MANILA, Philippines - World War Z might be over for Brad Pitt, but that doesn’t mean that the actor will be staying away from the battlefield for long. Starting today, fans will be able to witness all of the emotions and action that come with being embroiled in one of the greatest battles to have ever taken place in this lifetime with the release of the WWII thriller Fury.
When it comes to writer-director David Ayer (Oscar-winning Training Day), he’s “the guy” in regards to anything involving hardcore masculinity and real-deal groups of men. He’s set out to make the ultimate movie that recreates the “brutal dirty business” of warfare and through the help of Dorset Tank Museum’s loan of the last working Tiger tank to the production it serves as a “special asset” to the authenticity of Fury.
“To have a battle with a real Tiger and real Sherman tanks coming at each other with pyro blowing off and explosions and everything — It was a once in a lifetime experience,” says Ayer. If the audience is going to understand why it took 50,000 American Sherman tanks wipe out 15,000 German Tigers, they have to see the hulking beast in action.
You see, the average life of a tank crew during the war is six months. The crew of Fury has been together for four years. Pitt’s Wardaddy leads his men in what seems to be a suicide mission. It’s their five-man crew against 300 German forces. “We haven’t run before, so why we gonna run now?”
The Golden Globe awardee and Academy Award nominee is joined by Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson series) — the group’s new recruit; Shia LaBeouf (Transformers) — the gunner; and Jon Berenthal (Walking Dead) — the one in charge of reloading; and Michael Pena (End of Watch) — the one behind the wheels.
The undisputable Fury cast, according to the New York Times, was roughed up before the filming began. The stars were pushed by the military consultants, and spent a week in a boot camp in England. “It was fully immersive,” says Ayer. “Day one, everyone threw their cell phone in a helmet. Brad was first, to set the example. It was full on. It was 24 hours a day. There was no ‘Hey, let’s give the actors a break’ stuff. It was fully full-on. Pena was even trained to drive the tank specifically for the film. The other tanks in the lineup are driven by former military men, who also make up a good portion of the film’s extras.
“After reading the script, I got chills,” Lerman says. “I was ready to dive in and live in his shoes. That said, it must have been a miserable experience actually being in his shoes.” Ayer, he says, put the cast through four months of rigorous training: “He had us sparring and fighting every day — all of us getting together at 5 a.m. and working on techniques, and then just getting into a ring to fight each other. It was part of our whole violent psychological training for going to war.” Once filming began, the commitment didn’t wane, giving Fury its gutsy, in-your-face realism. “There were days when we wouldn’t go home,” Lerman says.