| The Norseman | |
| Director: | Charles B. Pierce |
| Producer: | Charles B. Pierce |
| Starring: | Lee Majors Cornel Wilde Mel Ferrer Jack Elam |
| Music: | Jaime Mendoza-Nava |
| Cinematography: | Robert Bethard |
| Editing: | Robert Bell Stephen Dunn Aladar Klein Shirak Kojayan Sarah Legon |
| Studio: | Charles B. Pierce Film Productions Fawcett-Majors Productions |
| Distributor: | American International Pictures |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $3 million |
| Gross: | $1 million[1] |
The Norseman is a 1978 American adventure film starring Lee Majors and directed, produced and written by Charles B. Pierce.[2]
An 11th-century Viking prince sails to North America to find his father, who was captured by Native Americans during a previous voyage.
The film was a co-production between Charles Pierce and Lee Majors, with AIP handling the distribution. It was Pierce's first film with a major Hollywood studio.
Majors said it "took a lot of guts" to play a Viking but was persuaded by a fee of $500,000 and 10% of the profits. He later remarked, "I had a little time off, and they said, "It shoots in Florida, on the coast there, out of Tampa," and they had a bunch of Tampa Bay Buccaneers that were gonna play Vikings, so ... I don't know, I thought it'd be fun, so I did it."[3]
The film was shot in Tampa, Florida. Postproduction was done at Pierce's $2 million facility at Shreveport, Louisiana.[4]
"There is no character to develop here and hardly any dialogue," said Majors, "this is a formula film."
The Los Angeles Times called it "tedious business".[5]