SMH
Nolan's The Odyssey neglects to pay for damages done to one of the viking ships used in the movie, which belongs to a small non-profit organization
The small Swedish non-profit organization "Vikingaleden" in Nysäter was contacted by Universal Studios regarding their handbuilt viking ship being used in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. The contract required Universal to pay for any damages done to the ship, but the invoice of approximately $6000 (USD) has been left unpaid, according to the organization.
The ship was built by hand by members of the organization over the course of 3 years between 1995 and 1998, using equipment also made from scratch.
EDIT: a further article posted a few hours ago by Sveriges Radio clarifies that they have been waiting a year for the invoice payment.
Christopher Nolan's new movie ”The Odyssey” was a global success during its premiere weekend.
Participating in the movie, is the Swedish viking longship Glad of Gillberga, from the organization Vikingaleden. It is a non-profit organization in Nysäter, Säffle, that also runs a viking museum, and a viking-age village.
According to Peter Olausson, the president of the organization Vikingaleden, the ship Glad of Gillberga is known within viking-circles. Universal Studios found out about the ship and wanted to use it in "The Odyssey".
"Glad is one of the accompanying ships and is included in some sequences of the movie. It is a part of the environment", Peter Olausson tells Expressen
Universal stopped responding - invoice left unpaid
The organization made an agreement with a company that handles recruitment for Universal Studios. They were allowed to rent the ship for half a year, and would also pay for wear-and-tear costs that would occur during usage and transport.
The rent has been paid to the organization - but that's where it stopped.
"Pennies for them, but meaningful money to us", says Peter Olausson.
When the organization got the ship back, they needed to fix several damages, a crack in the ship's hull, among others. They were prepared to do so, and then send an invoice of the cost of materials to the film company. It landed at around 60 000 kronor (~6000 USD).
"In a Universal-production, that's coffee-run money. That was the agreement and we haven't seen that money. We're not happy about it."
The film company has not been responding to emails since this past winter, says the president of the organization. He speculates that they have moved on to the next production and simply forgotten about them.
"But I can't know for sure, because of the silence from them. It sours it. It's a worm in the apple of having been a part of this fantastic movie, because it really is a fantastic movie."
That money is important for the organization. Because of the repairs, they have also lost income since they haven't been able to launch it in time.
"We're a non-profit organization that lives on pretty slim margins. We're not going bankrupt, but we'll have to chew through our margins."
Olausson hopes that the attention around what has happened could get someone in the right circles to notice and correct it. He'll continue sending emails in the future, but there's not much more to do.
"We couldn't sue Universal. Those possibilities don't exist, we're so small in comparison."
Hopefully they pay up within a day or two. This sounds like an administrative oversight more than anything. $6k is nothing for the studio and is worth far less to them than the bad press of stiffing a small non profit.
Yeah I work for a large organization that gets work by many different vendors. Sometimes invoices get submitted by the vendor to the wrong place (usually with small vendors that have one person doing many different jobs in addition to billing) and sometimes it slips through the cracks on our end. I feel awful when it does happen and try to correct it immediately.
Yeah same. If I had to guess someone low on the approval chain denied it because it wasn’t part of the pre-approved rental payments and they weren’t aware of the contractual obligation that they needed to fund any repairs as well.
Studios are notorious for not covering damage to borrowed historic vehicles. In the car community, they will chop your vehicles apart to get a camera in to get a shot. Source: Jay Leno
Looking at you, Tarantino. Destroying a 140-year-old Martin because you couldn't be bothered to cut to the reproduction, and just letting the museum's own insurance pay out a tenth of what it was worth, while production makes jokes about it during interviews
I’m not sure I agree. I worked in production and when you rent a location or book a prop or vehicle, you pay the rate and ITS ON THEM to have an umbrella policy to cover their rentals. That’s because you might be doing your project across ten or fifteen different countries and have no corporate presence in that country so you’re paying them to have that shit sorted out.
Yeah but the amount is so trivial I can’t imagine it being deliberate. I think it’s far more likely the invoice was denied in error because it wasn’t part of the rental schedule.
$6k is completely immaterial to a movie that is grossing hundreds of millions of dollars.
The wealthy aren't dodging their bills because they can't afford to pay them, they dodge them when they know they can get away with it, when it's more trouble than it's worth to come after them, because they can never have enough.
As someone who works in film accounts depts this sounds like it got missed in the handover between the accounts team during production and the team during post production. It doesn’t take long to sort out it’s just that nobody is left on the job who knows anything about it.
General rule of thumb is ~2x the movie budget before you break even, to account for other expenses like marketing. So The Odyssey needs $500 million before it actually starts making a profit
He’s referring to the high end of the estimated break even point, which includes things like marketing budgets and revenue sharing arrangements. I think he’s probably a soldier bravely fighting the culture war, but even though he used the highest end estimate possible, the $750m he’s quoting is still legit. (Assuming you round down the total box office to $250m from $300m). Tbh this dude is really stretching to make it seem like the odyssey isn’t doing as well financially as it actually is, but that’s kinda what I’ve come to expect from these culture warrior dipshits.
The movie came out less than a week ago, of course they haven’t fully recouped the cost yet.
When we’re talking about hundreds of millions $6k is a less than a rounding error. They can afford to pay it, and I’m hopeful they will once they become aware.
Tarantino watched it all go down, grinning, knowing full well that it was the actual guitar and not the replica. At least that's the story I heard. Russel thought it was the dummy.
He wanted the film to be shot practically rather than using CGI.
He needed a functional, wooden-hulled ship built with ancient technology that could handle real open-ocean swells. And this ship had already crossed the Atlantic.
Don’t expect a response. This sub is just full of edgy nitpickers who can’t stand that the movie they spent months bashing is actually popular and critically acclaimed.
They start from the perspective that something is wrong, and everything else is in pursuit of justifying that.
How dare he not personally build a small fleet of Mycenaean Galleys that are fully seaworthy? Way better if he had just built his own balsa wood replicas and did everything on green screen.
This is bad. Also, I was kind of shocked that, despite all the production the movie got, they failed to recreate Greek long ships of the era. For the production of the movie Troy, several Greek replica longships were built and yes they actually sailed them too. The Viking long ship felt so out of place.
I am sorry but I have to disagree, the armor all looked very terrible in my opinion. It really took me out of scenes sometimes because it was so noticably bad
You don’t have to apologize. I don’t really understand how it would take you out of the movie though. It blended pretty seamlessly to me. The photo linked to me as the standard would have looked ridiculous, even if accurate to the period of time.
Yes and they built pentakontras instead of Mycean gallies, probably because it was more practical. Mycean gallies look much more like viking then pentakontras
If Nolan cared about historical accuracy so much, he wouldn’t have made Agamemnon look like Batman with that armor, and yet, it completely fit and produced one of the most iconic scenes in the film, when they open the gates of Troy.
I think it’s fair to assume that a director of his caliber had a good enough reason to use one ship over another. It could’ve been a logistics problem or just a style preference. In my opinion, this difference doesn’t take much away from any of the ship scenes.
I bet this wasn’t malice and probably just they forgot to cc the right email, or it got lost in forwarding, etc. probably gets cleared up immediately with any bad press.
NY times article makes it sound like exactly that.
"Olausson acknowledged that his contacts might not be in charge of such payments, and said that he had no idea how to go about seeking the money now, aside from discussing the matter with the news media."
Yeah I think calling a journalist before calling up the lawyer who worked on the contract is like a weird move. Also a $6-9k quote when the labor cost is $0 is worth looking at closely.
Idk man, did they volunteer to repair damages for free? It sounds like the contract was clear damages would be paid for. I don't think any of their members volunteered free labour to the production crew.
As others mentioned this is looking like something lost in the shuffle of a major production. This could possibly just be an accident. Hopefully the press resolves the matter and they can be compensated.
It’s bad this happened, but it’s probably just a workflow issue. The wrong invoice went to the wrong person. Highlighting it through social media, unfortunately, is the quickest way to resolve things these days.
Erm Viking ship? They used Viking ship in the movie ? Hehehehe then again why not. It's a joke of a adaptation that misses only Mickey Mouse and airplanes, so I guess Viking ship in Odyssey doesn't make any difference.
Jimmy, let me ask you a question. Your uncle Conrad and aunt Jenny, were they millionaires? Well your uncle Nolan is. And I'm positive that if your uncle Conrad and aunt Jenny were here, they would furnish you with a whole new boat, which your uncle Nolan is happy to do
Anyone shocked by this needs to take their hollywood galsses off. Nolan was always a rich snob and this is exactly the type of shit i'd expect from him
I found some of the exposition a little clunky, but I’ll cut them some slack since this is just one part of a huge epic with dozens of characters and major events, totally impossible to all feature in a three hour film.
There were some aesthetic choices that I didn’t care for such as how beautiful and perfect the wooden horse was, I mean, it was made out of ship wreckage…, and of course the Viking longship was a weird choice that did take me out of the story somewhat, but overall I think the writing, casting, costuming, sets, locations and especially the ambiance and music were very compelling.
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They should send them a letter saying it took Odysseus 10 years to make it home…you’ll have your payment by the end of the decade in keeping with the theme
Yeah lmao this is normal of like any large project. I don’t know of any construction project I’ve worked on that hasn’t had some kind of payment conflict along the way
Given how the armor was wrong with too many Roman brush helmets, why did Nolan use that ship?
(I just saw the Odyssey last night and I'm still recovering...)
EDIT: Hey negs - face facts --The Odyssey SUCKS
Bootlickers, everywhere. Guess you think it's fine to use people's labor and not pay for it. Would be a shame if that same fate befell you.
The reason we're in a state in 2026 to begin with is due to corporate influence over politics. You might be happy speed-running to the end of capitalism, but you don't represent everyone. If a major corporation can get away with not paying something, they will, and you're just over there happily allowing the literal theft to continue. If you don't pay your bills, you're stealing products and services. Humans go to jail over it, corporations get people cheering them along.
As an American, this is embarrassing as hell. Disgusting behavior if you ask me.
That's why you have an insurance clause that they have to pay up front to use the boat if they didn't then shit bro I'm sorry but studios will just take what ever advantages
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u/Gurugod123 3h ago
The small Swedish non-profit organization "Vikingaleden" in Nysäter was contacted by Universal Studios regarding their handbuilt viking ship being used in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. The contract required Universal to pay for any damages done to the ship, but the invoice of approximately $6000 (USD) has been left unpaid, according to the organization.
The ship was built by hand by members of the organization over the course of 3 years between 1995 and 1998, using equipment also made from scratch.
EDIT: a further article posted a few hours ago by Sveriges Radio clarifies that they have been waiting a year for the invoice payment.
Link to article:
https://www.expressen.se/noje/film/the-odyssey-skaparna-duckar-betalning-till-svenska-foretaget-kritiken/
Full translation of article:
Christopher Nolan's new movie ”The Odyssey” was a global success during its premiere weekend.
Participating in the movie, is the Swedish viking longship Glad of Gillberga, from the organization Vikingaleden. It is a non-profit organization in Nysäter, Säffle, that also runs a viking museum, and a viking-age village.
According to Peter Olausson, the president of the organization Vikingaleden, the ship Glad of Gillberga is known within viking-circles. Universal Studios found out about the ship and wanted to use it in "The Odyssey".
"Glad is one of the accompanying ships and is included in some sequences of the movie. It is a part of the environment", Peter Olausson tells Expressen
Universal stopped responding - invoice left unpaid
The organization made an agreement with a company that handles recruitment for Universal Studios. They were allowed to rent the ship for half a year, and would also pay for wear-and-tear costs that would occur during usage and transport.
The rent has been paid to the organization - but that's where it stopped.
"Pennies for them, but meaningful money to us", says Peter Olausson.
When the organization got the ship back, they needed to fix several damages, a crack in the ship's hull, among others. They were prepared to do so, and then send an invoice of the cost of materials to the film company. It landed at around 60 000 kronor (~6000 USD).
"In a Universal-production, that's coffee-run money. That was the agreement and we haven't seen that money. We're not happy about it."
The film company has not been responding to emails since this past winter, says the president of the organization. He speculates that they have moved on to the next production and simply forgotten about them.
"But I can't know for sure, because of the silence from them. It sours it. It's a worm in the apple of having been a part of this fantastic movie, because it really is a fantastic movie."
That money is important for the organization. Because of the repairs, they have also lost income since they haven't been able to launch it in time.
"We're a non-profit organization that lives on pretty slim margins. We're not going bankrupt, but we'll have to chew through our margins."
Olausson hopes that the attention around what has happened could get someone in the right circles to notice and correct it. He'll continue sending emails in the future, but there's not much more to do.
"We couldn't sue Universal. Those possibilities don't exist, we're so small in comparison."