2 Guns and Contraband director Baltasar Kormákur will be treading familiar territory in an upcoming film.  Universal Pictures announced today that it has picked up Vikingr, an action drama revolving around the early days of Viking life that Kormákur co-wrote and will direct.  The project has been brewing for some time, and is close to Kormákur given his Icelandic heritage.  The story is based on the classic tales of the legendary Icelandic Sagas, “which document larger than life heroes, adventures and battles of early Nordic settlers, as well as daily life in the Viking age.”  The film will focus on Viking culture as a whole on a scale that is “both intimate and epic.”

Kormákur most recently directed Everest for the studio, which is a survival drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, and Robin Wright that will be released next September.  No word on whether Vikingr will be his next film, but it would certainly be neat to see a Viking epic from a major studio make it to the screen.