"The Mosquito Bowl" in theaters now & on Netflix Nov. 25

Great new film that is out right now. I think it's going to reach a lot of people, especially here in the D.C. area where we have so many veterans. But sports fans, history fans, action fans, you got to clear your calendars and check out the Mosquito Bowl that just hit theaters. Big name actors like Bill Skarsgård following the attack on Pearl Harbor as four of America's top college football stars joined the Marines as they geared up for battle in the Pacific. There is a legendary football game that is part of the story, and you'll get to more of that in just a second. But take a look first. There's nothing I would like more than to tell you it's going to get easier. Here, Shriner. It's not. I would love to tell you there will be no more casualties. Here with an inside look at the movie. Happy to have the director and screenwriter Peter Berg with us, executive producer and author of The Mosquito Bowl, a game of life and death in World War II on which the movie is based. This is Buzz Bissinger. Gentlemen, thanks for coming in. Really appreciate you joining us today. These, by the way, the creative minds behind Friday Night Lights, but this, and you pointed out, is not a football movie. This is a war movie that just happened to involve a football game, right? But tell me, first of all, what was it from this story that got you so invested in it in the first place? Well, it really was this football game. I knew nothing about it. I was on the net, internet, I was screwing around, and I came upon a small story for this thing called the Mosquito Bowl. On the island of Guadalcanal, in the midst of the Pacific Theater, three months before the most horrific battle, arguably of World War II, and they were playing this football game, two regiments stocked, I mean stocked, with some of the greatest college players in the country. If you put them together, they would have beaten many NFL teams. So when I read about it, I got more and more intrigued, and then they got names, and then I was able to zero in on the players. And the upshot, the aftermath, is of the 65 who played. Fifteen were tragically killed at Okinawa. And Peter, when you tell this story, you had the challenge then of telling the story of these people who existed, real people, but at the same time existed in the horrors of war. So how did you decide how to tell the story? I mean, the approach, there have been so many great war movies and some really incredible World War II films. And people ask me, well, you know, why would you want to do one? And my answer was, well, we never did one. Buzz is my cousin. There have been other great football movies. We never did one. Friday Night Lights is something I'm super proud of. So I felt like I wanted to try one. I wanted to try one with Buzz. And the goal was maybe if there's something different about this film, it's very intense, very experiential. The goal is sort of take you into this film. If you're someone that... It doesn't like certain level of intensity. It is a violent film. This might not be for you. It's meant to be kind of an immersive experience. And I really wanted to honor the Marines that served, honor the military in general in a larger picture. I believe that you can deeply honor the military. My dad was a Marine in Korea. Buzz's dad was a Marine in Okinawa. We love and support the United States Marine Corps. The movie is also an anti-war film. 75 million people were killed globally in World War II. Before that, in World War I, 19 million people were killed. We sincerely hope there's not a World War III. And we hope that this film, particularly for a new generation, can show young kids today what commitment and dedication and patriotism looked like in the 40s and respect that. And we hope that our leaders can look at what the cost of war is and be very careful when we ask Marines to go. One thing we know is if you ask them to go, they will go. And it's up to us to be careful. Which is one of the things when you look back in retrospect and you realize that these are, you know, 17, 18-year-old kids, right? These were kids who had to become men very, very quickly. And I just want to say the war scenes are incredibly authentic because they have to be. Because we sanitize war. People don't want to see it, but they have to see it. That's why it's in there. It's not sensational. But because of the players involved, it's about brotherhood, it's about love, it's about camaraderie, it's about bravery, it's about loss, it's about loneliness. There is a lot going on in this film, and I'm very biased. I think it's a spectacular film. Well, and there's more boxes to check, too, because people that geek out on film production, when you look at it, you're absolutely right. I mean, just the angles that you use to shoot the film, the fact that you use as many practical effects as you can. You literally build a battlefield in a quarry so that everything would be as real as possible and you could blow things. He's very good at that, by the way. Yeah, that is something you do quite well in addition to many other things. But for the football part of it, one of the things that's interesting to me is you have to take these actors, and these are not football players in a lot of cases, right? You had to teach them how to play football. You had to take them literally to boot camp to learn the military work as well. Yeah, so I... Made a slight, maybe it wasn't a mistake because I knew what I was doing, but I did cast two Brits and a Swede who had never played American football. And I cast them because they were the best actors and had incredible passion in football. We could teach them enough. Christian McCaffrey from the 49ers, who is a good friend and was a good friend of the film, worked with them for a long time and got there. They were all very athletic. But Christian was able to sort of not only teach them how to move like football players, but spending any time with Christian, who's such a great, great, great human being. Great mentor to have. He helped them understand kind of the soul of football. Yeah, which is important, not just the limits. And one of the Brits was a good rugby player. There you go. That helps. That kind of helps. Buzz, we're going to have to wrap it up for now. I wish we could just take this longer and longer. But when you first put pen to paper for this, to see it into fruition now, what are you most proud of? Well, I'm just proud it was made into a film. I'm proud that the film is essential to the spirit of the characters. I'm proud that it captures the spirit. Of the book. Look, it's it's numbing. I mean, I was out in Australia where it was filmed and it's surreal I said my god, there's my book. There's this there's that it's a spectacular feeling and it's made more spectacular Pete and I collaborated on Friday Night Lights, which was an exceptional experience and that's when I realized just how talented what we need was for you and your listeners You know what your viewers to tell Buzz To write another book ASAP. Well, everybody call him and tell him. I think you need to write another book ASAP. Somebody just told me this. It's been done, dude. I'm trying, I'm trying. Love the immersive work that you guys did. And even the background of you spending so much time at Parris Island to see everything firsthand. It's great stuff. Pat McAfee, as you saw there in the little clip that we showed also has a big role in the film as well. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Congratulations. Thank you. Good luck on the future projects. It's out now. Go check it out. The Mosquito Bowl. Makia. All right. Looking forward to it. Thanks, Steve.