How ‘Northman’ Production Designer Used Dried Blood Tones to Build Viking World
variety.comA.D. Amorosi Without a doubt, Robert Eggers’ “The Northman” traffics in his now-usual brand of haunted atmospherics and wonky mysticism, a signature whose intensity is upped by the savage bloodlust of its characters and the vastitudes of his first big-budget epic with a price tag reportedly hovering between $70 million and $90 million.The only thing more intensely stressed than the dilemma of a Viking prince in the year 895 (avenging the death of his father, the king, at the hands of his jealous uncle who stole the prince’s mother as the spoils of war — or did she go willingly?) played to brutal, muscular perfection by Alexander Skarsgård, is the all-consuming dedication of its tactile production design, its brooding, cinematographic ambiance and the craftsmanship of its furry, hierarchical costuming.
For the craggy look and authentic feel of “The Northman,” credit Eggers’ forever production designer Craig Lathrop, cinematographer Jarin Blaschke and costume designer Linda Muir, the team that worked closely with the director on his 2015 feature debut, “The Witch,” and also 2019’s “The Lighthouse.”Lathrop says that save for having bigger budgets and scale for its sets in Ireland and Iceland, there was no difference in conversation among creatives here than for the $11 million “Lighthouse.”“The Northman’ is just so much of this world, that this time out, the research part lasted longer with more conversations among us,” says Lathrop. “Robert is always incredibly detail-oriented.
The only difference with this one is that everyone agreed to let me start getting to work earlier because our sets were so expansive.
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