Mel Gibson’s Viking Movie Will Be In English… Sort Of

January 18, 2010 by Seth
Filed under: Film

Last Saturday Mel Gibson gave a press conference for the Edge of Darkness, which I’m really excited about, and the subject of Mad Max 4 and Gibson’s Viking movie that’s set to star Leonardo DiCaprio came up. He spoke about the reality of the Vikings he intends to portray and that it will be in English, well old English. Here’s the part of the press conference I’m interested in. Transcript source: Collider.com

Mel Gibson

Question: Have you talked to George Miller about Mad Max 4?
Mel Gibson: I’ve talked to George…yeah. We talk all the time anyway. I’m abreast of that. He’s been trying to do this for years – the 4th installment. At one point I was involved and it fell to bits and then this and that…so now it’s probably gone through a lot of changes and I can’t wait to see it cause everything he does is magic. There is a touch of genius about George. Probably any good trick I’ve learned I got from George and Peter Weir.

What are you doing next?
Gibson: I’m working with Graham on the Viking movie. The very first idea I ever had about making a film…my first thought about ever being a filmmaker was when I was sixteen years old and I wanted to make a Viking movie. And I wanted to make it in old Norse, which I was studying at the time. It’s odd because at that age that’s a stupidly ridiculous idea cause how will I ever be a filmmaker. It’s just some kind of romantic pipe dream. But that was the first big, epic, wacky idea I ever had was to show Viking real.

Does that mean the Viking movie will be in English or in old Norse?
Gibson: I think it’s going to be English – the English that would have been spoken back then – and Old Norse. Whatever the 9th century had to offer. I’m going to give you real.

Is that really important to you?
Gibson: I want a Viking to scare you. I don’t want a Viking to say, “I’m going to die with a sword in my hand.” I don’t want to hear that. It pulls the rug out from under you. I want to see somebody who I have never seen before speaking low guterl German who scares the living shit out of me coming up to my house. What is that like? What would that have been like?

How hard is that going to be to cast apart from Leo?
Gibson: He’ll be amazing. He’s a great actor.

: Leonardo DiCaprio

So what do we learn from the Q and A?

The Viking film will be in English but since it’s old English, we are probably looking at subtitles again, like in Apocalypto and The Passion. Mel Gibson is a great director and I understand and support his commitment to realism and accurately portraying history but I am not a fan of his movies being in foreign languages. And he does not appear to be changing his routine anytime soon.

I thought cinematically Gibson’s Braveheart, The Passion and Apocalypto were some of the most beautifully shot films I’ve ever seen. I put them right up there with films such as Spartacus, Apocalypse Now and Gandhi. Having said that, of Gibson’s films, Braveheart is the only one I really loved. I felt like both The Passion and Apocalypto strongly lacked character and story development. Now, I Realize that virtually everyone is familiar with the life of Jesus, but the movie basically focused on him being tortured. And Apocalypto had a quick meet and greet with the characters and then the remaining time was spent watching people escape or die.

So visually I am very much excited for Gibson’s Viking movie, but I hope he drops back to his Braveheart days and develops the story and characters a bit more to bring us another masterpiece. And getting back to the English and cinematography, with Gibson’s ability to shoot such beautiful films I would like to have my focus be more on the screen instead of reading the subtitles, allowing me to focus on the collaboration of all elements of the film and not distracted by reading.