Mel Gibson Talks Mad Max 4 and His Viking Movie
Posted 01.18.10 by Ryan
Mel Gibson and his production company, Icon Entertainment, may be co-producing the upcoming Mad Max 4, but there's no word if Gibson will appear in the movie. Gibson spoke to Collider about the project, but didn't exactly clear up the confusion.
I've talked to [director] George [Miller] [about Mad Max 4] ... yeah. We talk all the time anyway. I'm abreast of that. He's been trying to do this for years — the 4th installment. At one point I was involved and it fell to bits and then this and that ... so now it's probably gone through a lot of changes and I can't wait to see it cause everything he does is magic. There is a touch of genius about George.
While it doesn't sound like Mel will play a role in the sequel, it doesn't exactly close the door either. While Gibson didn't speak about his next starring role in How I Spent My Summer Vacation, which is drawing protests in Mexico, he did open up about his next directorial project, which will be an untitled movie about Vikings written by The Departed screenwriter William Monahan (who also wrote Gibson's upcoming Edge of Darkness) and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
[Next,] I'm working with [producer] Graham [King] on the Viking movie. The very first idea I ever had about making a film ... my first thought about ever being a filmmaker was when I was sixteen years old and I wanted to make a Viking movie. And I wanted to make it in old Norse, which I was studying at the time. It's odd because at that age that's a stupidly ridiculous idea cause how will I ever be a filmmaker. It's just some kind of romantic pipe dream. But that was the first big, epic, wacky idea I ever had was to show Viking real.
I think it's going to be [in] English — the English that would have been spoken back then — and Old Norse. Whatever the 9th century had to offer. I'm going to give you real.
Going back to the original dialect will be a key for the movie, Gibson revealed.
I want a Viking to scare you. I don't want a Viking to say, "I'm going to die with a sword in my hand." I don't want to hear that. It pulls the rug out from under you. I want to see somebody who I have never seen before speaking low guttural German who scares the living s**t out of me coming up to my house. What is that like? What would that have been like?