By KEVIN WILLIAMSON, QMI AGENCY
March 5, 2011 2:00am

LOS ANGELES — At 40, Aaron Eckhart began to feel his biological clock ticking. Actually, it was more of a timebomb. How many more years, he asked himself, did he have left to start blowing s— up?

“I really felt my mortality in terms of my career,” says Eckhart, who turns 43 this month. “I said to myself, ‘How many years do I have left to make my mark? To become who I think I am?’ And you say to yourself, ‘I want to be in good shape, I want to be physical, I want to still be a man, so what do I have? Twenty years.’

“So I’ve got a lot to do in 20 years before my face falls off, before I can’t walk and all that sort of stuff. So I really feel a lot of pressure to make everything count, which is weird, because I’ve never felt that way before.”

So while some men react to middle age by buying sports cars, snapping up young spouses or getting nipped, tucked and hair-plugged, Eckhart hunkered down and dug in for his debut as an action hero.

No wonder he’s enthused about Battle: Los Angeles. Opening Friday, he stars as rugged, resilient staff sergeant Michael Nantz, a veteran U.S. marine on the verge of retirement called back into duty when mysterious extraterrestrial forces suddenly attack the planet.

The rest of the movie owes as much to Saving Private Ryan as War of the Worlds as Nantz leads a dwindling number of soldiers in a last stand on California’s coast.

More pointedly, it lets Eckhart channel his inner John Wayne and break from the conflicted character roles he’s best associated with.

“I’ve always got tons of words to say, (the characters are) always Machiavellian, they’re always duplicitous,” he says, laughing. “I did enjoy very much the guy who had a simple code. He didn’t betray his code and didn’t allow others to betray his code. Either you were on his side or not. As an actor, there’s a lot of relief in that because you know where you stand.”

Eckhart first got noticed in 1997′s In the Company of Men, in which he played a sociopathic white-collar misogynist out to emotionally torment a young deaf woman. From there, more morally dubious and dysfunctional roles followed — from a ruthless tobacco lobbyist (2005′s Thank You for Smoking) to a corrupt cop (2006′s The Black Dahlia) to a widower still struggling to cope with his loss (2009′s Love Happens). Even in the recent Rabbit Hole, he played a father mourning the death of a child.

His most commercial success came in 2008′s The Dark Knight, in which he played Harvey Dent, the crusading district attorney who becomes the disfigured psychotic villain known as Two-Face. The movie may have been a smash, but Eckhart is realistic about what it meant for his professional cache.

“I don’t know for me how much of a bump I got off that. Obviously it doesn’t hurt. It’s always good to work with good filmmakers because then people have confidence in you and I’ve worked with filmmakers.

“It’s still a struggle. I’ve got to go out and fight for my movies, fight to be in them, fight to be in the sequels. And that’s why when I’m in a movie, I take it so seriously because I don’t take it for granted. I literally have to go fight for movies, especially in this day and age — in this economy. (And) the studios are just making sequels or identifiable films and all that sort of stuff. So it’s harder to be in these kind of movies.”

That he would want to be “in these kind of movies” at all came as a pleasant surprise to Battle: Los Angeles director Jonathan Liebesman.

“Aaron was interested in the movie before I got the job. And I couldn’t believe he’d be into it. But I thought that would be amazing because it could elevate or ground the script in some sense of reality. Aaron has a sincere earnestness about him and that, with aliens and explosions, that balance could be fun to watch and realistic, too. That was awesome he was interested. He was very game.”

So much so that training for the movie included a three-week book camp to get into military mode.

“It’s not the real deal, but it’s no joke either,” Eckhart says. “We tried to be as authentic as possible – I think it shows in the movie that we were pretty knowledgeable about what we were doing – That was extremely important for me — to treat this subject matter as if it were real.”

Sometimes maybe too real. At one point during the production, Eckhart broke his arm. Still, he continued shooting. “As a pro-athlete or whatever, you cannot afford to take a day off, a second off. And I can say that honestly I gave 100% every single minute of this movie.”

He also related to his character: the battle-scarred veteran surrounded by young up-and-comers. “In a lot of ways,” he says. “He’s a guy who’s frustrated, who wants more, who wants to be better, and he’s very idealistic. I get frustrated, too.”

His advice for young actors starting out? “When I meet young actors, I say, ‘You have to decide today. You don’t have tomorrow. It’s crucial you figure out what you want to do today and go for it and commit 100%.’ Because in terms of really getting out there and making something you’re proud of, that you can say, ‘I gave everything to this’ it doesn’t come along too often. In the movie business, something like this movie was a godsend to me. I’d wanted this movie to come to me.”

More war film than scifi

Battle: Los Angeles is more Flying Saucer Down or Saving Private Martian than Independence Day or Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Which was the point, says director Jonathan Liebesman, as he attempts to enlist audiences for the umpteenth action-adventure to centre on marauding extra-terrestrials bent on conquering our planet.

“No filmmakers goes in saying, ‘Let’s do every cliche in the book.’ But I think every genre gets revived. District 9 hadn’t been made at the time (he signed on) but I knew (Vancouver-based director Neill Blomkamp) was going to do something fantastic.

“Always as a filmmaker, you set out to do something great. Was there a hesitation in doing it? No, because it’s two of my favourite genres. I love war movies. I love alien films. To have the chance to do an alien film on Earth but try to make a war film is exciting. If the movie does well and they want to do more, I can embrace that even more. There are places to go.”

Liebesman’s resume includes The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Darkness Falls — hardly the kind of auspicious credits you’d expect someone entrusted with a big-budget extravaganza to have.

“I was definitely not at the top of any list to get the job,” he admits.

So how did he wind up landing it?

“I had seen some of Neill Blomkamp’s short films which, as you know, were great. And so I e-mailed him, introduced myself and asked how he accomplished them technically. He was very generous and told me what software he used. I went and shot some stuff in downtown LA.”

That footage attracted Battle: Los Angeles producer Neal Moritz.

While Liebesman admits his competition for the gig was “directors who’d done way better movies” than he had, Moritz hired him.

“He supported me through the process.”

While some of the promotional material surrounding the film has pointed out a real “battle of Los Angeles” — in which the U.S. military is said to have engaged otherworldly flying objects in 1942 — Liebesman says he drew from sources that were much more current.

“The main inspiration was war footage on YouTube, the embedded stuff,” he says. “The main challenge was trying to make a war film with aliens rather than an alien film that happened to have marines.

“The exciting thing was taking the staples of war films and juxtaposing them with aliens and to breathe some life into (the genre).”

Source: Toronto Sun

I can tell this is already going to be great… Aaron will be making an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on March 9, Wednesday on Comedy Central.

Check out his last appearance on the show in September 2008 when he was promoting Towelhead. You can download the interview at the video section.

By Mark Rozeman

Long teased by brief images of a battle-torn Los Angeles and a squad of soldiers firing at a group of unseen aliens, audiences will get the chance to witness the full effect of this spectacle when Columbia Pictures’s newest sci-fi action film, “Battle: Los Angeles,” explodes into theaters on March 11.

Described by some as “Black Hawk Down” meets “Aliens,” “Battle: Los Angeles” promises to be 2011’s first major blockbuster event.

The story centers on a group of Marines who find themselves at Ground Zero of the alien invasion. Led by Staff Sgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) and later joined by Air Force TSgt. Elena Santos (Michelle Rodriguez), the group must fight for survival in the decimated streets of Los Angeles, where danger looms across every corner.

“This movie is a war movie, really,” Eckhart said in a conference call with the Wheel. “It’s a war movie where you happen to be fighting a foe from outer space. It’s very down, very gritty, like we haven’t seen before.”

In order to convincingly portray the battle-hardened military in the film, the film’s actors were put through a rigorous boot camp overseen by real-life Marines. This involved running laps and performing other forms of exercise in the wee hours of the morning and learning how to handle firearms.

“The training was agonizing but fun,” said Rodriguez. “But the funnest [sic] part was the guns. I love running around with a gun shooting 50 cal[iber] even if it is blanks. Not every day you get to play with so many toys.”

With such a massive production, it became necessary to secure a director capable of handling the material. The studio found their man in director Jonathan Liebesman.

Born in South Africa, Liebesman attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and slowly built up his resume with horror movies (“Darkness Falls” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning”) and terse psychological thrillers (“The Killing Room”). Though his previous films were much smaller in scale, Liebesman used his ingenuity to gain the studio’s trust.

Armed with a video camera, Liebesman filmed certain areas of Los Angeles. He then taught himself to use computer programs to insert aliens into the shoots. Upon showing this footage to the studio, Liebesman was given the job.

For Eckhart and Rodriguez, Liebesman’s dedication and meticulous nature proved to be enormously helpful.

“He attacks every situation from a thousand angles,” Rodriguez said. “He has massive attention to detail and he’s always interactive.”

Besides his technical prowess, Liebesman also proved to be highly communicative with his actors.

“He was very specific in telling us what the aliens were doing at what time [and] what they sounded like. He kept the actors involved at all times,” Eckart said. “He has a very concrete vision of what’s going on and that’s important for an actor.”

In addition to creating an atmosphere that would help validate the actors’ performances, Liebesman also worked with cinematographer Lukas Ettli to design sequences that would both immerse audience members in the world of the film and allow them to see the action from the perspective of the characters.

“The way the whole film is shot, it’s very first-man shooter and I find that to be unique for a sci-fi flick,” Rodriguez said. “You really feel like a character in the movie. It adds to the suspense and the whole vibe of making it real.”

Despite its visual spectacles, Eckart asserts that the film is far from a mindless action film. Since it only documents the experience of the Marines, the film also devotes time to learning about their pasts and fears. This emotional core is augmented by a group of citizens who end up traveling with them.

“It’s a really kickass, entertaining film, but it also has a lot of heart in it as well,” Eckhart said.

As the film’s release date draws near, speculation about whether it can hold the momentum set by past blockbusters “Avatar” and “District 9” has risen.

No slouch to appearing in geek-friendly films, including “Resident Evil,” TV’s “Lost” and the aforementioned “Avatar,” Rodriguez believes that science fiction offers something for anyone looking to be swept away by the magic of narrative fiction.

“It’s using your imagination,” she said. “It’s exaggerating reality. It’s pushing borders. We’re trying to figure out what this thing is — this unique little planet in the middle of f—king nowhere. It’s gnarly and I just love it when people explore [these] possibilities. It’s my world. I’ll dive in it. I’ll make love to it. It’s awesome.”

Source: Emory Wheel

by HELEN BARLOW
March 3, 2011, 11:15 am

Mention the name Aaron Eckhart and women go a little weak at the knees. The 42-year-old actor is at once a matinee idol and the kind of guy a girl would gladly take home to meet her mum. And her mum would go weak at the knees as well.

There’s a timeless quality to Eckhart’s appeal that makes him perfect for screen romance or to play the kind of guy who backs up his beautiful partner. From Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole to Catherine Zeta-Jones in No Reservations, to Gwyneth Paltrow in Possession, to Julia Roberts in his breakthrough role in Erin Brockovich, Eckhart is also the kind of actor who doesn’t mind playing second fiddle. Besides, he loves women.

“It is fun to make them laugh and you always sort of fall in love in a little way, a very minor way,” he admits. “But you find admiration and respect as well. I respect these girls; that is my main point. I respect Nicole.”

Certainly he was honoured that the Academy-award winning Australian actress had personally chosen him for the role of her husband in Rabbit Hole, the adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer-winning play, which she also co-produced. The tragic heartfelt story, which follows the couple grappling with the death of their infant son in a road traffic accident at the front of their rather salubrious home, is one of the best films around at the moment. Eckhart’s successful executive gets to look sexier than Kidman, who is more closed off as the result of her trauma. Even if her hubby needs a little affection and feels increasingly alienated by her, he still loves her and would never leave her.

“It helped that I’m an enormous fan of Nicole’s and I always wanted to work with her,” Eckhart says in his deep former cigarette smoker’s voice. (He gave up after filming 2006′s Thank You for Smoking). “She called me up, and I don’t usually get calls from people like her,” he adds bashfully, “but I was honoured and immediately said yes to the project. During filming I felt we had an easy relationship, and that helps when you’re working with tough material like this.”

Interestingly when Kidman was helping finance the film, it was Eckhart’s involvement – and popularity – that sealed the deal.

What is it that makes him so eminently lovable? He is the youngest of his family. “The heat was off when I came along. It was tougher for my two older brothers,” he admits alluding to the strictures of his Mormon upbringing as well. Perhaps most significant though is that he has a great relationship with his mum.

“My mother is an artist and writer and her mother was an artist and a school teacher. My dad is creative too,” he says of his successful businessman father who surely influenced his acerbic white collar portrayals in Thank You for Smoking and In the Company of Men, his debut film he made with Neil LaBute, his classmate at the Mormon Brigham Young University in Utah. “My parents are special people,” he adds. “Probably why I am not marrying though is because I can’t find the girl that measures up to my mum!”

Yet another reason to love the lad: He’s single. Though currently he’s rather career-driven. The natural athlete, who surfed at Sydney’s Manly when his father’s business brought the family here for a year during high school, retains the kind of physique and posture that allows him to play in the action genre as well. After 2003′s The Core, where he had a gal pal in Hilary Swank to help save the planet, now he teams up with Michelle Rodriguez for Battle: Los Angeles, to do likewise.

“I love being physical, being out in the air and running around,” he says. “Here’s hoping the film’s a success.”

Boasting a more realistic story than The Core, Battle: Los Angeles is set in 2011 when the Earth is attacked by aliens and all the world’s cities fall, apart from Los Angeles (conveniently for Hollywood filmmakers, of course). Eckhart’s Staff Sergeant is a marine who is about to retire and is “pretty burnt out”, Eckhart explains. “He’s leading a bunch of young Marines into a battle with aliens in LA. He’s doing it reluctantly but that’s just the type of hero that I love to watch.”

Eckhart has also completed the screen adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary opposite Johnny Depp. “I play a smarmy corporate guy, who is a little bit like my previous businessmen characters, only Puerto Rico style,” he says. “Apparently Johnny is working so much that he doesn’t have any time to promote the movie. So, I don’t know what is happening with it. I hope it comes out.”

Rabbit Hole is now screening. Battle: Los Angeles opens March 17.

Source: The West Australian

Set your DVRs once again! Aaron will be appearing on Lopez Tonight on March 8, Tuesday and Tavis Smiley on March 10, Thursday.

by Kara Warner in DC Comics, News

With more and more actors filling out the ranks of Christopher Nolan’s third and likely final Batman film, “The Dark Knight Rises,” the ever-expanding roster — particularly with regard to the additional and suspected villains on the list — leaves little room for any extras. Back in December we learned that Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent/Two-Face would not be in the third film, news that Nolan delivered to Eckhart himself, by way of an odd beach meeting.

When we caught up to Eckhart recently during the press day for his big alien adventure flick, “Battle: Los Angeles,” we asked him for his thoughts on the new crop of villains and if his “heartbreak” over not being in “Dark Knight Rises” is mending.

“I just saw Chris the other day, Chris Nolan, and you know, what can I say? The guy didn’t put me in the [third] movie,” he said, with genuine sadness in his voice.

“It’s fine,” he added. “Actually, I wouldn’t have it any other way because with Heath [Ledger], ‘The Dark Night’ is Heath’s movie, it stands on its own and there’s no reason to do any more with that and it’s a natural thing too.”

“I have total confidence in Chris,” he said. “Chris is going to come up with a brilliant script and these people will be as good as they ever were in it.”

Of course, we had to ask whether his recent chats with Nolan involved a certain other superhero movie: the reboot of the “Superman” franchise Nolan is producing.

“I tried to get Jonathan [Liebesman] to direct ‘Superman,’ the director of ["Battle: Los Angeles"],” he said. “I thought he would have been a great director for this.”

“I probably will just go back to my little hovel and go surfing until somebody calls me,” he said with a smile.

Source: MTV (video at the source)

MANILA, Philippines – Aaron Eckhart (“The Dark Knight”) leads the cast of Columbia Pictures’ “World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles” as Staff Sergeant Nantz, a career Marine who is “pretty burnt out,” the actor says. On the brink of retirement, he is pressed back into service. “He’s leading a bunch of young Marines into a battle with aliens in L.A. He’s doing it reluctantly, but that’s just the type of hero that I love to watch.”

Director Jonathan Liebesman calls Eckhart, “one of the most incredible actors working today. It was such a coup to get Aaron in this movie,” adds the director. “Aaron immediately gives you incredible depth with your central character. You believe these guys would follow him anywhere.”

“Aaron is a phenomenal actor and a very generous collaborator – he submits himself to the role fully and never gives up,” continues Liebesman. “His character, Nantz, is fierce and impenetrable. I couldn’t imagine anyone else taking this role and making it so rich and complex.”

Before production began, Eckhart and Liebesman collaborated on a one-day shoot that would set the tone for the entire production: the result was a short reel that brought Liebesman’s vision into focus and put it on a screen for everyone to see. “He asked me to come down for the day – I had no idea what it would be like. I’m telling you, I freaked out. We had full uniforms, we had weapons, we had a helicopter, we had Humvees, the whole place was covered in dirt. It was amazing – Jonathan had a relentless vision for the movie.”

Eckhart thrived in his first sci-fi action movie. He took to the training immediately and worked his body into the best shape of his life. He became well versed in firearms, thanks to the coaching he received from the military technical advisors. He even developed what he calls a “love/hate” relationship with his helmet, and by the end of filming, began to refer to his protective military gloves as “his best friends.”

To help them prepare for their roles as Marines, the filmmakers dropped the cast members into an intensive, three-week boot camp with active and retired Marines. They would have no mobile phones, no television, no internet and no contact with the outside world.

“Boot camp was interesting,” says Eckhart. “I’m glad we did it, because it was essentially a three-week rehearsal period. We had three Marines put us through boot camp and we all slept in the same big tent and ate together. We were regimented. We ate rations and had all our courses during the day. We acted like a squad of Marines – I was the staff sergeant, so I bossed them around and they hated my guts. It was invaluable, particularly when it came to weaponry – to know how to hold it, what you’re looking at, how to walk with it and how to be a cohesive unit going down the street. It really helped us, because when it came time to shoot, Sergeant Major Dever would just say, ‘OK, you guys are patrolling this area,’ and we’d know how to act.”

Opening soon across the Philippines, “World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Source: Manila Bulletin

Feb 26 2011 10:17 PM EST
By Brian Warmoth, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Director Christopher Nolan told Aaron Eckhart personally that “Dark Knight Rises” script wouldn’t have a part for him. Eckhart took the news in stride, though, and the nominee for Best Male Lead at Saturday night’s (February 26) Independent Spirit Awards said he expects the movie will do just fine without him — even if Nolan won’t tell him what will be going down onscreen.

“I was just with Chris, and he’s pretty tight-lipped about things,” Eckhart told MTV News on the red carpet outside the Spirit Awards.

The man who played Harvey Dent and ushered the character into madness as Two-Face in “The Dark Knight” wouldn’t admit to disappointment over not returning for the new Batman sequel. In fact, he claimed to have seen Two-Face’s omission coming.

“I never intended to come back,” Eckhart said. “That’s Heath [Ledger]‘s movie. It should live solo, and Chris is gonna go on.”

Nolan’s third Batman movie will include , best known in the Batman universe for her villainess alter ego Catwoman. Eckhart expressed high hopes for her.

“I think Anne Hathaway is going to be wonderful,” Eckhart stated. The closest he would come to complaining about his absence from “The Dark Knight Rises” was to joke about sucker-punching Nolan after hearing that Harvey Dent wouldn’t appear.

Eckhart lost in the Male Lead category to “127 Hours” star James Franco at the Spirit Awards, though judging by the gracious response he gave about the Bat-films going on without him, he seemed like he must be at ease with passing the spotlight around.

Eckhart made himself available last year, just in case Nolan had a change of heart, but now that the script is getting finished, and the big remaining casting searches seem to be limited to females, it’s probably safe to consider Eckhart politely and amicably finished as a Bat-villain.

Source: MTV.com (video at the source)

When it comes to the Oscar for actress in a lead role, many have predicted the race will come down to Natalie Portman and Annette Bening. Even John Cameron Mitchell, who directed Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole,” admitted he doesn’t think the actress has a good shot at winning.

“I think we’re all kind of like, ‘Don’t worry about it,’” he said at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday. “We’re having a blast because we’re not preparing any speeches.”

A good time indeed: Cameron Mitchell said he’d been spending the weekend partying his cares away.

“I’m partying all weekend. You’re never really hungover if you had a good time,” he joked. “Tonight, I’m going to a soul dance party. I’m having a blast.”

Presumably quite a change from the tone on set during production of “Rabbit Hole,” which stars Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as a couple grieving the loss of their young son.

“It’s tough material, you know, and we all understand that we’re actors and we’re trying to do something special,” Eckhart said, “but there’s always time for laughter and friendliness and cavorting, so we had a good time making the movie.”

Despite the odds, will he still be rooting for his costar, also a Spirit Awards presenter and nominee?

“Absolutely,” he said. “Number one.”

Source: Los Angeles Times

Unfortunately, Aaron lost out to James Franco for Best Actor for his performance in 127 Hours at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

I’ll be adding photos from the event shortly so stay tuned!