Rihanna's Battleship May Be Sinking

Rihanna is just weeks away from beginning to film her first major motion picture, Battleship, but with the film's massive $200 million budget, Universal may be having second thoughts.

The action movie, based on Hasbro's board game, will be directed by Peter Berg. As far as the cast ... Rihanna, Taylor Kitsch and Alexander Skarsgard are linked with the project that begins shooting in Hawaii at the end of this month.

With Comcast finalizing their deal with NBC Universal, execs are handling the production cautiously ... especially since the studio, who have a reputation for overblown budgets, has not recently had a major hit with the exception of Despicable Me. Some studio insiders fear that Battleship could follow in the footsteps of the ill-fated Waterworld.

Universal chairman Adam Fogelson tells THR, "It's a big bet like many, many big bets from many studios. We will be nowhere near the high point and nowhere near the low point of what people are spending."

One promising aspect ... the Hasbro board game Battleship has brought in more than $1 billion in revenue and has sold more than 100 million units.

Will plans for this $200 million flick stay afloat? For RiRi's sake, we hope so.