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 goes into pre-production in November, 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).

ZU33 described the movie as follows: "Equal parts music, true crime, occult, and subcultural anthropology, the book by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind chronicles the Norwegian black metal music scene in the early 1990s. Since that time, nearly 100 churches have been torched and desecrated by adherents of black metal, the most extreme form of underground music on the planet. In an escalating unholy war, black metal bands and their obsessive fans have left a grim legacy of suicide, murder and terrorism spreading from Norway to Germany, Russia, America and beyond. The feature film will focus on the relationship between legendary figures Varg Vikernes and Euronymous and the rest of the 'Black Circle' as they wage war against the powers that be in their native country."

"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 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).

Thanks: Cameron Terry / DemonsZone)