JONAS ÅKERLUND Didn't Reach Out To VARG VIKERNES When Making Lords Of Chaos Biopic - "I Felt He Was The One Character In The Movie That I Had The Most Material On"
February 14, 2019, 5 years ago
In a new interview with EW.com, Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund reveals that he felt no need to reach out to Varg Vikernes when making his horror-movie biopic on Norway's notorious Mayhem, Lords Of Chaos.
Vikernes, who was a member of Mayhem from 1992 through 1993, was found guilty of killing Mayhem guitarist Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth. Åkerlund says he had no contact with Vikernes, who was released from prison in 2009 after serving 15 years of a 21-year sentence for the killing.
“No, never,” says Åkerlund. “I mean, I’ll leave it at that, but - I could say, I never felt I needed to because he has been the most outspoken about what happened and what his reasoning was. So, I felt he was the one character in the movie that I had the most material on. Euronymous was trickier because [he] is dead and he wasn’t as outspoken as Varg was. The Varg material that I had was more than enough for me to understand his character, so I never needed him, so I didn’t reach out to him.”
Read the complete article at EW.com.
An official video trailer for Lords Of Chaos can be found below. The film, released by Gunpowder and Sky, is co-produced by VICE Studios, 20th Century Fox, Scott Free Productions and Insurgent Media. In theatres now, the film will be available on demand on February 22nd.
A teenager's quest to launch Norwegian black metal in Oslo in the 1980s results in a very violent outcome. Lords Of Chaos tells the true story of True Norwegian Black Metal and its most notorious practitioners - a group of young men with a flair for publicity, church-burning and murder: Mayhem.
Drawing from personal experience - Åkerlund was for a drummer for the Swedish extreme metal band Bathory for a short time in the early 80s - his adaptation of Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind's book Lords Of Chaos details of the group's rise and fall via Mayhem's co-founder/guitarist Øystein Aarseth, aka Euronymous (Rory Culkin) and his relationship with two volatile collaborators: Per Yngve Ohlin aka Pelle aka Dead (Jack Kilmer), the band's ultra-melancholic first singer who killed cats and then himself; and Varg Vikernes, aka the Count (Emory Cohen), a fellow outcast and Aarseth's eventual murderer.
Visit the official Lords Of Chaos website here.
Jonas Åkerlund, and actors Rory Culkin and Emory Cohen recently stopped by BUILD to discuss the film. Watch the video below:
