I guess Karl Urban has made his peace with being the only actor in modern memory being typecast in Viking roles. His “break out” performance was in the Lord of the Rings movies, where he played essentially a Viking on horseback, and his next film to be released will have him starring in Dances With the 13th Warrior, a Viking-raised-by-Indians movie called Pathfinder (expect bizarre and anachronistic product placements). Now he’s getting ready to shoot yet another Viking themed film, Outlander. It’s about a spaceman who crashes to Earth amidst the Vikings, bringing an alien predator with him. If they want my money and to use a variation on the name Outland, that alien predator best be Sean Connery. If Snakes on a Plane had made more money this weekend, this movie would already be retitled Predator on a Longboat.
Outlander is written and directed by Howard McCain, whose name sounds like the amalgamation of political candidates I would need to be enthusiastic for the next presidential election. His cowriter is Dirk Blackman, which is the most obvious porn name I have heard in years. Outlander starts shooting in October in Canada, and it’s a Weinstein Company movie, which means that McCain will be crushed – emotionally and physically – and the film will be re-edited into something he would never have imagined. Best of luck, boys!