I am currently reading the Seamus Heaney translation of this poem, and am enjoying it very much.
Any advance word on this movie? Is it going to be a CGI suckfest, I wonder?
I thought the trailers looked fantastic. Until I saw Angelina Jolie in them.
Sorry. I can’t stand her so much that I won’t see a movie she’s in. It just ruins the whole thing.
I don’t get the impression that it’s going to bear all that much resemblance to the original story, but I don’t know what it is going to do.
I went and found a trailer and saw the scene you described. Oh, come on - Grendel’s mom a seductive babe? It is to gag.
I’ve been gearing up to start this thread, but you beat me to it. I’ve been re-reading the poem, and there’s a lot of great action and epic heroism in there. It could be made into a cool movie. I fear that this will not be that movie. The trailer looked like crappy CGI and hammy acting. And I don’t see Crispin Glover as Grendel and Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s mother. I picture them both as hideous, large ogres. In the trailer, Jolie looked like, well, Angelina Jolie. She looked creepy in a way, but not flesh-ripping ogre-like. I bet on crap.
Well, it could hardly be any worse than “The 13th Warrior”, could it?
Well, they sort of have to add something to make a movie out of the story. The plot of the poem can basically be summed up with “guy fights a monster, then he fights another, bigger, monster, then he goes home and many years later, fights another, even bigger, monster”. Don’t get me wrong, I like the poem, but more because of the beauty of the language then the actual plot, which is somewhat less complex then your average super-hero comic book.
So having a seductive Mommy-monster sounds as good a twist as anything else. We’ll see.
I’ve come to dislike Robert Zemeckis. It started when I learned that he deliberately advertises movies with trailers that give away key plot points – because he thinks people don’t want any surprises.
More to the point of this thread, though, he’s in love with CGI at the expense of everything that makes a good movie. (Kind of like George Lucas.) I won’t hijack the thread by going into other examples, but what I’ve seen of Beowulf looks that way. Artistically, what would be the point of filming great actors, then essentially rotoscoping them with computer-animated versions of the same actors that look almost, but not quite, exactly like them? It’s just creepy.
Think I’ll skip the flick. There’s a movie made a couple of years ago in Scandinavia I’m waiting to see; probably a fraction of the budget, but maybe closer to the spirit of the story. I really want to read that new translation.
Grendel’s mom has got it going on…
I’m going because of Ray Winstone, an amazing actor who deserves to finally be lead in a big-league movie.
I’ll let you know how it is AFTER I see the film and can judge.
Beowolf and Grendel is, I think, the movie that Baldwin is thinking of. I saw it and liked it a lot. It’s out on DVD now. No CGI. Very pretty scenery. Also very pretty actors.
Neil Gaiman did the script and if there’s anything that can bring me out it’s Gaiman doing Anglo-Saxon epics. Not that it’s a guarantee of quality…
And yeah, what’s up with Grendel’s mom being a MILF?
There’s no way it could possibly be as good as the 1999 Beowulf ! The plot! The cinematography! Christopher Lambert showing both his emotions! Having no idea if this was taking place on a distant planet or a post-apocalyptic Earth!
Ok, maybe it’s just barely possible.
If someone who knew what they were speaking of described this movie as “hardly any worse than the 13th Warrior”, I’d go see it right away.
But I, too, think Gaiman’s involvement to be a good sign.
Wazzup with all the Grendel movies anyway? Did Hollywood just figure out it’s out of public domain? What’s next, Icelandic sagas?
I’m thinking 300 meets Lord Of The Rings meets The Polar Express. With Boobies.
I agree almost wholeheartedly with this. He lost his way right after he made Contact. I was so looking forward to Castaway, and he blew that one big time. Then everything after has been a gummy mess, or a CGI orgy for no good reason. Especially in a time when CG movies have finally come into their own.
Although, I have to give him the benefit of the doubt. It could be that scanning in the actors, ala Tron, then being able to have their way with them digitally could make the movie making experience a lot easier and give it untold flexibility, but the technology is still not quite there yet for human subtlety to work all the way. Take The Polar Expressionless. Talking dead people. It looks like his Mo Cap has advanced some, but I think my mind will be trying too hard while watching the film to block out the fact they’re polygons.
Or maybe Robert just wanted an excuse to scan Jolie’s body down to the pubes for his own perverted purpose. Or posterity. Either way, godspeed, Bobby. Godspeed.
One more thing. I do hope he hasn’t lost his touch forever. He’s made some gems. I’d love for that spark to come back. He used to be a director that made films I looked forward to. sigh
Gaiman wrote it, and at least we know he’s read Beowulf.
Ok, you might not like what he does with it .
He has written two short stories “Bay Wolf” from the collection Smoke and Mirrors which is sort of Baywatch-meets-werewolf and “The Monarch of the Glen” from the collection Fragile Things which is sort of Wickerman-meets-Beowulf. Both are very loosely based on Beowulf.
My Robert Zemeckis story. He was considering buying a vacation home in Wisconsin. But he wanted his own private lake. Was such a thing legal in Wisconsin? He called the Wisconsin Film Office to find out. Thrilled at the idea of helping a big-shot Hollywood director, I spent half a day researching the question. Answer: no, all lakes belong to the commons, and must allow public access. Mr. Zemeckis did not buy a vacation home in Wisconsin.
The quality of The Monarch of the Glen (if it’s the story I’m thinking of—featuring the the American Gods protagonist?) warms me up to the idea of this film, even though the trailer really didn’t do a whole lot for me. It does look … very Hollywood. And I’m afraid I can’t say I enjoyed the Stardust film very much.
Great story. 