Transformers isn't the only movie that's dangerous for Hollywood's health.
Aaron Eckhart reveals his upcoming action flick, Battle: Los Angeles, was injury central...
"I broke my arm," he told me recently. "There were a lot of injuries—every day, people were going to the hospital. It was tough, but it was fun."
The movie revolves around aliens invading Santa Monica and Venice, Calif. "It was insane," Eckhart said. "It was the hardest movie I ever made. Every day, I didn't know if I was gonna survive. I felt like I was at war. We were shooting M4 rifles. We had explosions, all this kind of stuff. It was like we were a coordinated Marine unit."
Before Battle comes out in March, you can see Eckhart in the movie adaptation of the award-winning play The Rabbit Hole in theaters next month. The awards-season contender stars Eckhart and Nicole Kidman as a married couple dealing with the horrific death of their son.
This is no lighthearted comedy. The cast lived together while making the James Cameron Mitchell-directed film. "It's an intense movie," Eckhart said. "I just had to be there with Nicole. She was so fired up and so good and so passionate about the movie. I just hung on for dear life."
The Rabbit Hole is just one of the many films in L.A.'s AFI Fest presented by Audi film festival, which opens Nov. 4 with Love & Other Drugs starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. The weeklong program ends Nov. 11 with a screening of director Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.
(Originally published Oct. 30, 2010, at 6:00 a.m. PT)