|
 "When I told people I was going to make a World War Two
movie, the eyes rolled, you hear the groan," Ayer recalled.
"It's really the study of a family that happens to live in a
tank and kill people."
"Fury," out in U.S. theaters on Friday, follows five men led by
hardened war veteran Wardaddy (Pitt), overcome with fatigue and
trucking along in Nazi Germany during the final months of World
War Two.
"My (motive) is bringing a cast together and turning them into a
family, turning them into brothers," Ayer said. "I haven't
really seen that level of intense character study in a World War
Two movie, and I felt like it was time for that."
Made for $68 million by Sony Corp's Sony Pictures Entertainment,
"Fury" is an intimate story amid war-torn battlefields. It is
projected to open with $25 million at the U.S. box office,
according to BoxOffice.com.
Joining Pitt in the tank are actors Shia LaBeouf, John Bernthal,
Michael Pena and Logan Lerman, who all underwent an intensive
military boot camp to research and bond.
"It's really tough," said Pena. "From the rations to waking up
early to being sleep deprived, you're really having to rely on
the other person to get through."
Pena, who previously worked with Ayer on 2012 police drama "End
of Watch, jokingly compared working with the director to a
root-canal dental procedure.
"It's always scary to do a David Ayer movie because what he
likes is to make somebody uncomfortable and film that," he said.
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The experience was new for 22-year-old Lerman, best known for young
adult movies such as "Percy Jackson" and "The Perks of Being a
Wallflower," who said he learned a lot about his physical and
emotional limits.
"It was very humbling to think about the people that actually have
to train like that," Lerman said.
Ayer said LaBeouf, who has more recently made headlines for bizarre
antics including wearing a paper bag on his head for an art
installation, "worked his ass off" to prepare for the role of
God-fearing gunner Boyd "Bible" Swan.
"The crazy Shia rumors are fun, but the boring truth is he just did
a lot of prep to play this character," Ayer said. "He doesn't
showboat, and he's so powerful and understated."
Much of the film takes place in enclosed spaces and the violence,
which is often bloody and prolific in battle scenes, aims to give
context to the harsh and jarring conditions that scar the men.
"The reality of modern warfare and mechanized warfare is people are
just mangled," Ayer said. "I have to show what they're reacting to
and what they've seen for years, to understand the effect it's had
on them."
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Ken Wills and Lisa
Shumaker)
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