WHEN writer-director David Ayer decided to tackle the “beaten-to-death” World War II movie genre with “Fury,” he decided to make it an intimate affair for his cast led by Brad Pitt.

    “When I told people I was going to make a World War II movie, the eyes rolled, you hear the groan,” Ayer recalled. “It’s really the study of a family that happens to live in a tank and kill people.”

    “Fury,” out in U.S. theaters Friday, follows five men led by hardened war veteran Wardaddy (Pitt), overcome with fatigue and trucking along in Nazi Germany during the final months of World War II.

    “My (motive) is bringing a cast together and turning them into a family, turning them into brothers,” Ayer said. “I haven’t really seen that level of intense character study in a World War II movie, and I felt like it was time for that.”

    Made for US$68 million by Sony Corp’s Sony Pictures Entertainment, “Fury” is an intimate story amid war-torn battlefields. It is projected to open with US$25 million at the U.S. box office, according to BoxOffice.com.

    Joining Pitt in the tank are actors Shia LaBeouf, John Bernthal, Michael Pena and Logan Lerman, who all underwent an intensive military boot camp to research and bond.

    Much of the film takes place in enclosed spaces, and the violence, which is often bloody and prolific in battle scenes, aims to give context to the harsh and jarring conditions that scar the men.

    “The reality of modern warfare and mechanized warfare is people are just mangled,” Ayer said. “I have to show what they’re reacting to and what they’ve seen for years, to understand the effect it’s had on them.” (SD-Agencies)