Beowulf of the iron troop is a hardy individual, having taken quite a hefty kicking over the years courtesy of his sub-par portrayal across stage and screen. I think it’s fair to say that the King of the Geats is many things, but he is not a typecast French Highlander with the acrobatic skills of a Chinese tumbler (Beowulf 1999), nor is he a Spanish Arab surrounded by Fabio impersonators who has the ability to learn a foreign language merely by observing those around him (The 13th Warrior). His story should not be aggressively deconstructed and re-set in modern day London or the wild west for that matter. Beowulf is a noble, vain and bloodthirsty bastard from the sixth century who likes drinking real ale and gets a kick out of fucking-up monsters with his proto-Vulcan death grip. Fortunately though, for those who prefer an unapologetic Scandinavian Prince clad in rattling war shirt, ale-cup in hand, 2007 promises to be the year when the definitive re-telling of the story hacks its way into your local multiplex.

If the devil is indeed in the details, all the signs are looking good for Beowulf (not to be confused with Beowulf & Grendel), with Angelina Jolie diligently studying depressing British TV soap opera ‘Emmerdale‘ in order to perfect her northern accent for the role of narrator (Queen of Darkness). Perusing the cast and crew list leaves you in no doubt that this movie is a major project, attracting major players both behind and in front of the camera. The usually reliable (in Directorial guise that is) Robert Zemeckis takes the helm, no doubt keen to erase memories of the celluloid hiccup that was the flawed Polar Express. Roger Avary, a claimed Viking descendant himself, brings real kudos to the writing team; in addition to include sharing an academy award with Tarantino for Pulp Fiction he was also the Writer/Director responsible for Killing Zoe and Rules of Attraction. Avary is joined by the equally illustrious Neil Gaiman, award winning author of American Gods and Coraline who is also famous for creating the DC Comics “The Sandman” and its spin-off “Death: The High Cost of Living”.

It was 1988 when Roger Avary asked Neil Gaiman to co-write a Beowulf script for him to direct. Travelling to Mexico they wrote (in Gaiman’s own words) “a sort of Dark Ages Trainspotting, filled with mead and blood and madness, and we went all the way from the beginning of the poem, with Beowulf as a hero battling Grendel, to the end, with Beowulf as an old man fighting a dragon”. Robert Zemeckis really liked the script and after completing Rules of Attraction decided to make it his next project. Utilising performance capture technology first seen in The Polar Express, Beowulf will advance the techniques to create a movie for an adult audience (Zemeckis is at pains to point out that Beowulf will look nothing like his sugary Christmas movie). Performance capture technology, where the facial movements of an actor are captured in addition to body movements promises to bring much more lifelike CG characters to our screens. Monster House and Battle Angel Alita, the much anticipated James Cameron project will also utilise this technology.

Sony pictures have given the movie a $70 million budget, although that figure is likely to rise significantly.

With a superb cast including Ray Winstone (Beowulf), Crispin Glover (Grendel), Anthony Hopkins (Hrothgar), John Malkovich, Brendan Gleeson and Robin Wright Penn, Beowulf could well be aiming for the critical high ground of The Rings trilogy rather than looking to be the next Willow. I also don’t expect we’ll see a motion-captured Ray Winstone cartwheeling across the screen firing a semi-automatic crossbow in slow motion screaming ‘Who’s the Daddy?’ as a CG Grendel strafes him with energy bolts.

For those unfamiliar with the work, Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon poem, the first major work in the European vernacular language. Believed to date from the late 10th century, the poem is a bastard fusion of pagan mythology, Scandinavian history and elements of Christianity. Beowulf is basically comprised of two separate stories: the first is an account of Beowulf’s ass-kicking of Grendel, ‘wanderer of the wasteland and possessor of the moors’, who terrorises the hall of a Danish King and his subsequent sub-aquatic skirmish with his moody she-wolf/mer-bitch mother; the second is a tale set some ‘fifty winters’ later chronicling his rise to the throne and final battle against a fifty foot Dragon (J R R Tolkien would like to point out that any similarities to The Hobbit are entirely coincidental).

Although the two-part structure and extended chronology of the work might seem to present a problem to anyone attempting to adapt the tale for screen (assuming that a sequel is out of the question), there is plenty of additional albeit sketchy material that can be used to flesh-out the story and bind the two elements together. The battle at Fresland against the Hetware and the death of the Geat King Hygelac might provide the opportunity to incorporate the requisite large scale Lord of the Rings style battle sequence, whilst the demonstration of Beowulf’s loyalty and nobility to the Geat throne through mentorship of Prince Heardred could provide some human interest.

Although details are sketchy at present the role of one of the lesser thesps provides an important clue as to what we can expect to see on screen. Tyler Steelman is billed as ‘Young Cain’ suggesting to me that we will get to see at least one of the cooler elements of the story on screen- the genesis of Grendel’s race:

Excited yet? How about the possibility of other background details from the poem being visualized: Beowulf destroying a family of giants or killing water monsters and ‘grinding them to bits’? It remains to be seen just how many of Boewulf’s 3182 lines will make it onto the screen, but there is a fantastic amount of material to work with. With the trout-lipped one narrating the tale, I expect to see plenty of action in flashback.

As for the tone of the movie, it remains to be seen where the creators will go with a work that has been labelled as political and mythical allegory, stirring epic, elegiac tale, creation hymn and heroic boast. One can only hope that the choice to present the feature in performance-captured animation is not detrimental to the effective delivery of that final vision.

Beowulf is scheduled for release November 21st 2007.

For those who would like to become better acquainted with Beowulf I would strongly recommend:
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
which also contains context and criticism, including the famous Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics by JRR Tolkien.

Posted by Elgar in Commentary, Movies • Add to del.icio.us Add to Digg