Well actually it is 1 on the horizon and 1 still lingering in the dark.
A quick history for those who might not be familiar with the story. Beowulf was a Anglo-Saxon work of prose and is considered oldest written English language myth. It centers around the warrior Beowulf and his battle with the monster Grendel. It has also been said that Beowulf helped inspire J.R.R. Tolkien in the writing of The Lord Of The Rings. There have been several different publications of the story over the years and you can locate a copy and just about any book store or library. There is also a animated Beowulf movie from many years back.
The first one out of the gate is Beowulf and Grendel, directed by Sturla Gunnarson from a script by Andrew Rai Berzins. The cast includes Gerard Butler as Beowulf, Sarah Polley as Selma and Ingvar Sigurdsson as Grendel. The movie was filmed entirely on the South coast of Iceland. The film is now in post-production and will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Out of the 2 new movies, this one does have the smaller budget and not as much star-power behind it, but could be closer to the source material and is at least live-action. The Icelandic born Director has already stated how important the original work is to him and appears to be taking this production as a work of the heart and not just as a money-maker. They have a very nice website with a lot of production shots and loads of information. There is even a link on the site to go to read the original wok with translations.
The second adaptation, titled Beowulf, is still in the early pre-production stages and has yet been given a start date. This one will be directed by Hollywood heavyweight Robert Zemeckis from a script by Roger Avery and comic great Neil Gaiman. So far some top stars have signed on for the movie, including Angelina Jolie, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and Robin Wright Penn. One thing that stands out is that this will be a animated feature film. It will use the performance-capture technology used in the making of The Polar Express. At this point I cannot really grasp this idea for this kind of source material, but I guess time will tell. The movie will be distributed by Paramount Pictures.
So we have 2 movies springing from the same source material, but taking 2 different views. I have been a Beowulf devotee since first reading the work back in the dark-ages of school. The Beowulf and Grendel movie I believe will be the better of the 2, with the directors view and a solid cast, I look forward to it's release.
3 comments:
This is great! I loved Beowulf in high school and I'm very interested to see the coming movie adaptations.
I never read Lord of the Rings but enjoyed the film trilogy so it is likely I'll have a blast with Beowulf. Unless the directors mess it up!
BA~~68
Yes clublint, there was a movie made back in 1999-2000 called beowulf that starred Highlander lead man Christopher Lambert. It was pretty low budget and had nothing to do with the original text.
I would be so delighted to finally see a faithful rendition of this tale-- Beowulf has always been a favorite. I highly recommend the translation by Burton Raffel.
The best thing about the Chris Lambert Beowulf movie was Rhona Mitra in a leather bustier.
For anyone else interested in the epic poetry of myth and legend, I recently finished reading Stanley Lombardo's translation of Iliad. I'm still trying to catch my breath.
Fans of thoughtful science fiction should also check out Dan Simmons' Ilium (and its sequel, Olympos, which I have yet to read...), which puts a mind-blowing spin on the Trojan War legend.
I've gone rather far afield here, haven't I?
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