After some shaky career decisions as of late, Mel Gibson is trying his best to come back strong this year.
January saw the release of Martin Campbell’s “Edge Of Darkness” to critical and audience indifference, but he’ll have a second shot at winning over critics and fans when Jodie Foster’s oddball comedy “The Beaver” hits later this year. He’s also scheduled to shoot the Mexican-prison set “How I Spent My Summer Vacation,” this summer.
By far the most exciting and promising project on his plate though is Gibson’s upcoming re-teaming with William Monahan (he wrote “The Edge Of Darkness) and Leonardo DiCaprio on an untitled Viking project. Vikings have surprisingly been a rare subject for Hollywood films and in teaming with the talented and equally passionate DiCaprio (which was masterminded by Oscar winning producer Graham King), Gibson could have something special in his hands. But could the film be the last time we see Gibson direct?
“It was the first movie I ever thought about making,” Gibson reveals to the L.A. Times. “I saw it in my mind back when I was teenager. Seriously, it’s the first movie I wanted to make. And I think it will be the last film I direct. It’s the thing I have been going toward, in a way, since I was young, and I think when it’s done I may be finished.”
Is he serious? We’re guessing it’s more likely just a state of mind and, at that, one that more directors should adopt: that every film they make could be their last. Friends of Gibson agree, noting that “the Australian-bred actor and auteur is far too restless creatively to ever walk away from filmmaking.” Gibson’s passion and do-or-die attitude for the project are nonetheless a good sign.
“The Departed” and “Kingdom Of Heaven” writer Monahan is currently scribing the Viking epic, which is scheduled to begin shooting this fall in what will no doubt be one of the most anticipated films of next year for all film goers alike. The story was previously announced to follow Gibson’s approach for “Apocalypto” and “The Passion Of The Christ” in utilizing defunct languages — this time Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon — but their greatest challenge lies in developing a compelling story to tell.
“We’re going hammer and tongs on the script right now,” Gibson adds. “When I was 16, learning about the history of the English language I became fascinated with Vikings. And I imagined what they would sound like, how would they talk and that’s what I will be going for in this film. It’s a challenge though. There’s never been a good Viking film, not that I’ve seen. I think I have found the right way to get into it, though, but I don’t want to say too much. The real problem is making those guys sympathetic. They were monsters.”
Producer King follows up on Gibson’s sentiments, though wipes out worries about any potential ill-informed or uneducated effort from the team in discussing their thought processes behind the preparations for the story’s conception.
“We all knew we wanted to do it. It was just a matter of finding what the story would be, who our Viking was. There’s not many sympathetic Vikings out there. And you have to find something of sympathy in one of them or what else is there to show, other than blood and guts and rape and pillaging?”
“You can’t just show a film that is battle scene after battle scene, you have to show heroism and sympathy. This is not going to be a cheap movie to make by any stretch of the imagination. We’ve got to make it interesting to a worldwide audience. To me, the greatest thing about this is we don’t have a book or a familiar story – we had a couple of guys doing a month and a half of research on all of the different Viking stories that are out there. We had that research when we went in the room and we had Mel driving that train during the meeting. So we sat there five or six hours and then we had another meeting and it was the same thing. And after that we felt we had a sufficient enough story and material to go off and write the script for a movie.”
King concluded by laughing off comparisons of his upcoming Viking epic with Marvel’s film adaptation of “Thor” affirming that “we’re not making a comic book, this isn’t about superheroes. Although I’m sure everyone in town would love us to. This movie will be quite serious and very much for grown-ups.” Game on, Kenneth Branagh.