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So you're not really a control freak?






A lot of them, yeah. I might be shooting with other people, but even on a movie like "Everest" which I'm working on now, I'm going to do the entire post-production in Iceland. When we talk about Hollywood it's important to keep in mind that I haven't moved there. I actually write and work on my movies in the northest place in iceland. Nowadays, you don't need to move to Hollywood and leave everything behind to make it. You can get the resources you need to work from wherever. I'm based in North of Iceland, in a little town where 200 people live.

What are the projects you're co-producing with American partners?

I'm working on some ambitious projects, like "Everest." It's a drama based on a real story. I'm trying to make it authentic, there's a lot of Australians and New-Zealanders. That's kind of my aim. I can also have fun making thrillers or a comedy thrillers. It's almost like when you train to play the piano, you're training your muscles as well. Not every movie has to be the most precious one. When I worked in theater, I could enjoy making a comedy and then making a Shakespeare adaptation. And when I did "Contraband" and "2 Guns," I enjoyed the experiences as well, although it's not what I'd hope to be recognized for.

I also have a Viking movie project. It's a very ambitious project for me to do. I can tell you, I think it was early 2000, I wrote an adaptation of one of our most famous Viking sagas, "Vikingur." I started working on it around the time "Lord of the Rings" came out but I wasn't happy where it was heading -- I thought I couldn't recreate the world of the Vikings because of budget reasons. Most films about Vikings don't represent the realities of them because there's no resources to make it. I had a grant but I gave it back. I said I'd make the film in 10 years, when I'll have gained the respect and position to do it the way it should be done. Hopefully I'm getting there now. I can make a film about vikings with the scale I envisioned. That's kind of the vikings' attitude: They go out, steal resources, and bring them home. Same here: I go to hollywood to raid them and make my movie in Iceland!

What language will it shoot in?

For me that's not the biggest issue. The world is so big, it's not like you're making a movie about a French worker, it's a world from way back, we don't really know their language, the stories are written 300 years after they happened, in a language we don't understand as well. I don't want the language issue to stop the film. I know Mel Gibson has been making his own languages in "Apocalypto" and "The Passion of the Christ," but it's bullshit at the end of the day. What the actors were speaking was probably nowhere close to what it was in the past. Those are dead languages.

Right now you're doing "Everest"? How is it going?

It's fantastic. I was coming from Kathmandu all the way to the Everest, we walked with the actors. It was a really hard but beautiful shoot. I remember thinking how lucky I was, getting paid to be there. It was wonderful. The cast is blown away by it. Now I'm in Italy. We're starting to shooting here the day after tomorrow.

How is it working with such as great cast, including Jake Gyllenhall, Josh Brolin, Jason Clarke, Emily Watson? I hear a lot that American actors are exceptionally committed. Do you think it's true?

I think good actors are good wherever they're from. Maybe there's more commitment on this higher level, because there's so much risk. I think we have great actors in Europe. I've never seen that kind of commitment there, though, that artistic, mental, and physical commitment. On the other hand, American actors can be prima donnas and difficult to deal with. Which I understand, when you're on a high level. And we all want is a life as good as possible, a house as good as we can afford, a car as good as we can afford. Then it becomes about the trailer and the hotel you live in. You don't want to live a shitty life. I understand it. I don't always agree with it. But I see where it comes from.

But on "Everest" where you're working under such extreme conditions your cast members can't really be prima donnas, can they?

Yeah, we can't afford that, we stayed on shitty hotels in the mountains with one electric blanket. The actors had to do everything like they were in film school again. Yesterday I walked from 9 am to 3am just to scout, because we couldn't get helicopters. It's not too far away from "The Deep," but bigger, shooting in more countries, it's kind of the same mentality, where I was swimming in the ocean for a month to make that film. And it'll be realistic as possible. Of course, i'd love to shoot at the Summit of "Everest," but then I might come back without half of my cast. So we're also shooting in a studio. We do as we can, we have to use film technique. It's like using hair extensions instead of a wig. In hair extensions some is real.

So you'll be re-teaming with Universal Pictures on "On The Job"?

It's a very interesting project that was brought to me. Universal was involved in 'The Raid,' and they had this project, this story about real crime in the Philippines, where prisoners had been let out to kill people. They brougt me this idea and I really liked it, and I started developing it. But then they told me there was a Philippines movie being made at the same time and that movie was selected at Cannes last year and it played in Directors' Fortnight. Because of all that, we had to buy the remake rights, to clear all rights. But it's not really a remake. I already made my own version.

What's happening now in Iceland? Are you worried about budget cuts for the film industry. Some American filmmakers, including Clint Eastwood and Darren Aronofsky signed a petition to protest against the cuts.

It's worrying. The government promises to make things better. Iceland's very unstable lately. And the situation is very unfair to the film industry. We've been doing really well, we always have some movies getting some prizes, like "Of Horses and Men" (which repped Iceland in the Oscar's foreign-language race). We have these movies, but it just doesn't seem like the government realizes how much hard work is behind, and that worries me. But I don't want to be whining, I'd rather look towards the future, try to convince them of how important and great this could be in Iceland to preserve the budget allocated to film funding. I'm quite involved. I went to meet every minister of the government to convince them.

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