Another attempt at a Viking movie

After the failure of Pathfinder and with Outlander on the horizon, a third viking movie is greenlit. This one is Last Battle Dreamer, starring Ryan Phillipe, Abbie Cornish and Sean Bean.

I mean sure there have been good movies that involve vikings like the 1954 version ofPrince Valiant with James Mason, Janet Leigh and Robert Wagner but I'm talking about movies that are solely about vikings and from their point of view?

Pathfinder, led by Karl Urban struggled to a $30 million worldwide gross, which resulted as $15 million in the red for that movie which in truth just looked like a hack and slash video game. Outlander starring Jim Cavieizel, Sophia Myles, Ron Perlman and John Hurt blends the genre with some sci-fi elements with the inclusion of an alien into the mix. That flick should be out by the end of the year but I don't think anyone is expecting it to make anything more than Urban's attempt did. The Hollywood Reporter say that Ryan Phillipe is to lead his own viking movie, alongside Abbie Cornish and a guy who is no strange to historical sword and sandal movies, Sean Bean. The movie is titled Last Battle Dreamer and is being setup at Future Films. Phillipe will lead as Viking warrior Thorfinn who invades England alongside his battle scarred brother Hakon (Sean Bean) in what is described by it's writer/director Menno Meyjes as a "love story written in blood". Meyjes came up with the story for all those years ago for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and most recently he has helmed Penelope Cruz and Adrien Brody in the Spanish bullfighting drama Manolete. Shooting is set to begin before the year's end. I have my reservations about Phillipe leading his own epic movie such as this, and it's certainly something he has never done before. Bean though gives me hope... he is a veteran of this type of movie and for him to be battle scarred, sounds interesting to me enough. It's another viking movie... they haven't been doing so well in the past... there's little too think that this movie will find an audience at this early stage.
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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.