As follow-up to writer-director David Ayer’s jaw-dropping cop drama End of Watch, we anticipate Fury will be full of action and tense moments. But for our first look at the World War II drama that is now in production, Ayer has chosen to share a peaceful moment featuring his star-stacked cast.
In its original tweet, it’s a bit hard to make out whose who in this pic. But in the blown up image below, you can make out from left to right Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief’s Logan Lerman, End of Watch’s Michael Pena, Brad Pitt sitting in the center, The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal, and Shia LaBeouf.
Fury stars these five as members of an American tank crew that’s cutting its way through Germany in the final days of World War II. The arguable sixth member of this unit is Fury, the tank you see them resting on above. As he did with End of Watch, Ayer plans to create a gritty and earnest portrait of a job that demands incredible tenacity and bravery. “What these men went through is worthy of a complex, honest portrayal,” Ayers has said. “This will have incredible, visceral action and complex rich characters. I plan to bring tank combat to life in a way that lands with a modern audience.”
Pitt plays a tough as nails Army sergeant called Wardaddy, who leads his unit in the mission to make a major blow to the Nazi forces. LaBeouf will portray that familiar war movie figure of the young man who is eager for battle until he faces the true horrors of war. Pena will play Fury’s oft-drunk driver, who has made a solemn vow to never go into war sober. Lerman will be the crew’s youngest member, reluctant gunner Norman Ellison, who was trained in the Army as a typist. Finally, Bernthal will tackle the role of Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis, an Arkansas native whose can be as cruel as he is cunning.
After End of Watch, we’re on board for whatever Ayer does next, which technically would be the upcoming Arnold Schwarzenegger crime-drama Sabotage. Rather than writing and directing as he did on End of Watch and will do on Fury, this feature has him as a hired gun helmer, directing the action icon in the tale of a DEA task force being picked off one by one after they plunder a drug cartel’s safe house. Open Road Films will unleash Sabotage on January 24th, 2014. Columbia Pictures plans to bring forth Fury in theaters on November 14th, 2014.
