Magnet Releasing & Vertigo Films
Presents
A Magnet Release
HAMMER OF THE GODS
Directed by Farren Blackburn
99 min., 2.35
FINAL PRESS NOTES
Distributor Contact: / Press Contact Nat’l / Online:Matt Cowal / Clay Dollarhide
Arianne Ayers / Ginsberg / Libby
Magnolia Pictures / 6255 Sunset Blvd. Suite 1026
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/ (323) 645-6800
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www.magpictures.com
SYNOPSIS
Set in Viking Britain in 871 AD, Hammer of the Gods is a visceral, intense tale set in a world whose only language is violence. A young Viking warrior, Steinar (Charlie Bewley), is sent by his father the king on a quest to find his estranged brother, who was banished from the kingdom many years before. Steinar’s epic journey across terrifyingly hostile territory gradually sees him emerge as the man his father wants him to be – the ruthless and unforgiving successor to his throne.
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CAST & CREW INTERVIEWS
Charlie Bewley - ‘Steinar’
On his character ‘Steinar’
It’s a testament to what the film is that my character only goes through this massive character arc. He starts very much conflicted, for want of a better expression - odd one out in ‘viking-ville’. And because he’s a prince he kind of gets away with it. He gets away with the fact that he doesn’t believe in typical Viking methodologies, the way they go about their business. And it’s only because he‘s a prince that he gets away with that, and he has a band of brothers, who are there almost to protect him from himself, and what he believes in. The real journey my character goes under and takes on, it’s almost compromising between his beliefs and the darkness that he sees.
On the Character ‘Hakan’
Charlie: “Well he’s this enigma in my life. I was sworn never to mention his name. He disappeared when I was about 12 years old. Shortly followed by my mother, who I hold a lot of pent up emotion for and still have separation anxiety at the age of 25-26 towards this woman. The necklace she gave me sometime before she left is probably my most treasured possession; it comes out a lot in the film. I’ve never really allowed myself to believe that the disappearance of my mother had something to do with Hakan, I think deep down I realized that it is, and therefore this journey that we take on, to find my brother Hakan, really does involve my mother at the same time quite a bit. “
On the Character ‘Hagen’
Charlie: “Hagen is very much someone who looks after me. He protects me from myself. It’s a strange thing to say because I’m not necessarily dangerous, but I am someone who believes in different things and he’s someone who understands that. His relationship with me in this film comes to breaking point. This journey we undertake is ridiculous. It’s a mission - it’s a death mission. The stakes in my life as Steinar are such that it’s the only way forward. It’s the only way of me proving to everyone else that my way is right. And for our people to have a future, I have to stay true to my own beliefs, and go find my brother, and go on this journey. But what Hagen does is that he is there for me the whole way. He might not believe in what I do but he is always there to protect me and to back me up when it comes to confrontation. He loves confrontation, so the amount of trouble I get myself in sort of satiates his desire to kill people and all that. We’re very good friends but, as those who’ve watched the film will see the stakes of Steinar’s operation are such that, even best friends will come under the sword accidentally or otherwise if they put in jeopardy what I believe in.
On the Character’s ‘Jokul’ and ‘Grim’
Charlie: “The way we complement each other in battle and in character lends itself to us being a very tight knit unit for some time now. It will be a pretty boring trip if it wasn’t for those two guys, they are very entertaining. The way that Jokul fights is very suggestive of maybe, like an alternate sexual occupation. Grim is a um, that stupid joke voice in your head. You know when a crap joke comes into your head, and you’re like ‘I can’t ever say that’, I can’t believe I even thought that joke, thank god I didn’t say it because everyone will think I’m an arse’ – he’s that guy. Constantly, that’s his monologue, he just says ridiculous stuff, he’s not the gesture of the group, he’s a formidable opponent at the same time. I guess what I’m getting at is we always complement each other, and if it wasn’t for those guys we wouldn’t have that levity in the film. We just come together as a group.
On working with ‘Clive Standen’ – ‘ Hagen’
Charlie: “He’s a character man, like I watched on you tube some of the fighty stuff he does, and he’s clearly very competent. It looks great on camera, just a very, very solid actor who is physically gifted. Having done lots of Thai boxing, he’s formidable in terms of his technique. I think the way that we complement each other is that I have that red mist and he has the technique and somehow we come together and just make one awesome fighting component. Really there was some kind of competitiveness there, but there was also a massive amount of mutual respect, I don’t feel like Clive and I are in competition, it’s just like that sort of moment-to-moment competition. He’s just a wonderful, wonderful guy.
Influences for the film.
Charlie: We didn’t watch Brave Heart together (Laughs). Although, if I watch Braveheart I might have been, like my war cry I have to do at the end of the film might have been influenced by Mel Gibson’s effort. So I stayed away from Braveheart. But I did have a look at the Vikings, and the 13th Warrior for some idea- it’s not like that, this film is different. It doesn’t set out to be contemporary but you know it is. You want something that’s a mélange of things. Even Braveheart has those contemporary little bits here and there.
On ‘Agnes’ and Wilfred
Charlie: “Steinar has not had a girlfriend in a long time for some reason – strange! In the original script it was teased a lot about it, so he bumps into this completely out of the blue, this strange, ethereal little fairy called Agnes. This is up at Ivan’s camp; she’s like his servant and she mixes in the mushroom tea and what not, and then she looks after him when he gets drugged on the mushroom tea.
On stunt co-coordinator ‘Richard Ryan’
Richard is the stunt co-coordinator extraordinaire who put together all the fight scenes in this movie and there are a lot of fight scenes. There must be a good 30 minutes of fighting in this movie. The kill count is really high; a personal kill count is 21. Obviously he is a black belt in many different disciplines of martial arts. I seem to get along with stunt co-coordinators very, very well because I just focus and listen because they are teaching you something for free and its important you get it completely right, very quickly otherwise you’re going to look like an idiot in the film. Undivided attention for people like him, obviously the director and the horse master Dylan Jones. These people, like Richard, he taught me so much stuff in the short space I knew him in the 5 weeks. I did 5 separate fight sequences; many of them different styles, different weapons and I don’t know how he does them all- he has them all in his head. So it’s a wonderful guy Paul, who works with him, and he’s choreographed the whole movie, no budget, no time and it’s just props to him. Like I said, I always get along with the stunt co-coordinators, always keep in touch with them, and he’s just a remarkable character.
On Farren Blackburn ‘Director’
Charlie: “Farren is an extraordinary character. I can’t believe this is his first feature number one. The way he just knows what he’s doing already in features – he’s now a BAFTA winning, TV director. He is brilliant at the business side of things; he will pull together a production he could produce very, very easily. He writes, he’s multi-talented - I wouldn’t call him a control freak, but he kind of his. (Laughs) I get on with him so well, the relationship between him and I was seamless. Either he was being really nice or he didn’t do too much wrong, like I was pretty much on the money with this character. I met him a long time before I was even cast and we had a great relationship. All I can say is I hope I can work with him again in the future.”
On the Script, tough shooting and conclusion.
Charlie:
I turned up on set thinking about 50% of what Farren’s brought to this, was what I anticipated this movie would be. Every scene is ridiculously high stakes, and you turn up to work every day and you are confronted with new challenges, and you work twice as hard as you ever though you were going to. I mean emotionally, and in terms of the fighting, and even the vocal levels. It’s like no one could of possibly imagined the way that Farren envisioned this movie when they read that script. And I certainly didn’t, and I’m sorry. But the fact that is that I still really wanted to do it at 50% so that just goes to show you what a high everyone is on now at the end of this film. Having just absolutely knocked it out the park, you know I’ve never been in a movie really that I’m so excited to watch. And it just happens to be my first lead role that I’m in every single bloody shot. I’m just so lucky to be a part of this movie really, no matter what happens at the end of it, I don’t know, I just have a good feeling about it. “
On the cast and crew, despite weather and location.
Charlie: ”The crew assembled were of the highest quality. Everyone from the runners to the camera guys, the producers, all the cast right on top of their game. We couldn’t of done it without any of those guys. A very reduced amount came and worked there nuts off in what was sometimes pissing wet conditions and very, very trying locations which sometimes involved half an hour walks, with very tight schedule, and everyone knew they had to be on their ‘A’ game, and there was no weak link in the whole cast and crew so props to those guys. I was lucky to be able to sort be a leader of that in many respects, along with a lot of other people. But there was a certain attitude on set that we wanted to get this done to the highest quality possible. No one was ever going to complain about the weather or the locations, or the lack of traders, or anything like that – this was for the love of the script. “
On the First day the Viking group was together.
Charlie: “I think it was always important for Farren to get this band of brothers thing going with us. Because we were living together as well we sort of really got that camaraderie by the end of it. I was always calling people Hagen and Jokul at home – but it was great. Like I said again, to be leader of these guys, and they are all great actors, but to be the leader of these guys was such a humbling experience. And then to be fighting alongside them, you almost felt like you really were in this with them, you know. Because of the lack of preparation, for the fight scenes and stuff, and because it was such a gorilla cut throat schedule, it just made it all the more real it felt. There was no like ‘let’s run this scene 20 times before we get to set’. Everything literally happened in front of the cameras for the first time, and I think that’s why it’s going to have that sort of gritty feel- imperfect feel of what it would have been like. Yeah, just to have those guys all the way, I got to tell you, someone who is fairly alpha and fairly competitive it takes a lot for someone to just play -For one of the better expressions, they can fiddle to another character yet still play with the heart and intensity that it needs. Every single one of those guys, there was never any animosity with them at all; it was always like ‘brotherly-ness’. Even though I was in character most of the time, and being an absolute twat to everyone and trying to piss people off because that’s what the story suggests, and those guys, they just sucked it all up and were gentlemen about it the whole time – lovely. “
On the appeal of the film.
Charlie: “How can you not enjoy this movie man! Even if you just slice it up and take each scene as it comes, because we shot completely out of sequence, I can’t even start to put pieces together myself. But even if you take each scene as it is you would be massively entertained by a bunch of abstract Viking sketches of violence and debauchery, what more could you ask for, for a civilian.”
On the end fight showdown with ‘Hakan’
Charlie: “yeah, especially towards the end, there’s a moment where we actually connect a little more than we should do. Elliott isn’t really one to back down which was great, I love to get physical, lots of rugby when I was a kid. But it came to the death moment and I caught him clean with the elbow, which is a bit of a get back for this (eyebrow) and he um, broke character a little bit I suppose, or at least the red mist came down. The rest of the fight, although it went to plan it was certainly more difficult to get the moves in that was supposed to happen in order for me to kill him, break his neck and what not. He was not happy, and I really hope they keep that take, that’s the take they need. It’s always nice when you have an actor who goes with the moment and reacts to whatever’s happened, and he’s a great actor. “
On ‘Steinar’s’ fighting style
Charlie: “My fighting style is, um, oh that’s a good question, haven’t really thought about it. It’s very technical is Steinar, opportunistic, plans his moves very carefully. He is not gratuitous; he’s just very efficient in the way he moves between fights. He’s calculated when he has to be very ruthless, but it doesn’t run in tune with his character and the rest of the movie, he spares people; he’s merciful. He does not condone death in a sporty fashion like the rest of the Viking’s do, which gets him into a lot of trouble. There’s kind of a contradiction in the way he fights, because it is just ruthlessly efficient and it’s just an absolute pleasure to be able to play that guy.”