Lords of Chaos: The Film.

[Hubster]

Slightly old news, but thought I would chuck this up here for discussion. Thoughts?

ZU33 Options Lords of Chaos
http://www.zu33.com/

LOS ANGELES, California — April 11, 2005 — ZU33 has recently optioned the award-winning book LORDS OF CHAOS, published by Feral House Press, for a narrative film treatment. Director Hans Fjellestad and Producer Ryan Page are currently working on the screenplay with Writer/Publisher Adam Parfrey.

Equal parts music, true crime, occult, and subcultural anthropology, the book by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind chronicles the Norwegian Black Metal music scene in the early 1990's. Since that time, nearly 100 churches have been torched and desecrated by adherents of Black Metal, the most extreme form of underground music on the planet. In an escalating unholy war, Black Metal bands and their obsessive fans have left a grim legacy of suicide, murder and terrorism spreading from Norway to Germany, Russia, America and beyond. The feature film will focus on the relationship between legendary figures Varg Vikernes and Euronymous and the rest of the "Black Circle" as they wage war against the powers that be in their native country.

Hans Fjellestad will make his feature film directorial debut with LORDS OF CHAOS after two highly successful and critically acclaimed documentary films, MOOG (2004/Plexifilm) and FRONTIER LIFE (2002/Third World Newsreel).

 

[Hubster]

BloodDawn.de interview excerpt:

> So, what about Black Metal? You definitely are into "unusual" music, but that metier is rather something else. How did you get in contact with that kind of music? Do you seriously listen to it yourself?


i was aware of black metal and the norwegian scene of course, but not all that interested in it until this project came along. over the past year i've really come to appreciate it and i suspect some aspects are even creeping into my own music. i'm a big fan of cross-fertilization and all that, so i'll gladly take useful ideas and sounds from anywhere i can find them.

> What about Ryan Page and Adam Parfrey, the two others who wrote the screenplay with you? What's their motivation and connection to the music?


ryan page is my business partner and producer of LORDS OF CHAOS. adam parfrey is the head of feral house press, which published the book we adapted.

page is my long-time collaborator. we worked together on both FRONTIER LIFE and MOOG. and the book LORDS OF CHAOS holds a special place in parfrey's heart, so he wanted to be involved in the screenplay as a condition of our option agreement, mostly to ensure we didn't go off in some terribly errant direction. but page and i weren't interested in making a typical rock n' roll movie either, so we put the story together and the collaboration went smoothly for the most part.

> Why did you decide to commit the work on a movie about the early Black Metal scene? Was it just "Lords of Chaos" that motivated you?


truth be told, the story is more a classic western "there ain't room in this town for the two of us" style or even an archetypal "cain and abel" narrative. but then of course the setting, the backdrop, happens to be very promising visually. black metal is so theatrical. it will look amazing on film. that special combination of story and cinema is attractive to me for obvious reasons.

> What's so fascinating about the events in Norway in those days?


that's a long conversation, but essentially anytime you have an extreme, marginalized subculture developing its identity and asserting itself within mainstream culture, that's a very interesting process to examine.

> Will you get information from other sources like fans and Black Metal artists? So, will you only use "theoretical" sources or are you going to interview members of the Black Metal scene and so on?


we have been offered access to an almost overwhelming amount of diverse research material. folks have been coming out of the woodwork to share ideas, experiences and documentation from the scene. some of it is contradictory, some of it is irrelevant for our purposes, some of it quite shocking, but we will definitely look at everything we can in order to add depth and authenticity to our story. but keep in mind, this isn't a documentary, and sometimes poetry is more truthful than facts.

> Have you got feedback from Norwegian artists that will appear in the movie already? I wonder what Varg Vikernes would say if he knew that his role is played by Danny DeVito or something… Seriously: Are there any reactions? I don't think that everybody will be happy with that.


we've already received mixed feedback from many of the players from the scene. most of them are excited about the project and want to be involved. of course, others aren't enthused about it at all. that's the nature of putting something like this out into the world. it's to be expected.

> Regarding the actors: How did you choose them, if there already are some definite actors, yet? Are they members of the Black Metal scene or "just" actors? I guess you won't hire real "professionals", will you? I think it will be quite important to add some Black Metal fans to your crew.


casting and pre-production is only just beginning, but i can say that many in the cast will be recognizable european actors and of course there will be many members of the scene (past and present) that we will involve in one way or another.

> Have you (successfully) tried to contact some of the living artists?


no, but they have contacted us.

> Which story will be developed in the movie? Will it be very close to "Lords of Chaos", will there be many explosions, tits, fast cars and cyborg-paratroopers? And, when will it end? The info on your page says that it will be mainly focused on Varg Vikernes and Euronymous.


the timeline of the film is roughly 1991-1993. the book doesn't really have a "story" in it per se. it's more of a scholarly investigation into the scene, and it often ventures off into territory we aren't all that interested in for the film's narrative. we used the book more as an encyclopedia and point of departure. in fact, some elements of the screenplay are quite fanciful. we certainly aren't proposing to produce a comprehensive or definitive film on black metal history. that wouldn't interest me at all.

> So, what's your intention behind the movie? Will you enlighten the people about the scene and remove prejudices? Will you give a critical overview? Or even a warning?


it is not my intention to moralize. in fact, the screenplay problematizes the characters and the bm scene by exposing a subculture that is complicated and diverse. in our story, it will be impossible to write off the church burnings or murders for example, as a simple result of rebellious teenage angst or some sort of superstitious satanic influence. the motivation and behavior of each character is different and complex. it's definitely more comfortable to essentialize violent and antisocial behaviors as a product of the "monster", the "bad apple", or the "mentally deranged", but i think we all understand that it's virtually never that simple. it's important to think about that.

but ultimately i just want to tell a good story and create something visually unique.

> You're going to produce the movie in the US, I guess. Will you travel to Norway to shoot the film at the real scenes?


actually, the film is a canadian and european co-production. it is not a hollywood production. we will be shooting in scandinavia.

> As this will be a US-movie, I can – especially - imagine that some people will be against this film if it is too positive. The other way around, you won't get many friends in the Black Metal scene if the movie became a charge. How will you handle that problem? Uncompromising neutrality?


again, this is not a hollywood or US production. there will not be any US actors and few, if any, US crew. we have managed to secure funding without compromising the screenplay or creative vision in any way. we have been extremely lucky in that respect. so the point is, we will be able to tell the story we want to tell. how people respond to it is up to them.

> What's your opinion of the Black Metal scene in the early 90's and of the scene today? What's your personal attitude, are you a Mormon vegetarian, a radical apprentice of Vishnu or a fierce Satanist-Nazi?


i have no use for religion or god-worship of any kind. i also don't have any personal, political agenda lurking behind this project.

i do like the idea of an incarnation of vishnu, dressed in a smart SS uniform, appearing to a young mormon missionary and commanding him to become a devout vegetarian. perhaps that could be the premise for my next film. do you own the rights?

> Have you already committed the pre-production? The shootings will start in February, so when can we expect a release? Will it be released worldwide?


physical production will probably be around march or april, but we have not concretized a production schedule as yet. i have no idea about the release pattern.

> Are any special features planned, like interviews with the real persons affected and so on?


not at this time.

> I thank you for your time, Hans! The last words belong to you:


thanks for listening.

http://www.blooddawn.de/interview/interview.php?id=98

 

[Alteredmindeath]

The Lords Of Lies: Part I - Lords Of Lies BY VARG VIKERNESS

The morally bankrupt propagandists (a.k.a. "journalists" and "reporters") of the mass media has, it seems, made it their mission to spread their malevolent lies about me as much as they can. It is easy to discount their nonsense as the babble of deranged savages, but their hateful wailing-choir just keeps growing. Even after more than 13 years after my arrest hardly a month passes by without a headline with my name in it showing up in some crappy tabloid in Norway. The anti-Varg campaign in this sorry country is massive.

The latest addition to the petty wailing choir is a Hollywood producer and his director, who plan to make a film about the Norwegian Black Metal scene as it was in 1991-1993. Or so they say anyhow. As a basis for their film they have the ridiculously amateurish "Lords Of Chaos" book, and the film's script was apparently written by some Jews in New York and a metal-head who claims to be a Norwegian-American, because his grandfather was from Norway. (I wonder where his other three grandparents come from.) None of them has ever spoken to any of the parties involved, in the scene in 1991-1993, before writing the script, according to the producer, because they want to be "objective". (He said so in an interview to a local newspaper in Tromsø, printed today). From another newspaper I learn about the plot, and they reveal some of the locations in Bergen the filmmakers want to use when they shoot the film. In their attempt to be "objective" they of course have ended up with no idea about what really happened, why it happened, where we used to hang out or anything, and to me this film just looks like a big, bad joke.

The newspaper headlines spell "Film about the Count", "Varg Vikernes goes to Hollywood" and so forth, but it's just a hoax; they misuse my (nick-)name to promote a film that obviously has nothing to do with me. They don't even base it on reality, but on the laveyish1 lies of Michael Jenkins Moynihan and his idiot companion, Didrik Søderlind, the two satanic clowns responsible for "Lords Of Chaos".

So, I will encourage everybody to sabotage this film and the production of this film by all legal means, and to simply boycott it.

 

[Hubster]

Yes I have seen this (I regularly read his writings).

 

[MasterOLightning]

While the black metal events are certainly fascinating, and one of those stranger-than-fiction type stories, I have no doubt the movie will be terrible.

 

[Larsson]

As a basis for their film they have the ridiculously amateurish "Lords Of Chaos" book, and the film's script was apparently written by some Jews in New York and a metal-head who claims to be a Norwegian-American, because his grandfather was from Norway.

 

[coolsnow7]

Where do you find his writings? They seem amusing.

The movie will likely suck though.

 

[Pessimism]

The movie will suck, just as much as the book does.

 

[Larsson]

Where do you find his writings? They seem amusing.

They are:

http://www.burzum.org/eng/library/

 

[Hubster]

Some of them are interesting. He's a mad dickhead for sure though

 

[Pessimism]

At least he is being more coherent in his thinking than he used to be - and that is saying a lot.

That of course does not mean he is correct in some of his statements...