A Viking Epic to Conquer Them All in ‘The Northman’

This image released by Focus Features shows Alexander Skarsgård in a scene from "The Northman." (Focus Features via AP)
This image released by Focus Features shows Alexander Skarsgård in a scene from "The Northman." (Focus Features via AP)
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A Viking Epic to Conquer Them All in ‘The Northman’

This image released by Focus Features shows Alexander Skarsgård in a scene from "The Northman." (Focus Features via AP)
This image released by Focus Features shows Alexander Skarsgård in a scene from "The Northman." (Focus Features via AP)

Alexander Skarsgård has been dreaming about Vikings for as long as he can remember.

Some of his earliest memories are from Oland, a Swedish island on the Baltic Sea, where his great-grandfather built a home many years ago. His grandfather would regale him with tales of Viking history while walking among the massive runestones.

Skarsgård isn’t entirely sure that his grandfather’s story about a Viking ancestor named Skar who had a farm on the island a thousand years ago is completely true. But it was the kind of thing that was very exciting to him as a young boy. And it was where the seeds were planted for his latest film, “The Northman,” about a self-exiled prince at the dawn of the 10th century. It opens in theaters nationwide Friday.

The Viking dream laid dormant for some time, though. Then around 2017, Skarsgård found himself at a lunch meeting with Robert Eggers, a promising filmmaker who had just burst onto the scene with “The Witch,” an eerily realistic depiction of 17th century New England that helped introduce the world to Anya Taylor-Joy. It was one of those “general meetings” that Eggers dreads.

“You usually just sit down with people and talk about nothing and it’s usually very awkward,” Eggers said.

But it turns out they did have something to talk about. Eggers had recently returned from a trip to Iceland inspired by the grandeur and brutality of the landscapes and armed with classic sagas. By the time they got the check, they’d agreed to make a Viking movie.

“A Viking would definitely say it was fated,” Skarsgård said with a smile.

It would send them on their own ambitious quest to create the most historically accurate depiction of Vikings ever.

“In the history of cinema, aside from one tiny Icelandic movie in the late ’70s, no one’s ever tried to make an authentic Viking movie before,” Eggers said. “I had an opening.”

The story of “The Northman” is a familiar one. In his research, Eggers stumbled upon the fact that Shakespeare based “Hamlet” on an ancient Nordic folktale about a prince named Amleth, who sees his father murdered by his uncle, flees and returns as an adult to save his mother and avenge his father. It was the perfect jumping off point to have this simple revenge tale that everyone knows that he could then stuff to the brim with historical details of rituals and weapons and mythology.

With Skarsgård playing the grown Amleth, they rounded out the cast with Nicole Kidman as his mother, Queen Gudrún; Ethan Hawke as his father, King Aurvandil; Claes Bang as his murderous uncle, Fjölnir; and Björk as a seeress. Working with Icelandic poet Sjón to write the script, they wrote one part, Olga — an enslaved Slav who becomes a close confident of Amleth — with Taylor-Joy in mind.

“We both know that if we get stuck in a room with a camera, we’re going to end up pushing each other into some weird situations, which is really fun,” Taylor-Joy said.

In addition to getting to go to Northern Ireland and Iceland for the shoot, Olga presented a new opportunity to play someone with a strong tie to a faith.

“You are looking out of your own eyes at whatever situation it is that you’re looking at, but you also have an eye above you that’s overlooking everything like a bird,” she said. “When I think of Vikings, I didn’t necessarily think of the poetry of fate and living your life in this spiritual way. It actually gave me a lot of peace... Not everyone starts laughing when someone is about to slit their throat.”

She wasn’t the only Eggers alum in the bunch. The cast included Willem Dafoe, Kate Dickie and Ralph Ineson, and the crew was largely populated by people from both “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse” including cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, production designer Craig Lathrop and costume designer Linda Muir.

Eggers also recruited a team of Viking historians and archaeologists to help make sure he was doing things right, and, for the first time, he had the funds to do it. They borrowed ships from museums, built some of their own, made weapons by hand and did their best to imagine what the homes would have looked like. Even the rivets were historically accurate.

Before “The Northman,” Eggers’ biggest budget was “The Lighthouse’s” $11 million. This time, he had some $70 million to work with. A bigger budget meant more resources but also more pressure and having to forfeit final cut, although he is quick to say that the film being released is his director’s cut.

The shoot itself was a grueling, muddy, seven-month endeavor during the second half of 2020, before COVID-19 vaccines were readily available.

“We really swung for the fences on this one,” said Taylor-Joy, who recalled being barefoot in the mud while gale force winds threatened to sweep them off the mountaintop. “While almost everyone was very miserable, I was on cloud nine. I was just having the time of my life. I really enjoy being physically pushed.”

Eggers prefers to shoot long takes with only one camera, from seemingly straightforward dialogue scenes to action-heavy set-pieces like a brutal berserker raid. It was enormously taxing on everyone, but they had a shared sense of purpose too.

“We worked on the choreography of it for months before shooting the scene so that we would have the right flow between the camera and the characters moving through the shot,” Skarsgård said. “It was challenging but it was also exciting.”

What drove him to keep going, he said, was the hope they were making something unique and that audiences would feel immersed in the action in a way that they never would with hundreds of cuts and post-production fixes.

For him, at least, the result was worth the exhaustion and soreness and all the years he spent talking about a film that would take Norse mythology seriously.

“It’s beyond my imagination, beyond my dreams,” Skarsgård said. “I’m incredibly grateful and immensely proud.”



Comic-Con Fans Assemble as Marvel Eyes Major Reboot 

Convention attendees blur past a wall of illustrated Marvel superhero characters during preview night for Comic-Con International, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)
Convention attendees blur past a wall of illustrated Marvel superhero characters during preview night for Comic-Con International, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)
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Comic-Con Fans Assemble as Marvel Eyes Major Reboot 

Convention attendees blur past a wall of illustrated Marvel superhero characters during preview night for Comic-Con International, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)
Convention attendees blur past a wall of illustrated Marvel superhero characters during preview night for Comic-Con International, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)

Comic-Con returns in full force to San Diego this week, where a hugely anticipated Marvel superhero film event is among the draws for tens of thousands of hyped-up fans dressed as fantasy heroes and sci-fi villains.

One of the world's largest pop culture events, Comic-Con began five decades ago as a humble comic book-themed gathering in a hotel basement, but today draws vast crowds and A-list stars promoting new movies and television shows.

Last year's edition was dampened by Hollywood strikes -- which prevented actors from attending, and quelled fan interest -- but Comic-Con is expected to draw 130,000 attendees back to the southern Californian city this time around.

The hottest ticket is the Saturday night Marvel movies presentation, at which parent company Disney is expected to unveil plans to reboot its mega-grossing superhero film franchise, after years of high-profile missteps.

The Marvel movies dominated Hollywood and global box offices for years, with 2019's "Avengers: Endgame" briefly becoming the highest-grossing film of all time at more than $2.79 billion.

But the past few years have brought more flops than hits, as fans complained about over-complicated plotlines and mourned the departure of favorite characters like Robert Downey Jr's "Iron Man."

And the franchise has been rocked by domestic violence revelations about actor Jonathan Majors, who had been set to become the major new supervillain across multiple films.

Majors, who was convicted for assaulting and harassing his then-girlfriend, has been dropped by Marvel, but there is no word on who -- or what -- will replace him.

Saturday's presentation is expected to reveal how Disney will move forward without him, and has been billed as a potential "make or break" moment by some observers.

It will take place inside the 6,000-capacity Hall H, where many camp in line for days to gain access.

"If the company wants to lure in anyone besides the dwindling ranks of... diehards, it needs to bring the answer to these questions to Hall H," wrote Susana Polo, for entertainment news outlet Polygon.

- Aliens, Deadpool and Ancient Rome -

Also on the Comic-Con lineup from Disney are a look at "Alien: Romulus," the latest in the long-running sci-fi saga, and a "celebration" event for this weekend's major superhero release, "Deadpool & Wolverine."

Rival studio Warner, which runs the DC superhero movies, is keeping a lower profile, but will offer a glimpse at its Batman spinoff TV series "The Penguin," starring Colin Farrell.

Elsewhere, "Those About To Die," a bloody romp through Ancient Rome and its macabre world of chariot races and gladiator fights, starring Anthony Hopkins, will host multiple fan events.

Amazon's Prime Video will lift the lid on the second season of its "Lord of the Rings" television series, which aims to improve on the mixed reviews for its hugely expensive debut season two years ago.

And following the success of recent video game adaptations for the small screen such as "Fallout" and "The Last of Us," Amazon will take viewers into the underworld of Japanese crime lords with "Yakuza: Like a Dragon," based on the hit games from Sega.

But for many, Comic-Con is primarily a place to dress up as Disney characters or fearsome samurai warriors, and meet with like-minded fans to buy and trade comic books.

Comic-Con runs from Thursday until Sunday.