Defending Earth From Aliens One Raw Oyster At A Time

I like when I go to movie sets and the things that are SUPPOSED happen on movie sets happen. Example: when I got to the set of Battle: Los Angeles in Baton Rouge in October of 2009, the first thing I did was go to lunch. While there, I met a screenwriter who actually talked about the movie as “it’s X meets Y.”

The example Christopher Bertolini used in describing Battle: Los Angeles was “it’s Black Hawk Down meets Aliens” and, like any normal person, I thought, hey, that’s awesome!

As I was shoveling red beans and rice in my face, Bertolini explained how excited he was to see an alien invasion film from the point of view of an individual platoon. “These thirteen guys, no oval office, no pentagon.” No doubt there is a purity to being on the front line like this. “There are no geopolitical considerations when battling aliens,” Bertolini says.

The man has me duly jazzed, so after copious amounts of fresh baked goods and ice cream, we head into an airplane hangar. Instead of blondies and espresso it smells like oil. We are on a decommissioned airfield dressed up as a military base. Outside is a regiment of extras in full military dress under the hot Louisiana sun. Behind them are genuine flying machines of death, and I am soon to learn that they are the among coolest things I’ll ever lay eyes on.

Read about the amazing Heli-Jets!
Get your marching orders with the platoon!
Hear Jonathan Leibsman's true intentions with the film.
Get drunk and eat seafood with the cast of the film.