Although better known for his music videos for popular musicians and bands like Lady Gaga, Rammstein, Metallica, Kesha or Madonna, just to name a few in his wide and successful trajectory, Swedish filmmaker Jonas Åkerlund has dedicated the last year on working on feature films. Next February will have the theatrical release of his biopic about the Norwegian Black Metal band Mayhem called Lords of Chaos (2018), that already was screened last year in some festivals like Sundance Film Festival, Fantasia Festival, Fantastic Fest, Sitges Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival [read our review here]. But a little bit earlier, the 25th of January, his latest movie to date Polar (2019) is seeing the light.
Polar is a 2012 webcomic and series of graphic novels written and illustrated by Victor Santos. Featuring international hitman Duncan Vizla aka Kaiser Black, the webcomic is inspired by a variety of action and noir fiction. Polar is characterized by its highly stylized design and complete lack of dialogue on its online version. In this movie adaptation, the master assassin comes out of retirement to contend with a group of young hit men.
This will mark the fifth feature film of Jonas Åkerlund, a very versatile filmmaker with an evident visual talent as it has been evident in his numerous music videos but also comfortable in different movie genres like comedy with Small Apartments (2012), crime like Spun (2002), horror like Horsemen (2009) and a sordid drama based on true facts like was Lords of Chaos (2018). Now with Polar (2019) it is Åkerlund’s the time to show off with an action thriller full of spectacular sequences, as it can be previewed in the trailer.
The script if the movie adaptation has been written by Jayson Rothwell, better known for penning movies like Malice in Wonderland (2009) or Silent Night (2012). Mads Mikkelsen stars as the killer Kaiser Black, with a cast that is completed with Katheryn Winnick, Vanessa Hudgens, Johnny Knoxville, Matt Lucas, Robert Maillet, Ruby O. Fee, Inga Cadranel, Fei Ren, Josh Cruddas, Pedro Miguel Arce and Lovina Yavari. Filming took place along the first half of 2018 in several Canadian locations.
Polar (2019) will be part of the Netflix Originals catalog on Friday the 25th of this month. Now the popular streaming service has made public the first trailer for the movie and you can watch it here:
