Norse Code

The Northman Alexander Skarsgård stars in a roaring rampage of revenge…

- By Jamie Graham. Photographs by Universal

EXCLUSIVEIt was intimidating and daunting,” says writer/director Robert Eggers of upscaling from the intimacy of his first two movies, The Witch and The Lighthouse, to the epic reach of his third, The Northman. Buy hey, it goes with the territory – any filmmaker whose first films are so exemplary is going to be granted bigger toys by a studio, and a Viking picture lends itself to vast landscapes and sweeping battles.

“I was utterly terrified, but it’s a major privilege to be able to do something like this,” Eggers continues. “It’s been exciting. The studio let me use all my head of departments from my last two films, and I was able to work with the top Viking historians in the world, which was incredible.”