13 Sep – "Vikingdom", the first international feature film by KRU Studios about a forgotten king, who is tasked to defeat Thor, the God of Thunder, is set to be released in 89 locations throughout Malaysia and in American cinemas. Though it might be a little peculiar that a movie about Vikings is being made by Malaysians, the director of the film, Yusry Abdul Halim explains how the idea came about.
"In 2007, I was in Cannes with (my brothers) Norman and Edry promoting "Cicak-man". There, we met a film enthusiast who tried to sell us the idea of doing a TV show about Vikings. Immediately, we saw potential," explained Yusry. "We flew to Sweden several times and researched about Vikings there. But it was not until two years later that Norman picked the idea up again and wrote the story concept, which was then passed to James Coyne to develop it into a script." When asked what he felt after he completed the making of the film, he stated, "Completing it makes me proud. In the beginning, every time we said we were going to make a Viking movie in Malaysia, we were told it couldn't be done or it was too ambitious. It did feel like that at a few points during production but hey, here we are today promoting the movie and knowing that it will not only be released in Malaysia but also cinemas in the U.S." Besides Malaysia and the U.S., "Vikingdom" will also be distributed by renowned distributors such as Universal Pictures, which have acquired "Vikingdom" in multiple territories like The United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, Denmark and Brazil. The film will be screened in Malaysia in 12 September and also in American cinemas on 4 October.