Eric Northam was a Viking in his day. Hundreds of years later, he’s a vampire sheriff, and one of the more popular characters on HBO’s hit show, True Blood.

Eric is played on the show by the massive Swedish actor, Alexander Skarsgård, son of Stellan Skarsgård, who now has himself a new job. Skarsgård has been cast in the upcoming Hasbro board game-turned feature film, Battleship.

In the movie, Skarsgård will play a naval officer and sibling to Taylor Kitsch‘s character — also a naval officer — who’s close to and looks up to his brother. If you’ll recall, Kitsch was cast in the lead role back in April after things didn’t quite work out with Jeremy Renner.

Battleship will of course deal with a naval fleet of ships, but that’s about where it ends. The movie will take a surprise route from there, seeing said naval fleet band together with different international fleets to combat an apparent army of alien invaders who seek a power source within the Earth’s oceans.

Aside from True Blood, Skarsgård has done plenty other titles, though few that are well-known. Before he was a vampire, he was part of HBO’s war drama Generation Kill, and he also had a small role in a movie called Zoolander, which has become something of a cult hit within his new fame.

Battleship will be helmed by Peter Berg, who previously directed The Rundown and Hancock. He’s also starred in movies like Corky Ramano and Smokin’ Aces. The movie is written by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber, and is currently aiming at a June 18, 2012 release date.

[Source: Heat Vision]