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Mel Gibson's Nordic joy

(Agencies)
2010-01-19 19:08

Mel Gibson is learning Nordic.

The actor-turned-director wants his latest film - about the Vikings, which will star Leonardo DiCaprio - to be authentic so the cast and crew will be taught the Old Norse language.

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He said: "I think it's going to be English - the English that would have been spoken back then - and Old Norse. Whatever the 9th century had to offer. I'm going to give you real."

Mel, 54, is delighted that his project is getting off the ground as it has been a long-held ambition to make a movie about the Scandinavian warriors. He told Collider.com: "The very first idea I ever had about making a film... my first thought about ever being a filmmaker was when I was 16 years old and I wanted to make a Viking movie. And I wanted to make it in Old Norse, which I was studying at the time. "

It's odd because at that age that's a stupidly ridiculous idea because how will I ever be a filmmaker. It's just some kind of romantic pipe dream. But that was the first big, epic, wacky idea I ever had."