AFM: First Look at the Bloody Vikings of 'Northmen'

The Salt Company is handling international sales on Claudio Fah's action epic featuring "True Blood's" Ryan Kwanten, "Black Sails" star Tom Hopper and Irish actress Charlie Murphy ("Philomena").

COLOGNE, Germany – Northmen: A Viking Saga, one of the many action-driven genre titles that will vie for buyers' attention at next week's AFM, has put out the first image from the Claudio Fah-directed feature, which just wrapped principle photography in South Africa.

The story follows a gang of Viking marauders setting out for a raid of the British Isles who are caught up in a storm and shipwrecked on the coast of Scotland. With the help of an enigmatic warrior monk they set off to their way through enemy territory to reach the safety of a Viking stronghold.

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The first still of the film shows the bedraggled and bloodstained troop of Vikings on a cliff meant to be on the coast of Scotland. True Blood fans will recognize Ryan Kwanten as the very rough-looking warrior monk, Conall. Knights of Badassdom actor Tom Hopper, who has a starring role in Starz' upcoming pirate adventure series Black Sails, plays the Viking leader Asbjorn. Irish actress Charlie Murphy (Philomena) and Brits Darrell D'Silva and Leo Gregory also star.

Northmen is co-produced by Swiss production/distribution group Ascot Elite through its Elite Filmproduktion arm together with Germany's Jumping Horse Film and Two Oceans Production (TOP) in South Africa. Fah's previous films as a director include the genre titles Sniper: Reloaded and Hollow Man 2. Austrian screenwriters Matthias Bauer and Bastian Zach (One Way Trip) penned the script. Producers are Karin G. Dietrich, Ralph S. Dietrich and Daniel Hoeltschi for Elite; Giselher Venzke and Bertha Spieker for TOP and Marco Del Bianco, Frank Kaminski, Ulrich Stiehm and Rolf Wappenschmitt for Jumping Horse.

The Salt Company is handling worldwide rights and Entertainment One has prebought multiple territories for the feature, including the U.K., France, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand.