Jóni

When I moved back to Southern California in 2003, after my work at the Smithsonian was over, I met Sigurjón, who was then the Icelandic Consulate in LA. I told him about my work with the Viking exhibition, and he mentioned that he thought the world was still waiting for a really great Viking film. When I went to see him at his offices in LA a few months later, I arrived terribly overdressed - it turns out that people who work on films dress really casually, I had no idea! - and much too nervous to have any sort of decent conversation. But he told me that his friend was working on something that might be really epic, related to Njals Saga. I don't know if Mel Gibson's announcement about doing a Viking film (I met the woman who gave Mel the first draft of that script back in 2004 and still get Christmas cards from her) delayed other projects, or what. But it seems to me neither Jóni, nor his friend, have done an epic Viking movie of late.

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