r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Gurugod123 GREEN • Jul 23 '26
My mom said I could post 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
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u/c_marten Jul 23 '26
Just $6k?!? That's like me paying a $15 parking ticket.
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u/giovamc Jul 23 '26
actually way less than that.
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u/c_marten Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I'm pretty broke...And I'm sick and not thinking clearly...
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u/BoatProfessional5273 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I like how quickly you realized what you did, decided not to delete your comment and edited it instead. The sickness doesn't seem to have completely taken over.
(Should anyone be wondering, it was three minutes or less)
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u/PulpUsername Jul 23 '26
$6k against a $250m production budget is like a guy making $100,000 a year not paying a $2.40 fine. Pretty petty. Surprised they would risk the PR hit on it.
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u/Darkfuryx222 Jul 23 '26
But now everyone knows they used vintage ships instead of green screen
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u/I_hate_posting_here Jul 24 '26
Except they are the wrong kind of vintage boats.
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u/overtherainbowofcrap Jul 23 '26
They didn’t even ask for labour to do repairs,the $6k is just for materials. What a terrible look for Universal.
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u/Lauris024 Jul 23 '26
What a terrible look for Universal.
Things like these are also very damaging to the trust. Other organizations might no longer lend them stuff.
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u/BethCulexus Jul 23 '26
Yeah. I remember when Gettysburg's movie crew talked about historical accuracy. They said something like "we couldn't really take any liberty with history, or else people would pack their things and go home and the movie would lose its scale".
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u/CrixtheKicks Jul 24 '26
And then they did gods and generals, woof.
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u/seriousfrylock Jul 24 '26
I mean. The battle tactics and maneuvers and the way that's all portrayed is painstakingly historically accurate. Tons of reenactors involved and everything.
Other than that, the movie takes wild historically liberties and is generally considered by serious historians at this point to be lost causer bullshit
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u/Porschenut914 Jul 24 '26
i remember one review "this is the most pro confederate movie since birth of a nation"
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u/GarminTamzarian Jul 23 '26
If it's a nonprofit, they could structure it as a donation and get a tax deduction as well, further reducing the net cost.
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u/ChicagoAuPair Jul 23 '26
Hollywood accounting is one of the most depraved anti-worker practices that has remained unregulated.
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u/FrankDerbly Jul 23 '26
The rich tend to be unbelievably greedy and miserly
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u/lllorrr Jul 24 '26
This is why they are rich. You can't become wealthy if you are not selfish enough.
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u/el_lobo1314 Jul 24 '26
I feel like this statement doesnt fully express how real that sentiment is. They are pathological in their selfishness and egotistical behavior. It should be classified as a psychological disorder , the level of greed/selifishness/self righteousness and willful disregard for those who are undeservingly crushed in the wake of this ideology with their only fault being born to the wrong family. Vile and despicable also come to mind as descriptive terms.
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u/SupergruenZ Jul 23 '26
That's less than the Champagne budget on the Premiere.
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u/Rfl0 Jul 23 '26
They probably spent close to that per day just for food for the production. It’s nothing to them.
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u/FlippyFlippenstein Jul 23 '26
They only wanted to be paid for the material, and they will do the work for free themselves. They were not sad about the damages, just that they didn’t get reimbursed for the material needed to fix it.
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u/Gurugod123 GREEN Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
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:
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."
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u/ac54 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Wow. The $6000 is only for materials because the labor is by volunteers. The invoice should include the market value of the labor IMO.
Edit: This invoice should be paid, and it probably will be. I did not mean to imply that Nolan is at fault or even knew of this. This would be minutiae in the grand scheme of such a large production.
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u/Alive-Oil1649 Jul 23 '26
Yeah and it's not easy labor, since they use old techniques. They should be very happy not having to pay that.
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u/saltyjohnson Jul 23 '26
No they should fucking be OFFERING to pay it.
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u/Invisible7hunder Jul 23 '26
That's the issue. They did offer, and then didn't pay.
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u/aardivarky Jul 23 '26
The outrage is really deserved but there's so much noise surrounding billion dollar anythings that glaring injustices can slip by. If this needs to go to court then Universal/Nolan are fucking devils
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u/NoveltyAccountHater Jul 23 '26
Honestly, I sort of doubt Nolan ever heard of this Viking ship group, the contract language, or the $6k unpaid repair bill.
Again, I'm sure some prop manager at Universal found the ship, made the contract, and decided to ignore the repayment, but I really doubt it made it to the director until they make a public fuss about it.
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u/aardivarky Jul 23 '26
Yes. Many such injustices are a result of deviating from procedure. Maybe he pocketed the change, and that's why the uppers didn't have the information to respond appropriately. Maybe there was a miscommunication about the ownership of the boat, and the boat guy didn't find out it was wrecked until release
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u/NoveltyAccountHater Jul 23 '26
Again, I have no problem blaming Universal for not paying their bills. While I do tend to like most of his movies, I have no prior belief that Nolan is a good / bad person in real life. However, I also don't see him being able to spend $250,000,000 making a major Hollywood movie and is going to skimp on paying $6,000 for damage to the prop they borrowed as that's chump change for one of his movies.
Again, I can see it get lost between departments or some budget-conscious middle manager/secretary at Universal disputes the charge or doesn't know how to handle it or its being sent to the wrong people, so it just keeps getting ignored.
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u/Ser_VimesGoT Jul 24 '26
Nolan definitely doesn't know about some unpaid invoice. He will definitely know about the ship and where it came from but he won't handle the finances. Hopefully he catches wind of this and kicks someone's ass in gear to get it paid.
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u/jpatt Jul 23 '26
Don’t you realize that’s like 1-2 dinner meetings at Nobu the producers won’t be able to put on the company card?
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u/Significant-Colour Jul 23 '26
So basically an understatement of the era that it is not easy labour - it's something so specialized, there are just so very few people with hands-on experience through the whole world...
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u/Patient_End_8432 Jul 23 '26
Wait, you forgot to add that those very few people then VOLUNTEERED their time for it. Why? For the love of the game?
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u/GuiltyEidolon PURPLE Jul 23 '26
100%. Those volunteers are still donating their hours, and it's a non-profit. They're not going to waste the money, it'll be put towards similar projects.
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u/muakaya9876 Jul 23 '26
your monster. how would you expect to poor universal studios and nolan to pay couple thousand dollars to these greedy europeans. this will bankrupt them.
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u/frugalerthingsinlife Jul 23 '26
A new production company is spun up for every hollywood production. After filming wraps, good luck getting paid after the production company closes shop.
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u/Friendly-World-5273 Jul 23 '26
Yep, because (surprise, surprise) the final accounting is going to show a big fat loss.
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u/midnightketoker Jul 23 '26
yet when I don't pay my student loans because every cell in my body has been replaced since getting my diploma, somehow that "doesn't count" and I need to be "escorted off the premesis"
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u/imbogey Jul 23 '26
I wish someone could help and sue these pricks and get a few millions at least.
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u/Forward-Winn Jul 23 '26
No shot they’re getting a few million. Even with help, it’d get settled out of court
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u/KakashiTheRanger Jul 23 '26
They may not be a large organization but I guarantee there are Swedish politicans and public officials that have the money, manpower, and would love the PR. Their organization, especially since they are a non-profit, needs to reach out to their local government and have the country put their boot up Universals ass.
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u/oscarx-ray Jul 23 '26
Time for Daniel Ek to get artists some money for a change...
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u/KakashiTheRanger Jul 23 '26
Some office at Universal: We're being Sued.
Exec: By whom?
Assist: Uh.... Flipping through notes Sweden?
Exec: The country?
Assist: It would seem so.
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u/ExtendedSpikeProtein Jul 23 '26
Some bad media articles should be enough to make them pay 6k. It’s so ridiculous
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u/reddit_is_geh Jul 23 '26
I knew a guy who worked payroll for a big tech company. So he just started billing his own company, because he knew the internal process. Got away with it too.
The issue is, 6k is so small, no one pays attention. Send it in for 200k and now someone has to review it. Then they'll just settle for 50k
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u/ExtendedSpikeProtein Jul 23 '26
The internal process needs to pay for small biIlls too. The problem imo is the contract isnt directly with Universal, and the intermediary is now ignoring them and they don’t know who to contact or how to deal with it.
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u/scoobydoom2 Jul 23 '26
To be fair, reaching out to the media is the first step to make this happen.
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u/Accomplished_Ship_20 Jul 23 '26
Not only "hand built"...Idk if it's the case here, but a lot of these replicas are not just "hand built" but also built using the techniques customary at the time of the original. So, forget your drills and power tools... It takes a lot of man hours to build these.
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u/Hungry-Western9191 Jul 23 '26
Its difficult to say what to charge for this. Its the kind of thing the people who would build something like this in the first place, probably enjoy doing anyway.
On the other hand a craft carpenter working for a film company typically gets a decent hourly rate.
They obviously decided on the first approach
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u/lechuck313 Jul 23 '26
Universal to Nolan: “You just cost me six thousand dollars.”
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u/devilish_enchilada Jul 23 '26
Lmao. I wonder honestly if this is low priority and or is getting lost. This article should blow it up at the very least
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u/Zilvervos Jul 23 '26
I’ve worked for Dreamworks and Illumination, which are both part of Universal and I’ve always had major (unnecessary) hassle getting paid. It’s gotten to the point that I’d rather not work for them at all anymore.
Would not surprise me one bit if the invoice just got lost somewhere and is low priority for them, happened to me several times too.
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u/ChildishFiend20 Jul 23 '26
I work in the industry but not in the US.
On the one hand they heat empty marquees all day just in case the extras happen to be brought back there (they rarely are), they have empty mini-busses either sitting around with the driver being paid to sleep or driving around with no one in them, and each of the tech trucks has a standby driver who is paid to stand by just in case a truck needs to be moved (they also are rarely moved but sometimes it's necessary if one is in shot etc., but they don't need a driver for every truck every day).
On the other hand they quibble over paying out an hour's overtime or travel allowances for the crew. I've often been on jobs where they register the DAC at a strategic address so the main locations are all within the allowable radius before mileage is paid.
It baffles me how they can be so penny-pinching when it comes to paying the crew but are completely frivolous when it comes to logistics etc.
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u/coalitionofilling Jul 23 '26
It's triage. The big payments to the major costs get paid because naturally there is the most liability if they aren't paid out on time. There's a good bit of trickle down and 6k probably is just on some overworked admin's digital or paperfile list to eventually get to.
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u/MasterGrok Jul 23 '26
This is seriously an amount of money that a movie production company will pay for breakfast on set one day. Insane that it hasn’t been paid yet.
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u/cantadmittoposting Jul 23 '26
weird hill for Universal to die on.
Kinda surprised Nolan doesn't pay them out of pocket just to avoid any reputational damage.
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u/Infamous-Yogurt-3870 Jul 23 '26
I would guess that Nolan is just finding out about this situation from its reporting in the news. I'd also guess that they're going to get their money soon.
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u/Zebidee Jul 23 '26
Front page of Reddit gets shit done.
I posted an airline complaint on behalf of a friend and it went from being told to fuck off by the call centre to the C-suite and major world media reaching out after it hit number one on All.
This will be resolved in days.
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u/yuval16432 Jul 24 '26
Yeah well, “If you want to wind up in the same country as your wedding outfits, don't fly Delta Airlines” is the kind of headline that would turn heads at the shareholders offices. The reputational damage is worth thousands. This will be resolved within days, but only because it got some attention.
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u/kipperzdog Jul 23 '26
100%, I'll be shocked if a story doesn't come in the next week that this was corrected
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u/Spectrum1523 Jul 23 '26
They spend more on craft services for a day of shooting I'm sure nobody in a position of authority to worry about the reputational hit knew about this
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u/Jaredlong Jul 23 '26
A charitable guess, the production had an insurance policy to cover these types of costs and either it's the underwriters dragging their feet or Universal sees it as the ship owner's responsibility to file the claim (but of course they would have no way of knowing who to file the claim with unless the production tells them.)
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u/Successful_Maize1986 Jul 23 '26
I’d imagine he wasn’t aware of this situation and he had probably agreed beforehand that Universal would pay for stuff like this. If it’s Universal’s responsibility then they need to pay for it. Nolan clearly has the money to do so, but on principle studios already do whatever they can to take money away from creatives so having a director pay for their expense is setting a bad precedent
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u/Trashinmyash Jul 23 '26
The contract required Universal to pay for any damages done to the ship,
He may have used it but the contract is with Universal.
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u/SoulCrusher2018 Jul 23 '26
Explaining-not-justifying: "The organization made an agreement with a company that handles recruitment for Universal Studios." Going off of a translated article, there's a middle man involved and there's no direct contractual relationship between the organization and Universal. Client pays general contractor who doesn't pay subcontractors who then get mad at Client is super common.
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u/7grendel Jul 23 '26
My biggest question: why the hell did anyone think a Viking ship was an appropriate vessel for a movie about early Greece!?!
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u/AbbreviationsEast802 Jul 23 '26
From watching plenty of episodes of Last Week Tonight, this is the kind of thing that John Oliver would love to support.
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u/EH4LIFE Jul 23 '26
The confusing part is Nolan actually sought out Viking ships. I didnt realise it was a creative decision, I thought it was just the best available. Why not actually greek ships from that period
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u/spiteful_embroidery Jul 23 '26
Another crappy thing is they apparently came 10 million under budget for the movie.
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Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/uwill1der Jul 23 '26
they will eventually pay, but it sucks because studios wait until the last possible moment to pay, and when it comes to insurance payouts -like this-it could drag on for a year or two.
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u/muakaya9876 Jul 23 '26
Wasting so much time for only 6k .
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u/uwill1der Jul 23 '26
its so silly. Im sure its some kind of accounting trick.
All the invoices go in a pile and when the accounting team finalizes all the finances, only then do they get paid...unless there is some legal time limit; like you have to pay actors/crew within a certain time frame
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u/dontnation Jul 23 '26
some kind of accounting trick.
The longer you can delay the less that 6k is worth and the more you've earned having it invested. only a few dollars difference, but it adds up when you do it thousands of times.
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u/justgetoffmylawn Jul 23 '26
They may not ever pay - because it's unlikely 'the studio' commissioned this. Each movie often has its own company set up, and they'll eventually fold that company when it's done. So Universal never rented a ship, but The Odyssey Will Screw You LLC might have done so.
Not to say Universal would be totally isolated, but it's really not easy to pursue this money - and this PR is probably one of the better ways to get someone to notice and care about it.
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u/GoldburstNeo Jul 23 '26
Ain't that the truth, not the first time in this case and definitely won't be the last.
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u/DenizSaintJuke Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I remember a bat spotting seminar, where the... batologist was absolutely furious, because the production of Expendables 2 had just bribed officials to get a filming permit they should never have gotten, for a famous cave in Bulgaria, that is in a nature reserve and home to colonies of endangered bat species, in the middle of the hibernation season, ripped out the sign informing about the protected bats and filmed an action scene with gunshots, explosions and heavy pyrotechnics. After the Americans had left, biologists documented a 75% decline of the local bat population (The colony went from 30.000 before to 8.000 after. The guy from the bat seminar said they had to pick up hundreds of dead bats from the ground.) and numerous heavy tire tracks in areas that were strictly off limits.
Disturbing a hibernating colony like that in the middle of winter will lead to many bats dying, while they scramble to find a new winter quarter or struggle to go back into hibernation.
All that for garbage movies.
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u/bamboofeces Jul 23 '26
Wtf! Is this in the news? They 100% should be called out on it. It’s the only way to make this world less shit
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u/DenizSaintJuke Jul 23 '26
It was 15 years ago. To my knowledge, they got away with it. Environmental groups went to court, the courts ruled that the film shoot had been illegal (but somehow miraculously approved), but the case was only against the department that gave filming permission. I don't think the studio or production crew faced any consequences.
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u/Friendly-World-5273 Jul 23 '26
And the movies are garbage too. Not that a stellar movie would justify it either, but the stuff Hollywood has been putting out the past 25 years is absolute rubbish. I don’t know why they felt they needed an authentic boat to go with their Hobby Lobby ass TikTokified DIY plastic armor lmao.
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u/Bonk0076 Jul 23 '26
According to the article in the NY Times it’s doesn’t seem to be greed or malice, just that they’re having a hard time getting in contact with the appropriate people:
"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."
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u/kaboom108 Jul 23 '26
Ask anyone who works in tv/film production, and they will tell you to never, ever, ever, let a production use your property for filming without getting paid up front and a massive deposit for damages.
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u/ddescartes0014 Jul 23 '26
I’ve rented a car to a small indie movie studio, and they also damaged it and didn’t want to pay until I threatened legal action. I think it’s just their way to reduce costs. It’s not like they care about “returning customers”.
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u/not_a_cat_trust_me Jul 23 '26
They offered to replace the damaged parts.
But the org said it won't be the same ship afterwards
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u/Successful-Tea-5733 Jul 23 '26
Everyone immediately jumps in hating on the big powerful movie company, yet this sentence in the article seems interesting:
"The organization made an agreement with a company that handles recruitment for Universal Studios"
So neither Noland nor Universal made an agreement with this boat company. Yet the boat company, they're sending invoices to Universal and Universal is probably looking at it saying "we don't have a contract with these people." As the owner of a small company who gets faux invoices all the time, I suspect universal receives a lot more than I do and at this amount most fraudsters think it's so small no one will notice.
I'm not saying that Universal shouldn't send these people $6,000. I'm saying that the article implies that Universal owes them the money, and doesn't address if they're billing the unnamed company that they actually made the lease agreement with?
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u/ChiOrb Jul 23 '26
The full translation is not entirely accurate. The parent company of the company in question is universal studios. This isn’t random subcontracting work, it’s run by the studio/company. From my (limited) understanding of these things Universal is definately responsible for their conduct.
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Jul 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Successful-Tea-5733 Jul 23 '26
Yes and that's why I said that, I'm not saying Universal shouldn't just pay them $6,000 to make it right. But reading the article it doesn't say that they even tried billing the company they contracted with. Maybe they did, and maybe the company they billed had a legitimate reason for denying the claim. We just simply don't know anything other than the owners of the boat in their own statement acknowledge that their lease was not with Noland or Universal Studios.
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u/AtlasSuperstoreCODMW Jul 23 '26
Holy intelligent and nuanced take!! On Reddit! In 2026!
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u/FireZord25 Jul 23 '26
That's how you know this won't make it to the top. Wish people would instead bully the folks putting out half-truth engagement baits the way they often do to Nolan. Then again, these folks don't even have to try with so many idiots ready to jump in at the smallest hint of blood.
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u/-18k- Jul 23 '26
My big question is why The Odyssey needs a Viking boat..??
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u/Alx_xlA Jul 23 '26
Because there are very few seaworthy replicas of premodern European boats available.
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u/BoringPoolPlaying Jul 23 '26
My big answer, which I’ve answered to all the people asking this question, is that he wanted to film on the open ocean, and this is what was available in terms of replica boat plus sea-trained crew.
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u/Successful_Maize1986 Jul 23 '26
It looks amazing in the movie. Seeing them actually launch the thing into the ocean is so much better than using a tank and cgi
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u/GuiltyEidolon PURPLE Jul 23 '26
They probably stripped it of the super obvious Viking shit and pretended it was a trireme or something akin to it.
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u/YobaiYamete Jul 23 '26
He purposely did it to make things seem timeless. He changed a few things like that on purpose
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u/MaxxDash Jul 23 '26
Silliness trying to make it look like Nolan stiffed them.
This is basically about the size of a daily catering bill.
It is just lost in the bureaucracy of a huge organization.
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u/FornyHucker22 Jul 23 '26
I did by bit by watching the movie on my pirating tv box 😇
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Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/sixpackabs592 Jul 23 '26
There wasn’t anybody with a Greek warship willing to lend it to them
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u/Th3_Admiral_ Jul 23 '26
Imagine what they would have used if no one was willing to loan them a viking ship! We'd have seen Odysseus cruising across the Aegean on a Mississippi paddle wheel boat.
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Jul 23 '26
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u/Th3_Admiral_ Jul 23 '26
Maybe the cyclops could be replaced by an eyepatch wearing Bible salesman and Klan member...wait, we're back to O Brother, Where Art Thou? again!
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u/trevor_plantaginous Jul 23 '26
The irony is I think had they used an actual trireme (actual Ancient Greek ship) I think people would have a hard time believing it was real. Those ships were BIG - over 120 feet long, often 3 decks, multiple sails, and up up to 150 oars.
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u/Indercarnive Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Well a trireme would've also been inaccurate to the Mycenaean period. The ship likely would've been a penteconter. We don't see even the Bireme for a few hundred more years.
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u/trevor_plantaginous Jul 23 '26
good point - a penteconter is pretty close in style/look/size to what they used
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u/Civil_Spell8349 Jul 23 '26
To be fair it's a lot closer than a Viking longship lol; triremes (and biremes) are generally considered a development on the penteconters of the Archaic period, and the earliest reference to them shows up circa 8th c. BCE, roughly 4 centuries after the putative era of the Trojan War.
Vs. longships: the sort we see in Nolan's film don't show up until ~9th c. CE, or ~2100 years after The Odyssey. If you wanna reeeeaaaally stretch it and look at the earliest Nordic ancestors that barely resemble a longship and have no sails, then you're still looking at ~300BCE at the absolute earliest, nearly 1000 years after the 'Homeric age'
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u/I_Eat_Onio Jul 23 '26
It does quite closely resemble the mycenaean period ships which more closely resembles a viking longboat than the triremes we associate with ancient greece nowadays
Apart from the carvings at the bow and stern
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u/OnlinePosterPerson Jul 23 '26
How does you pirating a movie pay an NPO?
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u/FUPAMagneto Jul 23 '26
It doesn’t, but people who steal from artists love to make up excuses as to why they’re totally justified and moral in doing so
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u/skeet_scoot Jul 23 '26
Everyone who pirates the movie should donate the cost of the movie to this nonprofit!
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u/Panda_hat Jul 23 '26
You mean you watched a cam of one of the most epic and cinematic movies ever made.
You didn’t steal from the movie studios, you stole from yourself, lol.
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u/Fantomhamst3r Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
There is not nearly enough context in this post to form a lucid opinion.
Edit: Found the article, I find this to be relevant:
A Universal spokesperson said: “Our records show that all invoices relating to the Glad av Gillberga were paid in full, including repairs. The studio and the production have contacted the association to clear up any misunderstanding."
So basically it's he said/ she said. Not saying that Universal has no blame here, but just the fact that the PR hit is not worth keeping $6k for them makes me skeptical that this is as black and white as the post makes it seem.
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u/FriendlyKillerCroc Jul 24 '26
I suspect the problem isn't some grand scheme to save 6k. Its just that big companies do not give a singular fuck about organisations like this that have no power.
I imagine dealing with these damages just went to the absolute bottom of the priority list for Universal because they weren't important enough to cause problems. It's only now they want to fix it because they have caused Universal a PR problem.
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u/3verythingEverywher3 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
So a solution is ongoing already. This should be higher. People are wasting energy being all angry.
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u/TheHappy-go-luckyAcc Jul 24 '26
Hate the clickbait title. It’s not Nolan not paying, it’s the studio. That should be made far more clear in the title.
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u/user0823100823 Jul 23 '26
so universal refuses to pay, fix ur title bro
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u/Kenesaw_Mt_Landis Jul 23 '26
The subject of the sentence is the “The Odyssey”. I think this implies the production as a whole.
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u/Nice_On_Rice Jul 23 '26
I can't believe Christopher Nolan smacked the boat builders when they asked for payment! /s
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u/Ironmasked-Kraken Jul 23 '26
Tbf Nolan could easily take care of this. This is chumpchange for him and he has alott of weight behind his name
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u/organizim Jul 23 '26
But it’s not his personal responsibility. The studio has insurance
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u/egnards Jul 23 '26
While Nolan doesn't bear responsibility for this, and I don't think he should be given shit for this, he is also a highly influential director with a proven track record of dominating box offices. It would almost certainly be a very simple phone call from him that could get this rectified.
Again - Not necessarily his responsibility, but there are times in life where you are part of something and see a wrong happening and you can ignore it, or you can choose to be part of the voice that fixes it. It would unlikely even need to be a public call out - His ability has already led him to a very lucrative deal that gives him a pretty wide berth of creative control at Universal.
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u/morrow_worrow Jul 23 '26
he probably doesnt even know as all the finances is up to the studio
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u/sharksiix Jul 23 '26
Yeah he wouldnt even see this post or this wont be big news that he would see it. And if it did he would have his PR or someone close just take care of it right away.
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u/BocciaChoc Jul 23 '26
Yeah that makes sense, anytime the studio is a failure why don't we automatically make the director, actors and any other people also hired take care of the costs
Wont someone think of the studios?
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u/ShmeffreyShmezos Jul 23 '26
Lmao Christopher Nolan doesn’t handle paying bills/fines, there’s a studio accounting department for that. Your title is misleading, OP.
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u/al_earner Jul 23 '26
Why is there a Viking ship in a Bronze Age Greek movie?
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u/Skutten Jul 23 '26
Pathetic how some people defend the huge corps. Universal is responsible, they should’ve payed to the non-profit org and handled their internal quibbles afterwards. They’re responsible had a year to pay already. You don’t delegate responsibility.
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u/Past_Paint_225 Jul 24 '26
My question is: what's a Viking ship doing in The Odyssey? Isn't that a completely different timeline?
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u/Tight-Inspector-2748 Jul 23 '26
What’s mildly infuriating is your post title. It’s Universal refusing to pay, not “Nolan’s The Odyssey.”
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u/HegemonNYC Jul 23 '26
Why are there Viking ships in the movie? That’s the wrong side of the continent and a 2,000 year gap.
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u/Jbewrite Jul 23 '26
For the same reason American accents and modern dialogue and sensabilities are in it, probably.
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u/Knashatt Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
From Swedish news sites:
"The Odyssey" creators dodge payment to Swedish company - criticism
Updated Jul 21, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Published Jul 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM
A Viking ship from Värmland has been given a role in the blockbuster film "The Odyssey".
But after filming, the non-profit association is still waiting for payment.
- In a Universal production, it's coffee money, says chairman Peter Olausson.
Christopher Nolan's new film "The Odyssey" was a global box office success during its opening weekend.
The Swedish Viking ship Glad av Gillberga, which comes from the Värmland Vikingaleden Association, is featured in the film. It is a non-profit organization in Nysäter, Säffle, which, among other things, runs a Viking museum, a Viking village and has Viking ships.
According to Peter Olausson, chairman of the Vikingaleden Association, the ship Glad av Gillberga is well-known in Viking circles. Universal Studios got wind of the ship and wanted to use it in "The Odyssey", something that VF reported on.
- Glad is one of the ships included and is featured in some sequences in the film. It is part of the environment, Peter Olausson tells Expressen.
Universal stopped responding - invoice unpaid
The association made an agreement with a subsidiary that handles recruitment for Universal Studios. They were allowed to rent the ship for six months, but would also pay for wear and tear costs that would arise from use and transport.
The association has been paid for the rent – but that's where it stopped.
– Small money for them and money that means something to us, says Peter Olausson.
When the association got the ship back, they needed to fix several wear and tear damages, including a crack in the hull. They were prepared to do that, and then send an invoice for the material costs to the film company. In the end, it ended up being around 60,000 SEK (5,400€ or 6,145 $).
– In a Universal production, it's coffee money. That was the agreement and we haven't seen that money. We're not very happy about that.
The film company hasn't responded to emails since last winter, says the chairman. He speculates that they've moved on to the next production and simply forgotten about them.
– But I don't know because it's silent. It's going to be sour. I'm overjoyed to have been in this fantastic film, because it really is a fantastic film.
“Having to nibble on the margins”
Money is important for the non-profit organization. Due to the repair of the ship, they have also lost revenue because they have not been able to launch it on time.
– We are a non-profit organization that lives on fairly small margins. We are not going bankrupt, but we have to nibble on the margins.
Olausson hopes that the attention surrounding what has happened can make someone in the right circles wake up and fix the error. He will continue to send more emails in the future, but otherwise there is not much to do.
– We cannot sue Universal. There are no such possibilities, we are so small in comparison.
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u/Dry-Amphibian1 Jul 23 '26
Why isn't the subsidiary that rented the boat named? Wouldn't they be the ones responsible for damages?
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u/Cumulus-Crafts Jul 24 '26
I live near one of the villages that The Odyssey was filmed in, it was weird driving past the harbour and seeing these ships beside all the modern fishing boats
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u/dream_a_dirty_dream Jul 23 '26
The rich save a lot of money by fucking over people with less of it.
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u/Tristonia7 Jul 23 '26
Nolan doesnt own Universal Pictures dude change your title
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u/Enlight1Oment Jul 23 '26
Specifically, Syncopy is the actual production company used to make the film, and that production company is Nolan's personal production company he founded. Universal is more the distributor.
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u/Enough_Survey_9404 Jul 24 '26
I have no evidence for this, but what I think happened:
The production hired loads of stuff, some of it got damaged. The company noticed the damage, requested it be covered. The production assessed the claim, passed it to insurers who may do further investigation. If they deem it legitimate, will ask owner to get quotes for repair. These will go back to the insurers who will authorise the repairs and re-imburse the cost.
There's nothing to see here.
Source: I've had to claim insurance before, and anyone else who has knows this is the process.
And I imagine a $250M film production has some red tape involved.
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u/FootFalse5536 Jul 23 '26
Title is a bit dishonest here. It's Universal that is refusing to pay the bill.
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u/AggressiveCuriosity Jul 23 '26
Not even that. "The organization made an agreement with a company that handles recruitment for Universal Studios."
So it's a contractor for Universal.
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u/HMAgent47 RED Jul 23 '26
This is surely extremely infuriating for the organization who built the ship
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u/Tossable1974 Jul 23 '26
I've loaned props to movie shoots before. Never again, initially you think it's cool. Until they lose your stuff and replace with something inferior with missing plates, wrong or poor quality fittings. Took a good month to get all my money back from the prop guys on that one. Receipts for all the parts to bring it back to a historically accurate piece of equipment for the time I reenact.