a documentary by Jon Gustafsson, starring Gerard Butler
Dylan Skolnick
Long Island Pulse
“On a lighter note, Jon Gustafsson’s Wrath of God is a hilarious behind-the-scenes glimpse at just how insane things can get when a movie is being made. When Gustafsson was hired as an extra on the 2004 Scandinavian epic Beowulf & Grendel, he found himself with a lot of time on his […]
Filed in: FILM FESTIVALS
When Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson and his cast and crew, including Gerard Butler and Stellan Skarsgård, set upon Iceland to film Beowulf & Grendel in 2004, they expected the usual complications involved in making a major motion picture.
What they encountered was a ruthless Icelandic winter on a foreboding landscape, financing complications and a bizarre run of bad luck that led some of them to believe they were in an epic battle with the Norse gods themselves. Filmmaker Jon Gustafsson was along for the ride. Hired to play one of Beowulf’s warriors, he’s one set with his camera as the crew battles hurricane force winds and he’s in the backroom as the producers scramble to shore up a collapsing deal, creating an intimate portrait of filmmakers fighting the odds in pursuit of a vision.
At the beginning of July 2004, Canadian filmmakers Sturla Gunnarsson, Paul Stephens, Andrew Rai Berzins and Eric Jordan went to Iceland to make a movie, a co-production between Canada, the U.K. and Iceland. It was the beginning of the most difficult project any of them had ever been a part of. A series of events continued to put the project in jeopardy. Halfway through production, the financing had not closed, the film was seriously over budget, and the bonder was alarmed enough to send a representative to Iceland. The entire production was put under intense scrutiny while the cast and crew were fighting the onset of a ruthless Icelandic winter and diminishing daylight. The storms tore roofs of buildings and swept away equipment, and Gunnarsson slowly seemed to take on the characteristics and physical appearance of a troll as he struggled to fight gigantic obstacles. The strong determination of the filmmakers (Sarah Polley called it a “sheer demented ambition”) was the one thing that seemed to be able to steer this troubled ship through the storms and guide it to harbour. Two days before the end of principal photography Producer Paul Stephens admitted that is was a “miracle” that they were about to complete the shoot without having closed the ‘bank’. To most other people on the crew it was a miracle that no one had died in a series of accidents and other unfortunate events that haunted the production.
CAST & CREW
Gerard Butler
Sturla Gunnarsson
Stellan Skarsgard
Sarah Polley
Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson
Jon Gustafsson
