While at this year’s CinemaCon, I landed an exclusive interview with director Baltasar Kormákur. He was in Las Vegas to accept the award for International Filmmaker of the Year from CinemaCon and also to promote his upcoming Universal movie Everest. If you’re not familiar with the film, it’s based on a true story and it “documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind.” Loaded with an all-star cast featuring Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sam Worthington, Martin Henderson, Emily Watson, Michael Kelly, Robin Wright, and Keira Knightley, Everest hits theaters September 18th and is one of my most anticipated films of the year after seeing the first footage.

Kormákur and I sat down for an interview shortly after he won his award. He talked about where he’s at in post-production, the cast, the challenges of shooting on location, if Everest could premier at TIFF or Telluride, test screenings, future projects like his Viking movie (which could be called Vikingur), and a lot more.

Here’s what he had to say followed by a time index of the interview.

 


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Baltasar Kormákur

  • 0:14 – The Everest footage he’s planning to show.
  • 0:33 – Reveals that the movie is picture-locked and should be completely finished within the next few weeks.
  • 1:10 – The possibility of a festival premiere.
  • 1:49 – Putting together the outstanding cast.
  • 4:33 – The challenges of shooting on location.
  • 7:48 – What he learned from test screenings of the movie.
  • 9:36 – The length of the film.
  • 10:44 – Future projects he’s working on.
  • 11:45 – If the success of History Channel’s Vikings is helping to get his Viking movie made.
  • 12:49 – In an ideal world, the next thing he’d like to make.
  • 14:05 – On his Viking movie being the reason he came to Hollywood.
  • 14:56 – How he would handle Viking language and the importance of realism.
  • 18:03 – The problem with nailing down a title for the Viking movie.

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