Development Following publication of Marcus Luttrell and
Patrick Robinson's
nonfiction book
Lone Survivor (2007), producer
Barry Spikings met Luttrell's attorney Alan Schwartz, who was interested in making a film adaptation. Schwartz suggested that Spikings' son-in-law
Akiva Goldsman write the screenplay. Goldsman did not believe he was the right screenwriter for the project, and suggested that Peter Berg write and direct the film. Berg first learned of the book while filming
Hancock, and after he and Aubrey read it, they arranged several meetings with Luttrell to discuss a film adaptation. Luttrell also viewed a
rough cut of Berg's then-upcoming film
The Kingdom (2007), and was impressed by his direction. "[Berg] caught me with his attention to detail", he said, "and how he portrayed the enemy in the film." Berg then chose to direct
Battleship (2012) for Universal before resuming production on
Lone Survivor. When Mark Wahlberg read the script and expressed an interest in portraying Luttrell, he and his manager Stephen Levinson
pitched the concept to producer Randall Emmett, the co-founder of
Emmett/Furla Films, during the 2012 filming of
2 Guns. After reading the script, Emmett traveled to Los Angeles, where he met with Berg and Aubrey to discuss the film's production. After Universal secured the rights to distribute
Lone Survivor in the United States, United Kingdom and Italy, executive producer
Mark Damon's independent film company Foresight Unlimited took Berg and Emmett to the
2012 Cannes Film Festival to secure worldwide
pre-sales. The film attracted $30 million in worldwide pre-sales to distributors in 40 international markets. Three production companies – Emmett/Furla Films, Herrick Entertainment, and Envision Entertainment – collaborated to finance the film. In addition, as part of the negative pickup deal with Universal, the film's producers—Berg, Aubrey, Spikings, Goldsman, Emmett, Wahlberg, Levinson, Norton Herrick, and Vitaly Grigoriants—contributed at least $1 million each to finance production costs. To avoid further costs, Berg chose to work for a minimum salary allowed under
Directors Guild of America rules, $17,000 a week. He also convinced several cast and crew members to lower their
asking prices. In August 2012, it was announced that Alexander Ludwig and Eric Bana had joined the cast. Although Wahlberg, Kitsch, Hirsch and Foster had physically trained for their roles prior to filming, Luttrell organized a three-week training regimen at a bootcamp in New Mexico, where the actors were trained by elite military personnel in weapons,
military communications, and
tactics.
Writing While the book chronicles Luttrell's 1999 enlistment and training, as well as his 2005 deployment to Afghanistan, Berg decided that the film adaptation would focus mainly on the events of the failed
United States Navy SEALs mission
Operation Red Wings, as well as the bonding and camaraderie of Luttrell and his fallen teammates. his goal was "to put [the viewer] into the experience of what these guys went through. And it was obviously a traumatic and violent and exhausting experience". To provide authenticity, Luttrell moved into Berg's home for one month while Berg was writing the script. He acted as a consultant, detailing to Berg his eyewitness account of the events that unfolded during Operation Red Wings. In re-enacting the injuries and deaths of the fallen Navy SEAL servicemen, Berg relied on Luttrell's eyewitness accounts from the book, as well as autopsy reports of the deceased and
after-action reports. The United States Navy provided
incident reports related to the mission, Still photographs shown during the opening credits sequence were taken from Richard D. Schoenberg's
war photography book
The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday: Making Navy SEALs. but did not commence until October of that year. The film was shot on location in
New Mexico. Berg was granted
creative autonomy, as Universal did not fully oversee the film's production. Luttrell, along with several other Navy SEAL veterans, acted as
technical advisors during the production. He instructed them to fall off cliffs and avoid looking at the ground until right before impact. Several stunt performers were injured after falling from the mountains, as the falls proved too difficult to control. for interior scenes and
bluescreen work. He chose the Red Epic camera "due to its compact size and lightweight body."
Costume design Costume designer Amy Stofsky ensured that the military wardrobe seen in the film reflected the 2005 time period. According to Stofsky, what the fallen servicemen wore back then is no longer current issue, as the
United States Armed Forces stopped manufacturing the uniforms in 2006. While researching the time period, Stofsky met with the fallen servicemen's families, as well as Navy SEAL teammates. Stofsky and the wardrobe department collaborated with the
Hollywood-based costume facility
Western Costume to find the right fabric for the military uniforms. She and her team manufactured uniforms for the film's lead actors, extras, stunt and photo doubles, and military personnel who were also acting as extras. Stofksy noted that a total of "36 cookie cutter uniforms" were produced for Wahlberg. The editorial department used four
Avid Media Composer systems to edit the film. Parker edited the film during principal photography, but was not on location. "I like to blast through the footage to keep up with the camera. This way I can let [Berg] know if any extra coverage is needed", he explained. "Often I'll get word to the 1st
[assistant director] and he'll sneak in extra shots if the schedule permits. Although I will have a first assembly when the production wraps, Peter will never sit though a complete viewing of that. He works in a very linear manner, so as we start to view a scene, if there's something that bothers him, we'll stop and address it." The first cut of the film was two-and-a-half hours long. Parker then cut the film down to two hours when he realized there was a way to further trim the film. "There were a number of scenes that paced well when we intercut them rather than letting them play as written in a linear fashion. For instance, we wanted to let the mission briefing scene play normally—this is where the SEAL team is briefed on their target. That scene was followed by a scene of the target beheading a local. We realized that an actual briefing is very technical and rote, so intercutting these scenes helped keep the audience engaged." Supervising sound editor
Wylie Stateman recorded on-location sound during filming, placing microphones on the actors' backpacks and clothing "so [the viewers] would hear explosions and bullets going by as though [they] were with these guys as they were being attacked." In creating sound effects for the environment of each scene, Stateman relied on
foley design, rather than traditional sound effects. ILM was responsible only for creating a helicopter crash sequence in the film. Jablonsky said of the collaboration, "It was great. I didn't work directly with them because they're in Austin, Texas and I'm in L.A. I spoke to them on the phone and I think sixty, sixty‑five percent of the scores is them. We ended up doing our own things. We tried to not have two totally different sounding scores." Berg said, "[Jablonsky] did the last reel; the band Explosions in the Sky did pretty much did everything else. They have an emotional, tender quality to their music, even when it gets aggressive. I didn't want the score to be overly aggressive, I wanted it to be haunting and emotional. Steve Jablonsky came in at the end to do something more traditional, but when Steve does "traditional", it's not the usual strings. He created a wonderful sound at the very end." ==Historical accuracy==