germany, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
“The war’s almost over and this dying elephant – the Nazi empire – is on its last legs,” Ayer explains. “It’s a different world from your usual war movie, where we celebrate victorious campaigns like the invasion of the European continent, or D-Day, or the Battle of the Bulge, these famous battles that American troops have taken part in. One of the forgotten time periods is this last gasp of the Nazi empire, with an American army that has been fighting for years and is on its last reserves of manpower. The men are exhausted. In World War II, you fought until you either won or died, or were grievously injured and got sent home. The fanatical regime is collapsing, it’s a confusing environment where anyone can be the enemy – it’s incredibly taxing on the fighting man’s soul.”
For FURY’s score, David Ayer turned to Steven Price, who earlier this year won the Oscar for his score to GRAVITY.
Price also made heavy use of a choir, often chanting and singing in German. “The idea was that while the characters are supposed to be winning the war, in fact, they’re in the middle of Nazi Germany and surrounded. We wanted to give a very unsettled feeling – the whole score gives you a sense of being in danger. So I used the choir in different ways — sometimes as a group, sometimes solo, very closely miked. It’s this constant presence, this undercurrent of unsettling darkness.”
Kevin Vance, one of the military technical advisors on the film, says that the commitment to realism meant a commitment to a furious, visceral film unlike any WWII film that has come before.
“In most World War II movies, we have this association with ‘the good war’ – and it is,” he says. “But over 60 million people died in World War II. That’s a dichotomy that hasn’t been fully explored, and that’s what David demanded of this film.”
One way that the filmmakers were able to “get it right” was to enlist the aid of a number of veterans of the 2nd Armored Division who served during World War II.
“David is ferocious about authenticity,” says Pitt. In order to make that authenticity happen for the crew, he relates, “he set us up with some beautiful experiences. We got to meet several vets who were all in their 90s; they had survived D-Day landings, and the Battle of the Bulge… it was a very humbling experience to sit in their presence and listen to their stories. They had very visceral descriptions of what it was like to be in the tank: the heat, the exhaust, it was oily, the smell of death was always in the air. Most of them were undertrained, they were underequipped, they were dealing with incredible hardships and weather, lack of food, lack of sleep. And they had to push on under the most harrowing of conditions.”
Details of the tankers’ memories come alive in FURY – for example, that every fifth bullet from the machine gun is a tracer; that there are so many tracers that the heat can melt the barrel; that the difference between outgoing and incoming artillery is the incoming’s telltale whistle; that the outgunned Sherman tanks could find ways to use their exceptional mobility against the Germans’ mighty Tiger tanks. It’s these details that make the film feel true-to-life.
“Veteran accounts are hugely important, because they bring it to life,” says David Rae, one of the military technical advisors on the film.
“They give you the actual ground truth of how a crew fought through different theaters – through Normandy, North Africa, through the low countries, and finally to Germany, that final push. They give you interesting stories that you can grab hold of and emotionally attach yourself to.”
FURY will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX format and released into IMAX theatres in select international territories starting Oct. 16.
FURY, which features a strong supporting cast including Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood, will be released in more than 25 overseas IMAX markets through early 2015, including Australia, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the U.K.
This film has been rated R by the MPAA for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout.
Brad Pitt, the guys and a 33 ton Sherman Tank are ready to break through enemy lines in the brand new poster for the upcoming movie, FURY.
Directed by David Ayer,FURY starsBrad Pittas “Wardaddy,” a Sherman tank commander who must guide his men into the heart of Nazi Germany during the last month of World War II. The film includes Shia LeBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood.
The first to bear a fully-rotating turret with a 75 mm gun, the Sherman Tanks were named after the American Civil War Union General William T. Sherman. (Sherman made the infamous March to the Sea from Chattanooga to Atlanta).
With almost 50,000 manufactured during World War II, these remarkable tanks provided critical armored support to Allied ground troops. For more on the Sherman Tanks, clickHERE.
Columbia Pictures will release the World War II film during awards season on October 17 andwill be the closing night film at the58th BFI London Film Festivalon Oct. 19.
What kind of Oscar contender will the film be? With a big cast led by Brad Pitt and directed by END OF WATCH director Ayer, Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood/Indiewire postulates, “The awards question is whether this movie leans toward the artful naturalism of Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” the spectacular humanism of Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan,” or the accessible commerciality of Peter Berg’s “Lone Survivor”.
Oscar winning composer Steven Price (Gravity) scores Columbia Pictures’ World War II epic FURY, in theaters October 17th, 2014. The film will be closing the 58th BFI London Film Festival this year.
Directed by David Ayer, FURY stars Brad Pitt as “Wardaddy,” a Sherman tank commander who must guide his men into the heart of Nazi Germany during the last month of World War II. The film features a star-studded cast, including Shia LeBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña and Jon Bernthal. Fresh off of his Oscar win for Gravity’s high-energy, out-of-this-world score, Price strikes a musical balance with an emotionally resonant, action-packed score for Fury.
The Fury Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be available on Varèse Sarabande Records October 14th, 2014.
Steven Price was drawn to FURY in the script stages, sensing the power of the characters and their plight, and how it portrays the heroism of World War II veterans.
Price comments, “I sought to honor their bravery; to create a score that was honest and true. At the same time, for a film accurately portraying mechanized warfare, the score needed to be primal and guttural. We used armory and weaponry as instruments to give a sense of a constant grinding forward whilst the orchestra carried the emotion.”
Price utilized actual World War II weaponry, including a .50 caliber machine gun, along with a bag filled with dog tags, to create the industrial, treading percussion sounds that echo the bombast of tank warfare. Price wrote parts of the score with cellos and a small, intimate choir, to portray the inner angst and bond between the war-torn soldiers. The choir motif was used for high-energy battle scenes and calmer, as well as more introspective passages of the score, a humanism element in a score that seeks to portray the harrowing mechanizations of war.
Steven Price is an Oscar winning composer and musician who previously worked as an award winning music editor. Price won the Academy Award for Best Score for Alfonso Cuarón’s GRAVITY. Price is currently nominated for both Discovery of the Year and Composer of the Year at the World Soundtrack Awards being held in Gent, Belgium in October.
Price has written additional music for films including Pirate Radio and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, collaborating with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. Price also scored 2013’s THE WORLD’S END, directed by Edgar Wright, with whom Price collaborated with on Scott Pilgrim.
Price has also written music for several productions on major UK television networks as well as advertising campaigns in both the UK and the US. His accolades include the Film Critic’s award for his original Attack the Block score, for which he also received several film festival awards.
The Fury crew with Wardaddy (Brad Pitt), Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal), Boyd Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) and Trini Garcia (Michael Peña).
Director David Ayer gives a rundown of these men from his upcoming film FURY in the new “Brothers Under The Gun” featurette.
“Combat’s a brutal, dirty business. It’s incredibly taxing on the fighting man’s soul.”
April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines.
Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
FURY’s crew includes Andrew Menzies (production designer, 3:10 TO YUMA), Roman Vasyanov (director of photography, END OF WATCH), Dody Dorn (editor, END OF WATCH, SABOTAGE) and Steven Price (composer, GRAVITY).
Also featuring Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood, the film opens on October 17.
