EXCLUSIVE: Maverick Danish producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen has announced details of his new $15m Viking movie The Long Ships – and that long-term collaborator Lars von Trier is planning an action movie.
Speaking at the Film i Vast reception in Cannes, Jensen said The Long Ships (Rode Orm) – directed by Hans Petter Moland (In Order of Disappearance) and scripted by Tobias Lindholm (The Hunt) – will star Stellan Skarsgaard and assorted members of the actor’s family.
“[Stellan] can bring one or two sons, depending on what we need in the story,” said Jensen.
The film will shoot in 2016 in Danish, Swedish and other Scandinavian languages. Zentropa is co-producing with Nordisk.
The Long Ships will be made as “one or two” feature films and as a four-part TV series.
Jensen, who will produce, said: “I haven’t seen a good Viking film in my life. The atmosphere of our story is very much Pirates of the Caribbean goes Viking.”
The veteran producer confirmed that Lars Von Trier was writing US-set horror movie for Kristian Levring to direct.
As for Von Trier’s own directorial plans, Jensen said: “He is talking about making a Trier version of an action movie.”
Having made horror (Antichrist), disaster (Melancholia) and erotic fare (Nymphomania), this is one of the few genres that Von Trier hasn’t yet tackled.
Also at the Film I Vast event were Mads Mikkelsen and screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen, representing both The Salvation and their new co-operation, the black comedy Men & Chicken, about two adopted brothers in search of their real parents. The film is planned to start shooting in the autumn.
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