Exclusive: Director Robert Eggers talks The Northman and how it's different from Gladiator or The Lion King
Coming out this week in theaters is from visionary writer-director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse) is The Northman, an immersive Viking epic like no other. The cast includes Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Björk.
Young Prince Amleth is on the cusp of becoming a man when his father is brutally murdered by his uncle, who kidnaps the boy’s mother. Fleeing his island kingdom by boat, the child vows revenge. Two decades later, Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård is a Viking berserker raiding Slavic villages, where a seeress reminds him of his vow: avenge his father, save his mother, kill his uncle. Traveling on a slave ship to Iceland, Amleth infiltrates his uncle’s farm with the help of Olga, an enslaved Slavic woman — and sets out to honor his vow.
Eggers’ The Witch, his feature-film debut as a writer and director, won the Directing Award in the US Dramatic category at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. It also garnered two Independent Spirit Award wins for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.
His next film, The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, won the Cannes Film Festival critics’ award for best first or second feature in Directors’ Fortnight and Critics Week. It also received Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Best Cinematography.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales spoke with Eggers on directing such a big epic and how it’s different from film that have similar themes.
