The film riveted audiences at the Sundance Film Festival, introduced viewers to a young actor named Anya Taylor-Joy and helped put the millennial-courting indie distributor A24 on the map.
(The film will be distributed by Focus Features, the specialty film unit of NBC News’ parent company, NBCUniversal.)Įggers made his theatrical debut in 2015 with “The Witch,” a 93-minute horror fable about the clash between a 1630s Puritan family and the evils dwelling in the woods near their New England farm. When they visited Iceland, however, Eggers was so captivated by the “powerful and ancient and awe-inspiring” landscapes that he finally took his wife’s advice and “got into this fascinating culture.” (“You should always listen to your wife,” Eggers said with a laugh. He did not immediately follow her suggestion. Marilla Sicilia / Archivio Marilla Sicilia / Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images fileīut then Eggers’ wife, Alexandra Shaker, who delights in medieval and early modern literature, implored him to dive into Icelandic sagas. “The macho stereotype put me off as a kid, and, as an adult, the right-wing misappropriation of Viking culture cemented my disinterest.” Robert Eggers in Rome on April 1. “Initially, I never was interested in Vikings,” Eggers said in a recent Zoom interview, occasionally peppering his comments with self-deprecating laughter. But he said he never expected to make a film that draws so heavily from Viking lore. Eggers, the son of a Shakespeare scholar, bows to that thematic lineage without compromising on his stark vision: an eccentric blend of death-metal ferocity and Tolkienesque fantasy.Įggers, who has jet-black hair and a close-cropped beard, specializes in films where historical realities mingle with unsettling surrealism. The mythological version of Amleth was the inspiration for Hamlet, Shakespeare’s tragic prince of Denmark. The violence that ensues is fiery, savage and relentless. The film, which debuts April 22, stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, a hulking Viking prince who stops at nothing to avenge the killing of his father (Ethan Hawke), save his mother (Nicole Kidman) and murder his family’s betrayer.
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