It?s finally Action! time in Scotland for the Viking adventure movie Valhalla Rising in which Mads Mikkelsen plays a mute warrior for Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (photo).
The shooting of the €4.5m film produced by Nimbus Film, started this week and will last a total of ten weeks in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Other cast and crew members include Scottish actor Gerry Lewis (Billy Elliot), Refn’s usual DoP Morten Søborg and music composer Mogwai.

Several years in development, Valhalla Rising is co-written by Refn with Norwegian writer Roy Jacobsen. The story is set in the 10th century and Vikings have been in Scotland for decades. An expedition sets out to return to Scandinavia, but gets lost in the fog. They eventually reach an unknown land and think it is Valhalla, the Viking equivalent of Heaven. But it turns out to be America.

For producer Johnny Anderson, Valhalla Rising will have a very modern feeling. “Nicolas is shooting it in continuity. he will make it like a Pusher movie,” commented Anderson, interviewed a few hours before the first clapper board.

The Nimbus Film production co-produced in the UK by Glasgow-based Karen Smyth (La Belle Allée) is co-financed by the Danish Film Institute, Scanbox (who holds Scandinavian rights), DR, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, BBC, Scottish Screen and Glasgow Film Office. Wild Bunch is handling world sales and pre-sales have been concluded for France (Wild Side) and the UK (Vertigo). The Danish premiere is set for April 2009.