Baltasar Kormakur Directing 'Vikingr'; Jacques Audiard Helms 'Erran'; Joe Dante Plans 'Ombra Amore'

Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur continues to make in-roads in Hollywood where he's found success making genre flicks with some pretty big stars. The Contraband and 2 Guns director has lined up his next project, Vikingr, based on the classic tales of Vikings and Nordic settlers.The gig keeps Kormakur in partnership with Universal Pictures, who backed his prior U.S. features and will distribute his next film, Everest, which stars Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, and John Hawkes. [Deadline]

You know how much I loved the brutally tough Rust & Bone a couple of years ago, and I've been waiting patiently for word of Jacques Audiard's next film. Well now comes word that he will write and direct Erran, about "a Sri-Lankan Tamil fighter who is a political refugee in France, where he works as a caretaker on an 'unruly' council estate in the Parisian suburbs." Even better, filming begins next week with the plan to have its premiere at Cannes. [Cineuropa]

Joe Dante (Gremlins, Burying the Ex) continues his comeback with the supernatural romance, Ombra Amore. Set in the midst of Italy's current economic crisis, the story centers on the love affair between Pete, a werewolf whose pack is responsible for the economic downturn; and Maggie, a vampire whose aristocratic family was bankrupted by the greedy wolves' schemes. How is this not titled The Wolf of Via Veneto? [THR]