Universal is making a big gamble on Peter Berg's adaptation of the board game BattleshipTHR reports that "Execs even considered pulling the plug on Battleship in June."  One of the major obstacles is that Battleship has no big name stars.  It's being led by Taylor Kitsch (TV's Friday Night Lights) , Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood) and Rihanna, but Kitsch lacks mainstream name recognition and audiences tend to be wary of musicians who want to act.  And while Battleship is a recognizable name, it also may send some potential viewers bemoaning, "They'll make anything into a movie!"

Hit the jump for more on this risky play by Universal.

THR points out other causes for concern:

  • Peter Berg isn't a brand-name director even though his last movie was the highly successful Hancock.  However, Hancock had Will Smith.
  • Comcast, which is about to acquire NBC-Universal, may not be too pleased with what they perceive to be bloated budgets and no hits movies to show for it.
  • Movies that are set on water are prone to production problems (e.g. Waterworld).

Personally, I like a good naval warfare movie (although I prefer submarines to battleships) and it's not like these kinds of flicks are over-running the marketplace right now.  Battleship is a gamble, but there's hardly a "sure-thing" in Hollywood.  Battleship may be a tough sell to audiences, but it's far from an impossible one.