Australian actor-director Mel Gibson is planning to make a movie on Viking culture with US superstar Leonardo DiCaprio rumored to take the lead.
Baltasar Kormákur. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
Icelandic actor-director Baltasar Kormákur is also planning such a movie and is currently negotiating with a large Hollywood production company on its production and distribution.
“I don’t think it’s a conspiracy against me; these men have other things to do with their time. But these are large names to compete against,” Kormákur commented to Fréttabladid.
Kormákur is planning to shoot his film in Iceland, which would be the most expensive Icelandic film project to date.
Gibson, known for his historical movies Apocalypto and The Passion of the Christ, has not revealed any details from the plot of his Viking movie, but apparently it will feature the daily life in the Viking era rather than a single event.
“It is a similar approach as we have had in mind and this is of course an interesting coincidence. But one doesn’t give up although one has to compete against such giants,” Kormákur said.
“Movies about this theme have been planned in Hollywood for a long time and now it seems as if people are going for it,” the director added.
The project is moving along, he said, a set has been made which is currently weathering in the East Fjords.
Click here to read an earlier news story about Kormákur’s Viking movie.
