>>62258393When it was first announced, it seemed like a fantastic idea. Mel Gibson was going to direct a real viking movie. He was going to make a hardcore, bloody viking movie. He had the expertise thanks to Braveheart and Apacolypto, but once Gibson’s first tape got released (after the first DUI meldown), the movie fell apart just as quickly as Maccabees.
Leonardo DiCaprio dropped the project immediately (he was going to lead the picture) and Gibson got left without a studio. The film still sounds like a great idea, but there’s no way Gibson will be able to get the artistic freedom or budgets he got before for historical epics like he did before. Despite this, however, Gibson still claims that Beserker remains in development as well…
Even though Gibson perhaps thinks there is an alternate reality where this film will get made, there isn’t and it won’t. It’s actually a shame because Gibson was pitching the film as a ultra real and ultra violent take on Vikings. The film was going to be shot in a foreign language a la Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto and it was going to push the R rating like Gibson’s other directorial vehicles.
