Viking Movie Might Be Mel Gibson's Final Directorial Film. QUARTET Is Dustin Hoffman's First

One great legend wants to make an exit and the other is making an entrance. Back in December, we heard that Mel Gibson wants to film his long time passion project, a movie about vikings with Oscar winner William Monahan in charge of the story and Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star,, Graham King producing. He recently said, via Hero Complex, that this movie will be his goodbye…

“It was the first movie I ever thought about making,”
“I saw it in my mind back when I was teenager. Seriously, it’s the first movie I wanted to make. And I think it will be the last film I direct. It’s the thing I have been going toward, in a way, since I was young, and I think when it’s done I may be finished.”

Way to go out in a blaze of glory I suppose. I’ve always considered Mel to be one of Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers alive, despite the incident that happened in 2006, no one can doubt his creativity, ambition or even his acting chops, as seen a couple of months ago in Edge Of Darkness.
For now, I’m not gonna take his exit wish seriously because many actors and filmmakers out there have said the same thing and yet they’re still in the game.
Perhaps Mel is haunted by 2006 guilt, compelled to perhaps try to clear up his reputation one last time with his Viking movie so people would remember him for this achievement, who knows, but I think it’s too early for Mel to be talking about retiring as a director. Sure he’s seen the mountaintop with the multiple Oscar winning Braveheart but even climbers who reached the summit would find themselves thinking about conquering it again and again. That and if old man Clint Eastwood is willing to direct movies until the day he dies, it shouldn’t be a problem for 54 year old Mel to keep going. He’s still got some more ammo left in him.

Mel Gibson will direct an untitled period drama set in the ancient, violent, Viking world, starring Leonardo DiCaprio with William Monahan writing the script. .
Details on the plot is kept under wraps for now. The tie that binds all these three prominent figures is Oscar winning producer Graham King. He worked with DiCaprio and Monahan for The Departed and he worked with Gibson and Monahan for Edge Of Darkness.
Graham will produce this Viking action adventure movie with Gibson and Tim Headington in a co-production between King’s GK Films and Gibson’s Icon Productions. Production is expected to start in fall 2010, there is no distributor at the moment,Gibson and King will make this film outside the studio system and secure distribution later.

Gibson spoke about the biggest challenge of this story…

“We’re going hammer and tongs on the script right now,”
“When I was 16, learning about the history of the English language I became fascinated with Vikings. And I imagined what they would sound like, how would they talk and that’s what I will be going for in this film. It’s a challenge though. There’s never been a good Viking film, not that I’ve seen. I think I have found the right way to get into it, though, but I don’t want to say too much. The real problem is making those guys sympathetic. They were monsters.”

I take it Leonardo DiCaprio might play the viking hero of noble deeds living among brute and monstrous vikings. If that’s the case, then DiCaprio needs to bulk up unless that perception about Vikings being all gigantic is just a myth.

On another note, according to Deadline Hollywood, 72 year old legendary actor Dustin Hoffman will be making his directorial debut for BBC Films. He’s replaced Richard Loncraine as the director of QUARTET, about retired opera singers, based on a 1999 stage comedy by Ronald Harwood, the Oscar winning scribe of The Pianist. Attached to star are Maggie Smith, Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay.