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Peter Berg on The Kingdom
By Fred Topel | Image property of Universal Pictures.
The Kingdom
Berg Prince of The Kingdom
"Obviously politics and religion play a strong role in the film, and as a film maker I wanted to make a film that responded to the times that we were living in and make a film that in 15 years my son, who's seven, will be able to watch and have, I think, a unique and a fair representation and understanding of what life was like for all of us who were living in this time," said Berg. "Because of that, I wanted to make a film that dealt with the Middle East and dealt with religious extremism, but I first and foremost wanted to make a film that people would be thrilled at, people would be excited about, scared, pumped up emotionally over. That was the promise I made to the studio. The studios, believe me, aren't rushing out to make educational films about the Middle East. They don't see that as a win."
Berg delivered on the action and suspense, but closed the film with a strong moral. He also opened with a visual timeline of the events leading up to the crisis in the region. "It's also my belief that it doesn't take a lot to get people thinking. To me, the ending should be thought-provoking. It doesn't take so much, and I think the opening credit sequence I'm very proud of in this film, and I want to give people a fun, engaging, educational experience of what is going on in the militia. I was pretty shocked to find out that many people don't understand that 15 or 19 hijackers at 9/11 were not from Iraq. They were from Saudi Arabia. Osama Bin Laden is from Saudi Arabia. He's not from Iraq. Everyone understands oil. There's a lot of oil there, but there's a lot more going on. I want people to understand that, and I found that just like getting my son to do things he doesn't want to do in terms of math and science, if you can make it entertaining and almost trick people into having something that then feels more like an educational, thought-provoking experience, then everyone wins."
The film was originally scheduled for April of this year. The rescheduling to this month certainly seems significant, but Berg said the proximity to the 11th was not a factor. "I feel really good about that. We had a series of test screenings a while ago and it was a pretty bizarre experience. The audience started clapping very intensely and they started responding very aggressively, and I sat there thinking I really f*cked up and had made something that appealed to the most bloodthirsty, violent, militaristic component of our culture, and that was never the intention. Afterwards we had this focus group of 30 people and everyone sort of talking about the film in very emotional terms, and they were responding to the message at the end. They were finding the film provocative, at which point we were like, 'Maybe we should think a bit more about how we release this film and put a little more thought into it.' The studio was extremely supportive, and said, 'We want to take more time, figure out exactly what we have, figure out how we want to sell it,' and that was followed up by a very intense screening process, which included a European screening with a pretty heavy Muslim population, where we experienced the same reaction. The bottom line is I'm glad we took the time, I feel great about coming out when we are, and very appreciative of the studio for taking the extra time, and spending the extra money to give it a more thorough release."
And remember, this is fiction. The good guys complete their job in about three days. "By the way, no Americans get killed in that gunfight. There's probably 10,000 rounds of ammo. We talked about carrying Chris Cooper's character, and decided not to. As I said, I wanted to lead with entertainment. I certainly didn't want to lead with politics. That's probably not the most accurate portrayal of how a homicide investigation would go down, although sometimes they do go down very quickly if things break. You get a break and you move quickly. I would say it was a sacrifice in the spirit of keeping things moving."
The Kingdom opens to theatres on September 28th.
For the trailers, stills and more movie info, go to The Kingdom Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Universal Pictures.
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