Samuel Goldwyn Takes Mads Mikkelsen Dramedy ‘The Last Viking’ for U.S.
Samuel Goldwyn Films has boarded The Last Viking, picking up U.S. rights to the Danish dark comedy starring Mads Mikkelsen. The dramedy, from Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen, reteams Mikkelsen with his Riders of Justice co-star Nikolaj Lie Kaas in a wild tale about trauma, identity and the Beatles. The Last Viking had its world…
Samuel Goldwyn Films has boarded The Last Viking, picking up U.S. rights to the Danish dark comedy starring Mads Mikkelsen.
The dramedy, from Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen, reteams Mikkelsen with his Riders of Justice co-star Nikolaj Lie Kaas in a wild tale about trauma, identity and the Beatles. The Last Viking had its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere in Toronto.
Samuel Goldwyn Films had success with Mikkelsen’s Oscar-winning Another Round, which it released stateside. Peter Goldwyn, president at Samuel Goldwyn Films negotiated the deal for The Last Viking with Susan Wendt, managing director at TrustNordisk, which is handling world sales for the film. The Last Viking has nearly sold out worldwide, with TrustNordisk confirming deals for more than 60 territories, including Germany, Spain, Italy and Japan.
The oddball plot of the film sees Kaas and Mikkelsen playing two very different brothers. Kaas is Anker, a bank robber whose loot is entrusted to traumatized younger brother Manfred (Mikkelsen). By the time Kaas is finally released from prison, Manfred — a former Viking obsessive — has been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. He now believes he’s John Lennon. To jog his memory as to where he stored the cash, Kaas decides to find a collection of similarly afflicted patients — ones that think they’re George, Ringo and Paul — and bring the Fab Four back together.
The Last Viking marks Jensen’s sixth collaboration with Mikkelsen and Lie Kaas. Alongside Riders of Justice in 2020, they include Flickering Lights (2000), The Green Butchers (2003), Adam’s Apples (2005), and Men & Chicken (2015). Jensen is also a sought-after screenwriter, with writing credits for Susanne Bier’s Oscar-winning drama In a Better World (2010) and Nikolaj Arcel’s The Promised Land (2023).
