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Hannibal, Mad-Eye Moody, Kevin and Jenny all in talks to join BEOWULF!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a look at who's in the running for main players in the Roger Avary/Neil Gaiman scripted Robert Zemeckis flick BEOWULF. Variety reports Ray Winstone ("Kevin" from my witty headline... not Elijah Wood... that's one for you WHO fans), Anthony Hopkins, Brendan Gleeson and Robin Wright Penn are all in negotiations to be part of the flick.
Also, Avary announced that Gabriella Pescucci is the costume designer on the project... She's worked with Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam (many times) and even Fellini and Leone... we'll just forget that she took any part in VAN HELSING... If you go over to Avary's website (CLICK HERE TO GO!) you can also see pics of that crazy man with Zemeckis and Gaiman... and a look at the coolest possible pinball machine that could be in Zemeckis' office...
Anyway, I have high hopes for this project. The creative talent involved is fantastic and the cast they're going after looks top notch. What do you folks think?
Columbia Pictures is negotiating with Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Brendan Gleeson and Robin Wright Penn to star in director Robert Zemeckis' "Beowulf."
The performance capture film, based on the Old English epic poem about a knight who slays a monster and becomes king, is being financed by Steve Bing's Shangri-La Entertainment.
Winstone and his co-stars would be committing to a process that is more like a regular movie than the voiceover work commonly done for 3-D animated films.
In a process pioneered in the Zemeckis-directed "The Polar Express" and the recently completed summer 2006 release "Monster House," the actors perform their roles, which get processed through a computerized motion capture animation process.
Pic was scripted by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman, with Zemeckis and his ImageMovers partners Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke producing. Martin Shafer exec produces with the scribes.
Winstone will also be starring in the Anthony Minghella-directed "Breaking and Entering" and Martin Scorsese's "The Departed."
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So they're really going through with the Polar Express treatment to this huh?
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Avery and Gaiman have written something together. Fuck yeah!
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Didn't they already make this movie? I think it had Raiden in it, and was set in a post apocolyptic future.
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Not another creepy performance capture movie! I can only assume the Polar Express made more money than I thought it did because otherwise Zemekis wouldn't be stupid enough to go down that road again. I was just reading Seamus Heaney's Beowulf translation the other day and I have to say whoever composed that work was a master. But this movie would be SO EASY to screw up. I can only hope Gaiman has the talent to pull it off.
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It just does, the actors look like walking corpses... really, is this neccesary? Do a proper Ridley Scott-esque uber treatment, not this wierd animated thing...
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Jun 15, 2005 4:26:14 AM CDT
this would be a far cooler film if it was NOT performance captur
by mansep
sorry, but the resulting footge is VERY hard to watch and enjoy. It just makes you wish you were watching a different film. The technology to do this well just isn't there yet.... and to be honest, i really don't see the need for it anyway. It's just a gimmick that get's old very quickly.
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Whatever you think of 'The Polar Express', the IMAX 3D version was INCREDIBLE! The 3D was actually done properly for the first time ever, and I will be first in the queue to see future IMAX 3D films. No shit, it looks amazing. You still have to wear big-ass glasses though!
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It is danish, if I'm not mistaken.
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just use the actor's real names please.
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Beowulf was written around 1000 A.D. in Old English. It is *about* the adventures of a Scandinavian warrior and is the oldest surviving epic in British literature.
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I saw Neil speak at the Univeristy of Chicago in Hyde Park this past spring, where he spent some time talking about this film. It was fun to hear what he had to say about how the Grendel creature will be created and the cool color of his blood (that whole deal was to keep this bad-boy from being rated R, or worse.) The funniest thing he said was how crazy it was to not have to worry about cost when writing this film. At first he was apprehensive about the action scenes that he and Avary were writing but Zemeckis told him not to worry, "there is nothing in the world you could write for less than a million-dollars-a-minute." That, is crazy!
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Instead of this crappy animation. Others here are right: Polar Express looked like a zombie movie... only creepier. Beowulf is a great story and deserves better treatment than this from Hollywood.
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...if you keep subjecting us to medieval-themed movies. Quit flogging LOTR. It's over, OK? Or did you not figure that out when Kingdom of Heaven tanked?
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It reminds me of that rotoscope stuff. Every time I watch Backshi's "Lord of the Rings", I get creeped out by how the hobbits move (and by Boramir's viking helmet). If they do a decent adaptation, I hope all the LOTR people show up to this (and realize where Tolkein got most of his early ideas from).
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Jun 15, 2005 10:24:26 AM CDT
Ok, if it gets negative feedback here in preproduction phases th
by dogsoup
How is the TalkBack opinion effective?! Somebody on here hates EVERYTHING.It could be The Greatest Movie Ever Made and somebody will be pomping cool posting "Sucks Balls."
Seriously, I can't trust you people for an honest opinion anymore....because no matter what it always sucks.....I think of TalkBack these days personified by Jay Sherman. -
I think John Gardners "Grendel" would make a better film. And if Gaiman adapted...pftt...it'd be mead for everyone, awsome!
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http://home1.gte.net/tomchat/grendel.html
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I liked Grendel too. I even wrote a script treatment for it. Of course, you do know what Grendel is really about, don't you? It's an allegory about discovering one's homosexuality. Take those elements out of the book and you've got a real rock 'em-sock 'em actioner.
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Why did she have to go and marry that uncharasmatic, humorless, honky, cholo-wannabe, Sean Penn?
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When describing Sean Penn. Otherwise, right on. Oh, and this could be fun.
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Not that I have a huge prob with it, cuz I guess I like the guy (Silent Hill will be telling tho..) but I just find it weird that he's involved with this project. Anyone got an answer for me?
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I haven't read Beowulf in a couple of years, but I recall thinking at the time that it could make a great movie. I know it's a story dear to Tolkien's heart, and was a major influence on LotR. I'm a little dubious of the performance capture technology...with such a great cast it's a wonder Zemeckis wants to turn them into unconvincing pixels. It might work for straight-up fantasy, but I remember Beowulf as being a pretty gritty, dark, and brooding story.
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Other than that it sounds cool.
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The date of composition is hardly a known fact set in stone. There are arguments that it was written as early as 700 and as late as 1000.
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Oh dear God StubePT, why'd you have to tell me that? Now I gonna have to re-read it with that in mind. I only got the "isolation" and "hero worship" subtext. Damn yoooooou!!! Ah well, a book weee worth re-reading. Have ya done a treatment of "The Sunlight Dialogs" by any chance.Lol.
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I'm a PhD Student in Old English Literature. I am ready to field all questions. Hwaet!
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The evidence that Beowulf is not the written product of a lettered person is thin--in general it lacks the oral-formulaic qualities of something like the Iliad.
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I wonder how they're going to script the dialogue? It would be great if the characters confused everyone, and spoke in a semblance of old English. With Gaiman involved, you never know what you're going to get.
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Jun 15, 2005 3:33:07 PM CDT
Live action Beowulf and Grendel has been made, and being release
by annamaria
http://www.beowulf-movie.com/
check it out guys... its in post-production, but it looks pretty good to me... heres the trailer... not the best quality but, what can u do....
http://www.movision.co.uk/flash/swfs/beowulf.swf -
And if Michael Drout ever gets off his ass and finishes editing it, we may all actually be able to read it someday...I trust Neil Gaiman more than I trust Joss Whedon (who is my master now), but yeah..this motion capture stuff concerns me as well.
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But the writer is known to have been Christian, and therefore it seems likely to me that it wasn't just recorded like the Illiad was, but probably collected Grimm-style.
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I see that it's entitled "Beowulf and Grendel". Does this mean no dragon? There's no Wiglaf on the cast list, which would certainly tend to suggest that. I also see "Grendel's father" and "Grendel's child", but no "Grendel's mother" - what's that all about? And there's a character called "Feral child" - will he have a lethal metal boomerang? Questions, questions.
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Well, to be fair it's not the easiest of story structures to square with cinematic convention. I wonder if either version will use flashback-type sequences to convey the various little stories woven into the main narrative, like Beowulf's fight with the sea-monsters.
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...Quadrophenia, Scum(both versions), Sexy Beast, Ladybird Ladybird, Nil-By-Mouth and The War Zone. Now he's playing Aslan in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, working with Scorcese and, now, to top it all, we may see him as Beowulf. There's currently only one actor whose work I anticipate more and that's Paddy Considine, the UK's very own 'De Niro'. Maybe it's Ray's time to be a mega-star. Let me say that it couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.
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God of War made into a movie
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Agree about that - pretty boys are OK for Greek mythic heroes but not the Norse variety. Beowulf doesn't have to be big but he should look hard as nails.
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It will be a post(pre?) colonial allegory. The evil Danes will represent encroaching white culture. Grendel's family will represent indigeneous native peoples. In the settling and creation of Heorot, Grendel's father will get killed, thus making Grendel a sympathetic character who is only out to seek vengeance against the no good violence loving Scandinavians. It will all be politically correct. There will probably be reference to how the nasty patriarchal Christian religion is wiping out pagan, peaceful nature worship of the goddess.
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Why is Gilliam not directing this movie live action? Oh, yes. Because that'd be interesting and cool. Dammit. Ah well, Tideland and Grimm... Here I come. -- http://www.cafepress.com/thenewpulp
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Surprise! There already exists a Grendel movie. More or less. It was called Grendel Grendel Grendel, was released in 1981, and was animated. The voice of the monster was by Peter Ustinov. You can find it on the imdb.
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Yes. And "pomping cool??!?!"
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It looks like maybe it will make around the $50 million mark in the US. Not so good for a $130 million film. However, in the rest of the world, it has made $150 million and counting. After adding in DVD and Video Sales etc etc, it will turn a tidy profit at least. I'm sure they're disappointed it didn't make more in US cinemas but they avoided taking financial damage at least.
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There isn't another way to slice it, 50 mill for a 130 million dollar film is tanking. Even with worldwide gross this film isn't doing the studio any favors. General rule of thumb, film has to make back twice what it cost before it starts making money, since the theaters generally garner more than 50% of the box office earnings. But after that, with DVD sales, you're right, it probably won't hurt them, and it may even get out of the red. But breaking even is alright if you're Sideways or Million Dollar Baby, if you're the studios $130 (and with advertising its more like $160-170) investment, you pinned a lot of your fiscal year hopes on this film, and when it doesn't give you a decent return, that's a bomb, and its something the studio does have to eat.
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I'm not sure if I should respond, cause I can't quite tell if you're actually stupid enough to be serious here. I'm just going to assume your not, and figure I'm missing some oblique attempt at sarcasm.
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He posts absurdly obvious things, and when someone else includes the same observation in their own post, he accuses them of stealing what he said. I think it is experimental humor of an Andy Kaufmanesque variety, but I don't see it ever working. Maybe I'm wrong, and a moment will come when I'll stop myself and say, "Damn that powermetal's gig cracks me up," but I really have to doubt it.
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