Quote of the Day

"When I first thought, ‘I want to make a Viking movie,’ I knew three things. I knew it needs to take place mostly in Iceland, it needs to have a revenge story, and it needs to have a naked sword fight on a volcano…"

That's Robert Eggers teasing us in Toal Film magazine (via) this week, which has a cover story on The Northman (that's where several of the photos I've shared recently have come from) -- we already glimpsed the scene in question in the trailer, although it keeps the "naked" part obscured... just how naked? Lord knows I'll be first in line to find out but I really believe them when they say "naked" -- Alexander's never been the slightest bit shy about any of himself (nor should he ever have been!) and this would make for an excellent live-action bookend to the naked fight in Beowulf...

I've also seen a quote going around that I can't confirm, but from a person who said they saw the film and they said something like it's the "most metal thing" they've ever seen; a naked volcano sword-fight would fit right in with that aesthetic obviously! I'm thinking big Heavy Metal vibes. Maybe I should re-watch Heavy Metal? I haven't seen that in a very long time, it was never really my thing -- there's something too heterosexual about it. But naked Alexander changes everything! Anyway in related news you remember that photoshoot that Alex did recently? Actor George Mackay was separately photographed (via) in the same top, so we must poll that shit...

web survey

I Know Where the Red Claes Glows

I know you know about the "naked volcano fight" that Alexander Skarsgard has in The Northman because you're here at MNPP and I won't shut up about it. But I think the above photo is the first real confirmation we've had that the fight is between Skarsgard and former-Dracula Claes Bang -- I had assumed it was, given what we know about his character, but I don't think we get a good shot of him in the trailer. Not this good anyway. This is one of ten new Northman photos that Claes himself posted on his Instagram today -- have we seen the skimpy leather Viking panties glimpsed down below either? Claes really brought the heat! Hit the jump for all of them...

Yo Ho Volcano

I am seeing The Northman a second time tonight -- yes, a second! -- but I'm not ready to talk about it. I will have a review up later this week. For now let's just share with you the brand new red-band trailer, which as seen above showcases a smidge of the Naked Volcano Fight Scene between Claes Bang and Alexander Skarsgard that we've been expecting. Here it is:

Robert Eggers third film is out this Friday here in the US!

And here's a new shot of Alex on set, because drool:

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Lighthouse (2019)

Thomas Wake: O what Protean forms swim up from men's minds, and melt in hot Promethean plunder, scorching eyes, with divine shames and horror... And casting them down to Davy Jones. The others, still blind, yet in it see all the divine graces and to Fiddler's Green sent,where no man is suffered to want or toil,but is... Ancient... Mutable and unchanging as the she who girdles 'round the globe. Them's truth.

A very happy 42nd birthday to writer-director and so-says-me genius Robert Eggers today! As far as I'm concerned, dude is four for four movie-wise -- each of his four feature films were among my favorites of their respective years, or in the case of the movie quoted above my number one favorite movie of its year. They are all so my shit. I cannot get enough. Should I rank them? Okay let's rank them:

4. The Northman (review)

3. Nosferatu  (review)

2. The Witch  (review)

1. The Lighthouse  (review)

Five minutes from now I might change my mind and swap the middle two around, and then five minutes after that I might swap them back. But numbers one and four are set in stone. Which isn't to say I don't adore The Northman -- any movie that ends with Alexander Skarsgård and Claes Bang having a naked swordfight on top of a volcano is about as good as cinema gets if you ask me. So a very happy day to a man who's brought me more pleasure than almost any other working filmmaker. All of these movies have landed in less than a decade y'all! That's wild. Tell me your ranking of his four movies in the comments!

Good Morning, World

Y'all do know that I am excited about The Northman right? As was inevitable after whatever Robert Eggers did post-The-Lighthouse, aka my favorite movie of 2019, I've only been posting about it non-stop since the second it was announced, and then once the photos of Alexander Skarsgard ripped to the hills started appearing... I mean, forget about it. The movie's out in less than a month now, I have gotten press emails about screening announcements being forthcoming, and I remain giddy as a gadfly. (I don't know what that means but it rolls off the tongue good so let's make it a thing.) So all of that fervor underlined and circled, can I make one complaint here with the appearance of the new poster? 

The marketing for this movie has been [whispering] a lil' shitty right? Cheap, is the word I am looking for -- cheap. And generic. And cheap. A Robert Eggers is probably not gonna look like a lackluster episode of Vikings, and yet all of the marketing is making me think it might. So I will not say I am worried. But I wish they'd cut a trailer that was all about the no-doubt kick-ass visuals we'll be getting (some of which were glanced in the first trailer) and less about the pedestrian stuff. Give me a reason to see this on a gigantic screen, people! I know there is a naked fight on the side of a volcano -- why is there only a one second shot of that in the trailer? They need to wow us a little better, is all I am saying. Anyway I'll be there at the first screening I can get to, y'all have no doubt about that -- until then below is a variation on the new poster (I think it does work better as a quad, but it's still awfully "video box art" like) and if you hit the jump there's a new image from the movie too...

Quote of the Day

Ever since Robert Eggers got endless press for the Naked Volcano Fight between Alexander Skarsgård and Claes Bang in The Northman (even if it did eventually end up going to Austin Powers extremes to keep the dicks hidden) it seems he's gotten the memo to bring up how he's getting his actors naked with every new movie, and here we are. Our favorite goth-freak writer-director talked to Esquire today about his upcoming film Werwulf starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, sharing the above first official look at him, and tossing in this comment just for shits 'n giggles:

"It was kind of unlike anything that any of us on set have ever seen. He spent I-don't-know-how-much time naked in the rain and snow, covered in blood, and doing this intense physical bodywork. It was months of training in prep and throughout production to get it all perfect."

He's talking there about Aaron working with the same movement coach who got Lily-Rose Depp to go to such extremes physically in Nosferatu -- if you know anything about me you probably know that the naked transformation scene of David Naughton in An American Werewolf in London was, uhh, a pivotal moment. So per usual Eggers is speaking my language. Not that I'd expect different. I don't know anything about his personal life but... him and Ari Aster... they both leave me with some questions, I'll just say that. Anyway Werwulf is out on Christmas Day -- I love that Eggers has claimed the counterprogramming slot for the holidays, I really do. The only Christmas Carol movie I will ever watch in the future is if he makes one. Oh and PS Werwulf has an Instagram account now, follow it here. Or just keep checking MNPP since I will post anything and everything the literal second it drops anyway. In related news I posted the following yesterday so obviously I made this interview happen, you're welcome:

184 DAYS TIL WERWULF

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) June 24, 2026 at 4:58 PM