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THE NORTHMAN starring Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman (2022)
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Started by Bosco685,

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Bosco685

Bosco685

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With just a few months remaining until the film's release, Focus Features has released The Northman trailer. The video offers the first look at Robert Eggers' star-studded historical thriller about a Viking prince embarking on a quest for vengeance for his father's murder.

 

The first The Northman trailer offers an exciting look at the scope and scale of Eggers' Viking saga, namely as it appears to be his biggest production to date. The independent filmmaker has rose to stardom over the past five years for his work in the horror genre with The Witch and The Lighthouse, both of which utilized their period settings to full effect with their era-accurate dialogue as much as their isolated production design and costumes. The Northman certainly looks to be following in his past footsteps while also expanding his location and cast rosters to some jaw-dropping effects.

So it is the director of The Lighthouse and The Witch. 

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Bosco685

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Robert Eggers on ‘The Northman,’ Making It as Accurate as Possible

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COLLIDER: This is my kind of movie. I am very excited. So I normally don't ask this question, but because the film is months away and no one really knows that much about it, what do you want people to know about the movie?

 

EGGERS: As little as I can get away with. Look, my biggest hope is that people will feel confident and comfortable going to movie theaters in April, because this movie really deserves to seen on the big screen because it quite literally is an epic, and the scale of the landscapes and some of the action sequences, and also just it's more immersive when you're there.

 

You want to be with the characters. You want to be in the Viking longships with the Viking's rowing. You want to be on the side of a volcano. You want to be in these environments. Also, because it is a classic tale and an adventure story, it's much more enjoyable to experience that with other people. That's something that I would like people to take away or to know about the film, months ahead. But I can't control COVID.

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COLLIDER: You're known for being very accurate to the time period that you're filming. Did you ever debate having the characters speaking in the native language, or was that really just not something that you could consider with the budget you were playing with?

 

EGGERS: Yeah, it would be my preference for them, for the characters to speak in Old Norse and Old Slavic, and they do in some ritual situations, they do. But I knew that it was a non-starter. Unless I'm Mel Gibson, financing my own movies, that's not going to happen with a budget like this.

 

One of the many reasons why I turned to the Icelandic poet and novelist Sjon, was his deep understanding of the Icelandic saga, was to work with him to develop a way of speaking that would be in English, but give the flavor of a very good saga translation. I hope you found it.

 

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Bosco685

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Now, via IndieWire, Skarsgård has described the meticulous detail Eggers sought in every aspect of The Northman during filming, and the toll it took on him physically. The actor describes Eggers as both a “perfectionist” and a “genius,” outlining how the “meticulously stylised” nature of the film meant that many scenes were shot repeatedly. In particular, Skarsgård outlines how the one-shot battle sequences in The Northman were so exhausting that he would want to "cry" afterwards, admitting he'd never been so tired than after the six-month shoot. Find the actor's full quote below:

 

“He absolutely is [a perfectionist]. But he’s also a genius ... 'The Northman’ was the first time I worked on something that was so meticulously stylized, and you almost had to see it as a dance between the camera and the actors, because the camera was constantly moving, and so were we. If the timing was slightly off, then we’d have to go again. I’ve never been more tired than after those six months ... To shoot it all in one shot means you do this four-minute take, and then a horse deep in the background looks the wrong way and you have to do it all again ... You’re so exhausted that you want to cry. You feel like you finally got all the choreography of the fight worked out, but then you have to go again and again and again. There’s always something in the background that wasn’t quite right. The flip side of that is when you finally get it, it feels like winning gold at the Olympics.”

 

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