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Whoa! Robert Zemeckis, Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary teaming up to tackle BEOWULF'!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Now this is some kick-ass geeky pairing if I've ever heard of it. Avary and Gaiman? I seem to remember Avary scripting SANDMAN a while back, a Gaiman property. Nothing came of that draft, but I've heard good things from the people who read it. Avary has been teaming up with some crazy-cool people lately on some crazy-cool projects, having just co-scripted SILENT HILL with Christophe "BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF" Gans and now teaming with Gaiman.
Zemeckis has me at BACK TO THE FUTURE and I continue to be a big fan of his work (although I will admit to having not seen POLAR EXPRESS yet, so I can't really say if bringing BEOWULF to the big screen "through the magic of performance capture" is a good thing or not). Hell, I even thought WHAT LIES BENEATH was a cool movie. So, I'm psyched to see him tackling an Avary & Gaiman scripted adaptation of BEOWULF, the only monster story that's required reading in school! The press release is below! It's also up on Roger Avary's official site, which seems to be down for the moment, but check it out once it's up. It's a whole lotta fun! This could be super cool! What do you folks think?
Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman have joined forces with Steve Bing and Robert
Zemeckis to bring the oldest written English language myth, Beowulf, to
the big screen through the magic of performance capture. Zemeckis will
direct from the screenplay by Avary and Gaiman. The project will be
financed by Shangri-La Entertainment, which is currently in discussions
with Sony Pictures Entertainment to distribute all of its feature films.
The film will be produced by Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Jack
Rapke. Martin Shafer will serve as executive producer along with Avary and
Gaiman.
Zemeckis is the acclaimed Academy Award®-winning director of Forrest Gump
as well as such major hit films as Castaway, What Lies Beneath, Contact,
the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Romancing the
Stone and Death Becomes Her.
Avary, who is an actual Viking descendant, won an Academy Award for his
collaboration with Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction, and is the
writer/director of such acclaimed films as Killing Zoe and The Rules of
Attraction. Avary is currently finishing the screenplay adaptation of the
hit Konami videogame, Silent Hill, for Producer Samuel Hadida and Tristar
Pictures.
Gaiman is the Hugo and Nebula-Award winning author of such novels as
American Gods and Coraline, and is best known as the creator of DC Comics'
legendary Sandman. He wrote the English Language Script for the Miyazaki
film Princess Mononoke. His first feature, MirrorMask, directed by Dave
McKean, premieres at the Sundance Film Festival. His short film A Short
Film About John Bolton was just released on DVD. Projects in development
based on work by Gaiman include Coraline, which Henry Selick is writing
and directing, and Stardust, with director Matthew Vaughn. Gaiman is
writing and will be directing Death and Me, based on his DC Comics graphic
novel Death: The High Cost of Living for New Line Cinema.
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+ Expand All
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Jan 21, 2005 4:40:37 AM CST
But will it be better than the other Beowulf adaptation, the "Fr
by some dude
Impossible. Maybe not.
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I have seen The Polar Express and unless you see it Imax-style, don't even bother. The original story is frickin'cool, but do it old school with some kick ass special effects. That's where Zemeckis's strenght lies.
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it seems cool to me. Or is this another big time announcement that leads into development hell or - maybe worse - will be taken over by lesser Gods? Time will tell. Wasn't The Thirteenth Warrior also some kind of re-telling of Beowulf? Like to see the McTiernan cut of that one some day...
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...With like Gerard Butler, Julia Stiles, Stellan Skarsg
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for the Icelandic production of Beowulf and Grendel but I guess it wasn't interesting enough or he wasn't invited to the set or something to post it.
Here is the site. Plenty of stuff there.
http://www.beowulf-movie.com/ -
.....along with a lot of other films. King (crapfest) Arthur anyone?
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How could that be any good? That motion capture crap is expensive as hell. Polar Express supposedly cost over $200 million. So you can bet they will make this Beowulf as family friendly as possible so that the kids will bring in the big cash. They'll probably have singing animal choruses and shit like that. Poop.
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I don't even know why I am here.
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Isn't that the super rich producer who fucks any nu gal in H-Town? And has impregnated the once uberhot Lizzie McHurley? Since he was exec on Shite Express too, he seems to have patented this motion crapture process. I'd choose a Pixar animation over this technique any day. Oh and the BEOWULF story sux
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Gaiman and Avary are both fascinated by the struggle between good and evil, right and wrong, and characters who tread iffy moral ground... well, they'll get plenty of first-hand experience with THAT by going into business with Zemeckis and Bing... Zemeckis is the worst of the "successful hacks" (although Used Cares is brilliant) and his obsession with doing "gimmick" films has created some of the dullest, most over-rated crap of the past 20 years... I just hope Gaiman and Avary are getting huge paychecks... what's sad is that he, Avary, AND Beowulf deserve much, much better than this
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Beowulf was a great story. It was required reading for me once, don't regret it at all.
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Jan 21, 2005 8:36:55 AM CST
Horrible idea. Polar Express cost WAY too much for the mediocre
by minderbinder
The only reason it came close to breaking even (assuming the budget was "only" 160M) was the Imax 3d and the holiday. You could do a movie like this better (and cheaper) using live action. Hell, do it like Sky Captain and use live actors in CGI environments. When did Bob Zemeckis lose his mind?
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I agree with godoffireinhell. Along with the cute animals they will probably play up the women roles to please a female audience or tack on some stupid romance. I can say this because I am a woman and it pisses me off when they do this (as they did in in LOTR). If you want a great version of Beowulf read the recent Ted hughes one.
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Okay, the Back to the Future trilogy was fun, but I still don't understand that Forrest Gump has snuffed all the significant oscars from Pulp Fiction. Forrest Gump must be one of the most overrated movies of all time. Zemeckis is a mediocre talented Spielberg protege who has a good eye for technique but a (much) lesser one for directing.
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Remember the old "performance capture" technology? Cameras? Remember those?
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I think he's better than Spielberg, actually. Contact was great, The Polar Express was great (unless you're some jaded fanboy), What Lies Beneath was cool, and so on. With Gaiman onboard, I'm really looking forward to this.
Zemeckis takes a lot of material that you wouldn't normally think could be a film, and does amazing things with it. Forrest Gump and Contact would have been crap without Zemeckis. -
I don't mean to harsh on Avary, Gaiman, or even Zemeckis, all who's work I've enjoyed. Bing I don't mind harshing on...the man is clearly a dick. However, it just seems to me that Beowulf is an epic story that needs to be told in a serious way to retain the sense of grandeur and weight that makes this sort of myth so much fun. I'm not sure a poorly animated Tom Hanks playing all the characters is the best way to do that story justice.
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was the best adaptation of the Beowulf legend. It was passed over at the box office but enjoyed more success at video rental stores. I love the transformation of Banderas's character from scribe to warrior and the Norsemen rocked. Also, how bout that great soundtrack? Love it! It's one of my faves in the home collection. Check it out if you haven't seen it.
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For now, the order is correct. Finally. Hope it stays in order. The addition of the author's name in the talkback index is a nice touch as well. Could more updates to the talkbacks be far behind?
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I like the story, but I don't like this idea - Beowulf, with some fine tuning, could easily become the next great LIVE ACTION
trilogy. Three enemies in the book = three movies, and with the expansion of some characters such as Wiglaf (face it, the characters in Beowulf aren't really all that developed for a movie), and a greater look at Beowulf's heritage, this could've been something great. Instead, now it'll be a mere kid's story. It's a shame; Grendel is one of my favorite literary monsters. -
...forgotten it. I mean the story is just not that memorable. I even remember the Scarlet Letter but I have no idea what happens in B-wolf.
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...but I'm prepared to go ahead and cast my vote for the most idiotic thing typed in this talkback already. And, as fate would have it, it's a tie between phanboi's "...the BEOWULF story sux" (complete with cutesy illiterate spelling of "sucks" to instantly undermine his credibility as a literary critic) and fuckknuckles' comment about Gaiman's stuff being "gay." Actually, fuckknuckles has to be in the running for some sort of lifetime acheivement award in stupidity by now, so maybe we'll give this smaller award to phanboi. Congratulations, dumbass! What's next for you? A dissertation on the merits of reality TV? Back on topic, the Beowulf news has me cautiously optimistic, with an emphasis on the cautious. I'm not convinced any form of animation is the best way to treat such a starkly symbolic epic (although I suppose it might lend itself to anime).
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Jan 21, 2005 11:02:30 AM CST
If it's better than that Christopher Lambert turdfest, this Monk
by monkey_king
Lambert's films have been touch and go ever since the first Highlander sequel. I understand he wants to keep working, but dammit find a stand-out script out of the piles of shit you do end up taking on. C'mon man!
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Jan 21, 2005 11:16:57 AM CST
President Evil, you're thinking of the wrong Sandman script
by the ungod
While Avery's Sandman script was actually pretty good and Neil Gaiman liked it. Unfortunately, it was passed over and the subsequent scripts by others are what you describe.
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dork thinks he's going to drown.
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Jan 21, 2005 11:57:05 AM CST
oh, come on! Nothing will ever match the genius of the Christoph
by tv casualty
*sniff* smell that? That's sarcasm.
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Me ... a critic? No way. I'm a friggin fanboy so I hate ANYTHING from the get go. And most of all I hate snobs like you Roland. So move on and talk a long walk to the Dark Tower and STFU. SUCKA!
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...phanboi. I'm just trying to help get you more of the attention you so clearly desire. Sometimes stupid is really, really funny. And then, on the other hand, there's you. You should be funnier if you're going to persist in being as dumb as you are.
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That's heavy.
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Jan 21, 2005 12:59:43 PM CST
Performance Capture? I think I'd rather watch the Christopher La
by lordsoth
Which really, for a straight to video release, was pretty good. Heck, it was better than
Blade Trinity. And better than anything else Lambert did post the first Highlander film. -
Keep Zemeckis away from this. Performance capture. Ugh.
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Jan 21, 2005 1:39:45 PM CST
beowulf? so, does he team-up with a vumpire or something?
by darthbakpao
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I understand the conceit with Polar Express at least, the idea of wanting to make it look like a painting or whatever. But what would be the point of doing this time period, this setting in performance capture? Besides, it would be ten times cooler to see it live action, excepting the live action version that was not 10 times cooler than anything.
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Jan 21, 2005 2:07:51 PM CST
NEW RULE: Ancient Light is a total retard. Beowulf takes place i
by bill maher
This movie will lick turtle nuts. There will be song and dance numbers, an obligatory love interest, and other assorted shittiness. King Arthur and LOTR are 100% wank, so if some douchebag bastardizes them in the movies, I don't care. But Troy gives me a good idea of what's going to be done to Beowulf, another true classic. It will be ass-raped like that 12-year-old boy was at Abu Ghraib.
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...Check out Trespass. It's as different to Back To The Future/Gump/Roger Rabbit etc as you can get. Admittedly he just co-wrote it with Bob Gale, but it's far from his usual fare. Walter Hill was the director by the way.
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http://www.avary.com/theskinny/sandman/script-sandman7-10-96.html - for anyone interested. And Forrest Gump gets unfairly crapped on in retrospect, yes, it was overrated, but the backlash against that shouldn't downgrade it crap, its still a very good flick.
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Oh, that should give him some 'extra special' insight into the material.
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...Hell, just adapt John Gardner's anti-existentialist masterpiece "Grendel" into a film... Or even the Matt Wagner Hunter Rose comic! I'd love to see someone do this right...
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13the Warrior was the best adaptation of the Beowulf legend. It was passed over at the box office but enjoyed more success at video rental stores.
We'll just assume you're joking shall we? -
The parallels are very interesting.
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Anyone remember that movie? Mid-'70s, I think-- the Beowulf legend told from the monster's point-of-view. All done with animated paper cut-outs, and tremendously moving. Proof that all the mo-cap in the world is worth nothing without a good script.
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I've always enjoyed Gaiman's work, and Zemeckis' work is always a fun night at the movies. Putting those two together with Avary, a guy with talent that reaches so far beyond the casual filmgoer's critical ability, is awesome news indeed! The pace and feel of "Zoe" was and continues to be some of the most intense filmmaking since Reservior Dogs (not a coincidence, of course)...and "Attraction" was great in that Ellis and Avary have similar ideas regarding the contemporary guises of our own personal demons: drugs, hate, depression, crime, etc. As Beowulf, a classic of British Lit., not only plays into the traditionally Avery-trodden areas of self-respect and loyalty, it also serves as a fantastic vehicle for the fantastic good vs. evil genre post-LOTR. This is going to be an awesome and important film if it happens!
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I'm not joking. I loved The 13th Warrior, but it royally stunk it up a the box office...i think it only made 30-40 mill worldwide. The battle scenes were great, and I loved the comradarie of the warriors. The cave scene was well done also.
One thing I've never understood about the Crichton novel is the way he changed the names of some of the characters, eg: Beowulf changed to Buliwyf, the Grendol are the Wendol. Was Crichton trying to make the story more believable by drawing on the way stories get distorted over time as they are passed down through the ages? -
Just like virtually everyone in Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and a good portion of the British and Irish. And Minnesotans.
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Hopefully this news/version doesn't sweep it under the rug. Maybe it will get it an earlier, bigger release? The production stills from it are awesome, so I have high hopes for it.
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Does the fact that Zemeckis is trying to do it for you do it for you?
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...No, not really. Some dork in my campus paper wrote a negative film review where he said something to the effect of "Robert Zemeckis must be rolling in his grave". The paper made "Zemeckis is dead" jokes for months afterwards. It was lame, but I picked up the habit. This does sound... interesting, maybe that's the word? It is a little ironic that it took a successful film version of "Lord of the Rings" for Hollywood to take making "Beowulf" into a film seriously. I guess there was that Christopher Lambert monstrosity (pun probably intended), but let's not count that one....
"Avary, who is an actual Viking descendant..." Who writes this shit? -
"I think he's better than Spielberg, actually"
hahahahahahahahah sniff snotter. ahum, you're so funny! nuff said Aphextwin -
Jan 21, 2005 9:53:13 PM CST
Sorry, Ingeld, the "Friday the 13th" series is the best Beowulf
by some dude
The Alien films don't have: forest, lake, lodge, etc.
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im flattered but, i had it first...you probbaly saw it on halo.unreal, or counterstrike...like a can do something about it huh? oh well...i was clever first, and as long as the message is getting passed along, fuck it...keep it i have another good one in mind
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I don't know about the Friday the 13th series. I have only seen the first, but here is a list of parallels: Beowulf: grendel comes from outside attacks the people in the hall; Alien monster comes from outiside attacks people in the ship. Beowulf: monster is the kin of Cain, as in Cain in Abel; Alien: the monster burst from a crewmember named Kane. Beowulf: the monster has acid blood that melts metal swords. Alien: monster as acid blood that melts metal. Beowulf: monster fights grendel unarmed. Alien: Ripley at the end fights monster unarmed--almost naked. Beowulf:hero goes to the realm of the monsters to fight grendel's mother. Aliens: hero descends to the bottom of the complex to fight monster's mother. Beowulf: in the fight with grendel's mother, the hero is armed. Aliens: in the fight with the mother Alien, the hero puts on mechanical armor. What are the parallels with Friday the thirteenth beside setting?
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Well THAT was certainly a savage ass-kicking. // To the poster who mentioned the "Grendel" version, I can't vouch for the cartoon, but the Gardner novel kicks ass, particularly in its depiction of a semi-retarded, psychotic Beowulf. Good times.
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Jan 22, 2005 12:37:45 PM CST
"Beowulf" has already been adapted as "The Thirteenth Warrior".
by mrvess
And a fine adaptation it was.
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The "Friday the 13th" films are about a mother/son killing team that alternate vengeful roles. There are plenty of limbs torn from bodies, often the monsters are drowned in the lake, and the forest setting complete with lodge and lake fits in with Beowulf. The violence also happens every year or two, which I believe was a hallmark of Grendel's attacks (unless I am remembering wrong). There is no dragon, but by the time "Jason X" came out, it looks like the filmmakers wanted to make the parallel obvious so they named one of the spaceships "The Tiamat."
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Oh, I know "Tiamat" doesn't come from "Beowulf," but it is the name of a dragon. Also "Jason X" features another ship called "Grendel."
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I didn't know about the Friday the 13th influences. The trouble with the Alien franchise is that the connections to Beowulf seem to stop after the second movie. It will be interesting to see what this animated Beowulf will be like.
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Why I give my time to replying to a troll, I don't know, but what's Spielberg done lately that compares to Zemecki's work lately? I'm not saying Spielberg sucks, not at all. I like Spielberg's new stuff. I just have the OPINION that Zemeckis is a bit edgier in directing his films. He's bolder.
Fucking trolls.
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