Log Line
In the face of disintegrating national morale and treason, a young English prince and his brother launch their own war of annihilation against the ultimate Viking invasion.
Script Info
Script Type: Feature
Genre: Action/Adventure / Drama
Length: 120 pages
Est. Budget: Over $10M
Screenplay Synopsis
For 200 years, Viking hordes have plundered England’s wealth. During his own reign, the hapless KING AETHELRED has paid fortunes to make them leave. But, as his two furious sons, the princes EDMUND and AETHELSTAN, keep reminding him, “You feed rats, they always return.”
Now a terrifying new breed of raider descends upon England: The Jomsvikings of THORKELL THE TALL. When Canterbury’s archbishop is brutally slaughtered for forbidding payment of his own ransom, Thorkell himself defects to the English in disgust at the uncontrollable behaviour of a sizeable faction under his command.
But Edmund and Aethelstan know it’s useless. Not only is their hopeless father not up to repulsing further raids, Aethelred is in thrall to his power-hungry advisor, EADRIC STREONA, and no match for his scheming Norman wife, QUEEN EMMA. As for Thorkell and his force of turncoats, they are of little use when the Viking ‘rats’ return en masse fifteen months later.
This time, King SVEIN FORKBEARD of Denmark and his upstart son, CNUT, lead a huge invasion force so violent, within months they have taken all England but London. Forkbeard is proclaimed the new king of England. Believing all is lost, King Aethelred and Queen Emma flee for their lives across the Channel to Emma’s brother’s court in Normandy.
But not Edmund and Aethelstan. They retreat into England’s wilds, muster a motley army of their own, and vow to take England back. When Forkbeard dies in his sleep five weeks after conquering England, Cnut and the Danes are driven out with great slaughter by an English army forged by Edmund and Aethelstan, and led by the now returned and triumphant King Aethelred, the slithery Eadric Streona in tow.
But England’s problems are only just beginning. Prince Aethelstan dies of a wound sustained in the fighting. Cnut returns two years later with an English wife, an even larger invasion force, and Thorkell the Tall and his Jomsvikings now under the raven banner.
Eadric Streona defects to Cnut, taking with him a third of the kingdom. Other English earls follow. When King Aethelred himself dies, Edmund is left de-facto king of an England now facing a hopeless and seemingly irretrievable predicament.
But Cnut, Thorkell and the treacherous Streona have reckoned without Edmund, who soon earns the nickname ‘Ironside’ for fighting a furious Cnut and his Danes to a standstill. Equipped with sheer courage, a guerrilla marriage to the indefatigable Swedish heiress EALDIE, and an army that will follow him to conquer Hell itself, England’s fabulous new king resurrects the kingdom from its defeatism, and rallies a frightened people to fight for their freedom and drive the craven invader from their land.
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