A Swedish longship that helped launch Christopher Nolan's latest epic is now at the center of a much smaller-budget dispute. The Värmlands Viking Center, a nonprofit in western Sweden, says its 60-foot replica vessel, the Glad av Gillberga, was returned with a cracked hull and other damage after being rented for a project called Charlie's Tale—the production name for Nolan's The Odyssey—and that Universal still owes about $6,000 for repairs, the New York Times reports. The studio used the ship for around six months for filming in the Mediterranean.
The replica ship was built in the 1990s by Viking enthusiasts using traditional method. Center chairman Peter Olausson, 70, says he trimmed the bill from $9,000 in hopes of quick payment, invoicing only for materials, not labor, because volunteers fixed the ship. He says the center feels "forgotten," though Universal says it has already paid, the Guardian reports. "Our records show that all invoices relating to the Glad av Gillberga were paid in full, including repairs," a studio spokeswoman said. "The studio and the production have contacted the association to clear up any misunderstanding."
The Odyssey took in around $264 million in its opening weekend and Olausson said he loved it despite the payment problem. The Glad av Gillberga appeared as an escort vessel in Odysseus' flotilla, with a 115-foot Norwegian replica appearing as the main ship, the Guardian reports. Olausson says the Swedish ship appears around 10 times in the movie. "Of course, you can't see any real detail but for me it was, 'Ah, there's Glad! There's my ship,'" he tells the Times.
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