'Lords Of Chaos' Film Director: 'I Just Want To Tell A Good Story'

San Diego film company ZU33 is currently developing "Lords of Chaos", a fiction film based on true events in the Norwegian black metal music scene in the early 1990s. The project is scheduled to go into pre-production this month, with physical production scheduled to begin in Februrary 2006. The screenplay was written by Hans Fjellestad, Ryan Page and Adam Parfrey. Fjellestad is set to direct.

The movie is based on the book "Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground" (view cover/details at Amazon.com),which documents some of the events that have occurred in black metal's history, including the murder of MAYHEM's Aasarth Oystein (better known as Euronymous) at the hands of BURZUM mastermind Varg Vikernes (a.k.a. Count Grishnackh).

"Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground" was originally published in 1998 by Feral House U.S. A second edition followed in 2003 which documents black metal activities since 1997.

Hans Fjellestad — who will make his feature film directorial debut with "Lords of Chaos" after two highly successful and critically acclaimed documentary films, "Moog" (2004, Plexifilm) and "Frontier Life" (2002, Third World Newsreel) — recently spoke to the German webzine BloodDawn.de about the upcoming film. A couple of excerpts from the question-and-answer session follow:

BloodDawn.de: So, what's your intention behind the movie? Will you enlighten the people about the scene and remove prejudices? Will you give a critical overview? Or even a warning?

Hans Fjellestad: "It is not my intention to moralize. In fact, the screenplay problematizes the characters and the black metal scene by exposing a subculture that is complicated and diverse. In our story, it will be impossible to write off the church burnings or murders, for example, as a simple result of rebellious teenage angst or some sort of superstitious satanic influence. The motivation and behavior of each character is different and complex. It's definitely more comfortable to essentialize violent and antisocial behaviors as a product of the 'monster,' the 'bad apple,' or the 'mentally deranged,' but I think we all understand that it's virtually never that simple. It's important to think about that. But ultimately I just want to tell a good story and create something visually unique."

BloodDawn.de: Which story will be developed in the movie? Will it be very close to "Lords of Chaos"? Will there be many explosions, tits, fast cars and cyborg-paratroopers? And, when will it end? The info on your page says that it will be mainly focused on Varg Vikernes and Euronymous.

Hans Fjellestad: "The timeline of the film is roughly 1991-1993. The book doesn't really have a 'story' in it per se. It's more of a scholarly investigation into the scene, and it often ventures off into territory we aren't all that interested in for the film's narrative. We used the book more as an encyclopedia and point of departure. In fact, some elements of the screenplay are quite fanciful. We certainly aren't proposing to produce a comprehensive or definitive film on black metal history. That wouldn't interest me at all."

Read the entire interview at BloodDawn.de (scroll down for English version).