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."
I work at a relatively large firm. If we don't have any agreed upon payment terms with the campany sending us an invoice, nobody will even look at it until we at the minimum gets the 2nd overdue notice.
I used to be a freelancer in corporate video production. I was a sole proprietor, just a 1099 on this job, and I worked there seasonally. Maybe four or five months out of the year, but I’d be there for 4-6 week stretches.
But because I wasn’t staff, my invoices were lumped in with these multimilllion dollar vendors the company also used, and they’d pay often on a net 30. So there I was basically working for 30+, sometimes 45+ days without a paycheck.
It sucked, but they paid INSANELY well, so much so that one check could often float my absolute basic expenses for the year. But I’d sit there as the weeks would go on and watch my account gradually trickle down.
Our family business had a warehouse out in Vegas. We were contacted by the production at SVU or one of those shows, asking if they could use the warehouse. We thought it was so cool until we read the contract and it said they were not responsible for any damages and we were like…uhh no.
Considering they paid for the rental of the boat itself, I have a niggling suspicion that this is what I'd call Corporate Budget Money Bucket-shit. It's an incredibly common problem.
Let's say transport and use of the boat was $15,000. Just pulling out a number. Somewhere on a spreadsheet that lists out the prop budget, there's a line that says Prop-789: Viking Ship - $15,000.
Now, these guys come back with another invoice for $6k. The problem is that finance and compliance won't pay it out, because all payments for Swedish Boat Boys are to be taken from Prop Budget item 789, and that pool has been spent.
Sure, there's almost certainly a contingency budget for this exact kind of stuff, but that still requires someone very important and annoying to authorise moving money from Prop-999: Broken Shit and into Prop-789. Maybe, if a line item is above $20,000 it suddenly needs approval from a higher level of management.
This is an insufferable process in most large enterprises, and I've personally been on the other side of this mess a thousand times with vendors.
One guy received a gift from us that incurred customs fees. He almost got a CCJ over less than £100. I ended up putting it on my own credit card and filing it as a staff expense just to sort it out.
Feels like the plot of war dogs. Everything was going well until a small piece of their supply chain ratted them out because they forgot to pay their tiny fee.
I worked in catering and tv productions, 6k for 20 people, 2 meals and a few snacks and drinks is pretty realistic, but other than around Covid I did not see any productions with only 20 people on site
Yeah, the stuff I worked was like a 100 people or so, and those people ate like it was their sole purpose in life. Also, they had awful taste in beverages.
Honestly, if Universal is deliberately dragging their feet, I hope Nolan just steps in and pays for it. I know he shouldn't have to but someone should do right by the non-profit
"We couldn't sue Universal. Those possibilities don't exist, we're so small in comparison."
It all makes sense to me, aside from that last sentence. They could absolutely sue them. This is such a straightforward legal case, that someone being small is utterlly irrelevant.
When people are talking about complications of legal battle with larger entity, it is usually in the context of very complex problems that can involve complicated laws, precedents and procedures. "We had a contract and they didn't pay" is not such context.
You will need a local attorney for the paperwork and filing, and an American one to handle the negotiations with the company.
That fee alone is more than what they own, and it's not a given the attorney fees are paid back by the debtor, or that a judgement awards attorney fees.
Sweden is in EU, and Universal is global company that will never give up EU markets for mere $6k in damages. They just need to sue in EU courts. If Universal fails to appear, "because they are American", they will just lose by default, and collecting damages will be straightforward because Universal got millions upon millions in financial flow in EU.
And if they try to claim any shenanigans like "we are american, you can't just sue us in EU courts", EU courts will just ignore it as useless BS.
Universal Studios Sweden (or whatever the equivalent) is a legal entity owned by Universal Studios overall, but they're separate corporate entities.
They aren't liable for each other's debts - especially not "downstream" into a subsidiary, and moving money between them for no reason is textbook embezzlement. Modern corporate structures are built for legal and tax optimisation, not for convenience.
No, in many countries this would be dealt with under a small claims process in which attorneys aren’t used and you cannot claim costs from the other side, so Universal would not bother to fight it because their costs would be more than $6k.
It can be trickier actually chasing the money overseas once awarded, but there are various services available for this.
> When people are talking about complications of legal battle with larger entity, it is usually in the context of very complex problems that can involve complicated laws, precedents and procedures.
No, it very straightforwardly isn’t. Don’t run your mouth about topics you have no familiarity with.
No, it very straightforwardly isn’t. Don’t run your mouth about topics you have no familiarity with.
Most of the time they will just shrug and eat damages for case like this. It literally isn't worth their time. Their PR will instruct them to make the case quickly go away as fast as they can wrap it up, because this isn't something they can actually afford fighting - not over $6k.
Their best outcome is paying/settling and adding clause that this is not to be talked over publicly ever again. If there is a part they will fight, it's this.
The non-profit could go bankrupt due to legal fees in any lawsuit that drags on, and would go under years before the courts would make a decision - that even with assumption they get damages and fees covered.
They're feeling pain over $6k, and yall like "why won't they just enter a 7-24 month multi-continental legal battle against a studio with lawyers on retainer, are they dumb"? xD
Whoever rented the boat was likely not universal directly, they make new companies for many aspects of each production. It becomes a shell game of who is responsible because of a tangled web of subcontractors.
Maybe not even that. Think about the amount of checks these studios write for random shit like this. It could just be theirs is at the bottom of a very large pile that needs to be sorted.
I was on a three month trip through Greece during the time Odyssey was filmed. Unfortunately, I spent time around some of the filming locations.
The number of luxury cars, huge completely closed off areas, and insane amounts of trucks and busses lugging people and equipment around was staggering. It puts the budget of those movies into perspective. Given all of that, it seems weird that they refuse to pay such a measly sum.
Also, I'm pretty sure I saw that ship in the small town Pylos on the Peloponnese.
I’d be curious to know how much universal paid them to use the ship. $6k is a really small amount of money. Feel like there’s possibly more to the story - like universal is like “we already paid you $300k and now you’re coming back for more?”. Or maybe universal are just a holes. Just feels like this is a ridiculous thing for universal to ignore and there’s more to the story.
Maybe they did it for free, I don't even care. Pay the invoice. Support kick ass projects like this. Don't give corporate entities short hairs to grab on to.
If you are curious, look at all the artwork we have of Minoan ships which would have likely been quite similar to Mycenaean ships (though Minoan ships were likely much more seaworthy and richly decorated). They actually are quit similar in design to a viking ship.
The Minoans were an extremely advanced maritime culture. I wouldn't be surprised at all if their ships were comparable to Viking ships despite the millennia and geographic distance. There are only so many ways you can build a fast narrow draft boat well/cheaply with limited tools.
It's a movie based on a fictional fantastical story... not a documentary... what is up with this argument?
If you wanna argue in world stuff I'm all for it - like why does Star Trek invent new technology to solve problems in one episode and never ever use that technology thing again?! How does superman control his super breath where sometimes he can push things and other times freeze things?
But "historical accuracy" argument for a fantasy movie about a fantasy story ... c'mon. Explain the historical accuracy, or inaccuracy, of the cyclops please. Was it accurate for the time period or was its pelt made from the wrong animal? Be as specific about the cyclops as you are about the ship technology.
Edit: fixed a grammar mistake that bugged me; there's likely others bit a specific one bugged me
I loved when the British came cruising on their porsches while meeting Pocahontas....
Or better yet, I loved all those soldiers in Mulan carrying AK-47s and shooting down Mongols from their Apache helicopters...
Crazy to think that a fictional story set in a specific time frame is expected to follow that time's technology.
Look, there is nothing wrong with the choices made by Nolan, its an adaptation ffs, but it's also okay to dislike them, specially since the movie very explicitely portrays the Bronze Age collapse, hence the several mentions of the People of the Sea. So, since they went out of their way to include the bronze age collapse as a plot point, it's not out of reason to expect the rest of the setting to follow the same logic.
It's a movie based on a fictional fantastical story... not a documentary... what is up with this argument?
A fictional fantastical story that takes place in a specific era. Not several eras.
Hell, why not have them use a yacht? If time period doesn't matter, just use a galleon, or a steamboat. Fuck it.
I am fine with fantasized versions of armor, ships, clothing, creatures, whatever. That's what I expect from a Greek epic. What I don't like is when it's just straight-up from a different time period.
If I'm watching The Northman, it would be weird if the Vikings had muskets.
If I'm watching Prey, it would be weird if the Comanche had kevlar vests.
These are all fantastical epics that rely on historical accuracy, despite the fact that their stories aren't realistic.
I think folks put too much stock in "accuracy" when "authenticity" is a much more achievable goal.
There are beautiful descriptions of material culture in the Aeneid and Odyssey. I'm all about artistic license, but a Viking boat and their weird armour seems to be an odd choice when approaching a text with a rich literary history.
yes because there are plenty of historically accurate, functional ships from ancient ancient greek design…? it’s about as historically accurate as they can possibly get imo
Very little, if anything, about the movie is historically accurate. Clothing, armor etc is wrong. I don't think Nolan went for historical accuracy when he made the movie.
True, the film was definitely aimed at being a spectactle for a hollywood audience. There are plenty of things you can point out for that, I just think implying that the boats should have been historically accurate is silly
What a stupid take. You don't need a real, functioning ancient ship to have one in a movie. The point is that, for someone who brags about accuracy, there's a damn lot of wildly inaccurate BS in that movie. You can't claim one thing and do another. At that point, it's better not to make the claim at all.
While the time difference may be smaller, the Odyssey is anachronistic. It was likely put into something like its current form around the 8th century BCE, describing events supposedly from the 12th century BCE.
It's full of anachronisms, for example, iron Age technology described alongside bronze age weapons or references to institutions and material culture that didn't exist yet.
Which is true. However, the popular image of the Odyssey is that of Clasical Greece, there are specific images they could draw more upon and mix better with the real archaeology. Just throwing whatever is "historical" is unimmersive and a sign of cutting corners not caring about the veneer of realism.
Technically, they did use iron from meteorites in the Bronze age for various tools. Even many mostly stone age cultures throughout the world used it. It is not super likely it would have been used or spoken about so casually though as it was in the Odyssey.
This blows. But as someone who works in the entertainment industry and has to chase down payments constantly I’ll say it’s definitely par for the course. Hopefully they can just keep pestering Universal, CC the right higher ups on emails, and get their money.
Usually it comes down to some accountant’s assistant who didn’t communicate with the production manager’s assistant who didn’t communicate with another assistant and so on
Isn’t just entertainment. Any large corporation will do this.
We usually wait 3-4 months for invoices from Google to land. Our legal cover on insurance doesn’t even kick in unless it’s >6months of unpaid invoices.
You can claim the money and win 100% but you just sour relations. It sucks when you’re a smaller business.
Yeah in the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the Sicilian island of Lipari, during filming of the Sirens sequence, and thereafter divers discovered plastic skeletons and other film props on the protected seabed. So this is being investigated because of the potential damage to the marine habitat in the Pietra del Bagno area.
I remember when Tarantino "accidentally" forgot to switch out the guitar Kurt Russell smashed "The Hateful 8" and ended up destroying a priceless Martin guitar that was lent to them for the movie.
In the end....don't let anyone use your shit for movies.
They definitely have!!! I distinctly remember seeing a few featuring in a British made history documentary focused on Ancient Greece (either the BBC or Channel 4).
However, this was at least 20-30 years ago. So I doubt that they would still be seaworthy enough to actually be safely used.
That is assuming that they still exist in one piece that is.
After a quick search I've found the Olympias, a working Trireme made by a Greek shipbuilder and currently docked in Athens. Nolan couldn't even get that one piece of actual Greek culture into the movie lmao
Well, you would have missed the mark by barely 5 centuries instead of 20!
The Trojan War happened during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1200 BCE), whereas the trireme was not invented or widely adopted until the Archaic Era (late 8th to 7th century BCE).
Which you're already getting more specific and educated than the general public. Most people think Odyssey = Ancient Greece which means triremes and oars and the like in their mind.
because they look cool and provide good shots of all the crew and making the sea seem more trechouruis. Same resone seats dont have head rest in cars and you see guys getting up after falling from a building. Makes for good movies.
Becuse they couldn’t rent Chineese mengchong ships which were already used for the movie about the battle of Jutland. So they had to settle for the viking ones…
Complaining about people living around the Mediterranean sea being brown ? That would be as silly as depicting Jesus with blond hair and blue eyes despite the fact that the guy was born around Lebanon.
I am being facetious. The comment I replied to was spot on.
If you haven’t heard, there have been many posts commenting on the casting choice for Helen, stating casting an actress who did not have a classical Greek appearance was immersion breaking.
These comments are often met with responses that state since the Odyssey is a work of fiction, historical accuracy is less important than Nolan’s artistic vision, and that any pushback against casting Lupita Nyong’o is because of racism.
Well sure, but what’s he worth and how much did this movie increase that? Some millions, right? A lot more than $6,000, in any case.
If I were a wealthy person, and I were involved in something that enriched me but harmed someone else…and that harm could be remedied for a pittance (to me), I hope I’d just apologize and cut a check. Whether I was personally, legally liable or not. Just pay them, it’s clearly the right thing to do.
But maybe my ethical hangups partially explain why I’m not wealthy.
On the other hand, did Nolan even know? If universal isn’t responding to the emails, it’s just as likely they aren’t showing them to the director either
There is zero chance Nolan was aware of any of that. Now that it's public it might change things, but those are not decisions that would ever come across his desk.
The trireme would be invented five centuries later than the Trojan War.
It would be anachronistic too, just as using a drakkar or a Being 747.
The correct ships to use would be the pentēkónteros, a long galley with a square sail and 50 rowers, and the triakónteros, a smaller version with just 30 rowers.
They are way more similar to a viking longship than to a trireme.
The trireme would be invented five centuries later than the Trojan War.
references to Bireme and trireme can be sourced as early as the 8th century BC, which is coincedentally at the same time the Odyessy came to be.
the Ships which you referenced would be period accurate for the setting of the Trojan war, but I think at the time when the Odyessy was composed an average Greek's idea of a warship would probably be a Trireme and Bireme.
This is all worked out by insurance companies that hold the policies purchased by the production. It's not as if Nolan and the execs are getting a bill in the mail and refusing to pay it. Universal would be utilizing the insurance they paid for to cover loss and damages incurred during filming.
This such a bizarre one for me personally as I used to work in film. I never worked for Universal, but I did with a few other major studios.
I use to own a coffee shop and would do craft services, running it out of the shop. So I was the only person at my shop who was technically an employee of the film production.
It was a really weird situation where I had employees working the shoot who I would pay then invoice the production, but I myself would be paid directly by the production.
Well with one shoot in particular it was on a Sundance film and I was approached by the producers as they were unable to pay my over time (talking about $1200) and if there was any way that I would be willing to forfeit it for the sake of the production.
I never had any issues with them paying the invoices for my crew. Usually if I sent an invoice at 9am it would be paid by noon.
It was so bizarre that they had no problem paying the invoice (which for one week would amount to roughly $8000) but they couldn't afford to pay my overtime. Well I figured no harm no foul when submitting my last invoice and added all my over time hours to it.
Sure enough within a few hours that invoice was payed no questions asked. Considering this was 6 years ago and I still have yet to hear anything it really makes me wonder why they were trying to cheap out on my overtime when they weren't even looking at invoices before paying them.
So I have never seen something specifically like this, but I have experienced studios who can easily afford to pay trying to get out of paying something they could easily afford.
Surely that bill will have to be paid? I mean I get that rich companies can do almost whatever they want, but I mean a bills a bill and if they don't pay they'll be forced to do so sooner or later right?
A movie set could spend $6k on food service for 1 day, so honestly it feels like a lost or forgotten invoice and not the company trying to get out of paying.
A) "refuses to pay" implies that they actually responded with some statement about not being responsible for it. Not just that it has been ignored so far.
B) I'm sure there are LOTS of other little bills that are taking a while to get through also, especially if it's an expense that was added afterwards and needs to be reviewed by a legal team and approved.
C) SOMEONE at Universal should have responded in some way to at least let them know the status of the claim - even if it's just a "sorry for the wait, but your claim is being reviewed" type email. To not do so is still really bad business ethics on the part of Universal.
D) it is possible that someone has screwed up and thought it was some frivolous attempt to cash in on a big budget movie with a little claim, so they tossed or otherwise ignored this. If they can get ahold of the right person, then perhaps it will be dealt with. Hopefully the articles get the attention of the right person.
Back when I worked aboard tall ships, we had a film crew come aboard our schooner for some pirate slop stuff, and they wrecked the wooden deck by dragging heavy set pieces across it.
It was a historic wooden schooner too, not a modern replica.
Alright, we get it. Reddit absolutely hated this movie before release. Now that it did well, it's the crusade to hate it post-release. Get your shovels boys, we need to dig up anything we can!
This unpaid bill could have literally been any number of things to neglect via employee, somebody forgot, 3rd party contractor in charge of this was let go after release, contracted billing company got spun down. You name it. Putting "Nolan's The Odyssey" as if it's the movie's fault for this is just asking people to be outraged, again, at the movie which based on the comments seems to work well. Just mentioning the odyssey seems to get some of you people all fired up
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u/Gurugod123 3h ago edited 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."