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Beowulf (2007 film)

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Beowulf
File:Beowolfposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRobert Zemeckis
Written byNeil Gaiman
Roger Avary
Produced byRobert Zemeckis
Steve Bing
Jack Rapke
Steve Starkey
StarringRay Winstone
Crispin Glover
Angelina Jolie
Anthony Hopkins
Robin Wright Penn
John Malkovich
Brendan Gleeson
Alison Lohman
CinematographyRobert Presley
Edited byJeremiah O'Driscoll
Music byAlan Silvestri
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • November 16, 2007 (2007-11-16)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguagesEnglish
Old English
Budget$150 million
Box office$196,393,745

Beowulf is a 2007 American performance capture fantasy film based on the Old English epic poem of the same name. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film was created through a motion capture process similar to the technique used in The Polar Express and Monster House. The cast includes Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman, and Angelina Jolie. It was released in the United Kingdom and United States on November 16, 2007, and was available to view in IMAX 3D, RealD, Dolby 3D and standard 2D format.

Plot

Set in Denmark in the 6th century, the film opens with King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) celebrating the construction of his mead hall, Heorot. However, the music disturbs and enrages the monstrous creature Grendel (Crispin Glover), who attacks the mead hall and slaughters nearly all of the people there. He retreats to his mother's (Angelina Jolie) cave when Hrothgar challenges him to fight. His mother, a water-demon, takes interest in Hrothgar's presence. Hrothgar has the mead hall sealed and offers half of the gold in his kingdom for a hero to kill Grendel. Beowulf (Ray Winstone) and his group of Geats arrive by ship, and agree to slay Grendel. That night, Beowulf strips naked because he believes it would be more honorable to fight Grendel with neither weapon nor armor so they may fight as equals. The Geats bed down in the mead hall when challenged by Unferth (John Malkovich), Hrothgar's skeptical advisor. Their singing attracts Grendel, who kills some of the Geats before Beowulf mortally wounds him in unarmed combat by breaking his left arm off. Grendel crawls back to his cave and later dies under his mother's caresses.

Grendel's vengeful mother kills all the rest of the Geats except Beowulf and his friend, Wiglaf (Brendan Gleeson). Hrothgar reveals that Grendel's mother killed the men, and Beowulf decides to kill her too when Hrothgar says that she is the last of demonkind. Hrothgar does not reveal where Grendel's father is but offers the curious opinion that he poses no threat to them.

Beowulf and Wiglaf go to the cave where Grendel's mother lives, but only Beowulf ventures in, armed with the sword Hrunting and a golden horn shaped like a dragon. Grendel's mother appears as a golden naked woman and seduces Beowulf into giving her a son; in exchange, she promises Beowulf's name will be legendary for all time. Beowulf returns to Heorot with Grendel's severed head which is unceremoniously tossed into the ocean. He then dissembles about killing Grendel's mother and losing Hrunting and the horn to her. When Hrothgar privately confronts Beowulf he lets slip with the truth. Hrothgar then reveals that he was Grendel's father. Thus freed from the curse of Grendel's mother, Hrothgar implies that the burden is now Beowulf's to bear. He informs his people that Beowulf will become king upon his retirement and throws himself from the battlements to his death. Beowulf is crowned king soon after.

Years later an aging Beowulf, despondent and depressed over his deceit, shares his bed with a young mistress named Ursula (Alison Lohman) while queen Wealtheow (Robin Wright-Penn) suffers quietly. One winter evening, the horn Beowulf gave to Grendel's mother is found by Unferth's servant Cain; Beowulf realises Grendel's mother has reneged on their bargain, and Heorot is once more in danger. The following night, a dragon suddenly appears and burns down a nearby village, leaving Unferth as the only survivor and carrying the message of "the sins of the fathers". Beowulf realizes that the dragon is in fact his own son and ventures forth to kill both him and his demon mother. The dragon attacks Heorot and attempts to kill Wealtheow and Ursula. Beowulf stabs the dragon in the chest, draining its ability to breathe fire, and then he literally rips its heart out. Beowulf and the dragon fall from a great height onto the beach far below. The dragon's form dissolves away into a hairless, golden, physically perfect man resembling Beowulf before his body washes away. With his dying breath, Beowulf attempts to tell Wiglaf the truth - that Grendel's mother still lives - but Wiglaf, in his grief over Beowulf's mortal wounds and attempting to soothe Beowulf, dismisses his words.

Beowulf is given a Norse funeral; Wiglaf, now king, finds the horn washed up on the beach. As he watches the funeral boat burn, he sees Grendel's mother draw Beowulf's body beneath the waves, before rising up again with an expectant smile and beckons him. Wiglaf stares impassively, leaving it ambiguous whether he resists her seduction or continues the tragic cycle. he became gay

Cast

The cast members of Beowulf were filmed on a motion capture stage. They were altered on screen using computer-generated imagery, but their animated counterparts bear much resemblance to themselves.

  • The title character, Beowulf, is portrayed by Ray Winstone. Zemeckis cast Winstone after seeing his performance as the title character of the 2003 ITV serial Henry VIII.[1] On the topic of the original poem, Winstone commented during an interview, "I had the beauty of not reading the book, which I understand portrays Beowulf as a very one-dimensional kind of character; a hero and a warrior and that was it. I didn't have any of that baggage to bring with me."[2] Winstone enjoyed working with motion capture, stating that "You were allowed to go, like theater, where you carry a scene on and you become engrossed within the scene. I loved the speed of it. There was no time to sit around. You actually cracked on with a scene and your energy levels were kept up. There was no time to actually sit around and lose your concentration. So, for me, I actually really, really enjoyed this experience." Winstone also noted that his computer-generated counterpart resembled himself at the age of eighteen, although the filmmakers did not have a photo for reference.[3] Winstone also played a dwarf performer, and the "Golden Man"/Dragon.[2]
  • The antagonists Grendel and Grendel's mother are portrayed by Crispin Glover and Angelina Jolie, respectively. Glover had previously worked with Zemeckis in Back to the Future, when he portrayed George McFly. Zemeckis had found Glover tiresome on set, because of his lack of understanding of shooting a film, but realized this would not be a problem as on a motion capture film he could choose his angles later.[4] Glover's dialogue was entirely in Old English.[3] Jolie had wanted to work with Zemeckis, and had read the poem years before but could not remember it well until she read the script and was able to recall basic themes. The actress was told that she "was going to be a lizard. Then I was brought into a room with Bob, and a bunch of pictures and examples, and he showed me this picture of a woman half painted gold, and then a lizard. And, I’ve got kids and I thought 'That's great. That's so bizarre. I'm going to be this crazy reptilian person and creature.'" Jolie filmed her role over two days when she was three months pregnant. She was startled by the character's nude human form, stating that for an animated film “I was really surprised that I felt that exposed.".[3]
  • King Hrothgar is portrayed by Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins noted in an interview that since Zemeckis is an American, he wasn't certain what accent Hopkins should use for the role of Hrothgar. Hopkins told him, "Well, Welsh would be my closest because that's where I come from." It was also his first time working with motion capture technology. Hopkins noted, "I didn't know what was expected. It was explained to me, I'm not stupid, but I still don't get the idea of how it works. I have no idea [...] you don't have sets, so it is like being in a Brecht play, you know, with just bare bones and you have nothing else." When asked if he had to read the original poem of Beowulf in school, Hopkins replied: "No, I was hopeless at school. I couldn't read anything. I mean I could read, but I was so inattentive. I was one of those poor kids, you know, who was just very slow, didn't know what they were talking about... So I tried to get around to reading Beowulf just before I did this movie, and it was a good modern translation. It was Trevor Griffiths, I’m not sure, but I couldn't hack it, and I tend to like to just go with the script if it's a good script."[5]
  • Unferth is portrayed by John Malkovich. Malkovich became involved in the project because one of his friends, who had worked with Zemeckis, "spoke very highly of him. I had always found him a very interesting and innovative filmmaker. I liked the script very much and I liked the group involved and the process interested me a great deal also." He found the experience of working with motion capture to be similar to his experiences working in the theater. He also found the process intriguing: "say you do a normal day of filmmaking. Sometimes that’s 1/8th of a page, sometimes it’s 3/8th of a page, normally let’s say it’s 2½ pages, maybe 3. Now it’s probably a little more than it used to be but not always. So you may be acting for a total of 20 minutes a day. In this, you act the entire day all the time except for the tiny amount of time it takes them to sort of coordinate the computer information, let’s say, and make sure that the computers are reading the data and that you’re transmitting the data. It interests me on that level because I’m a professional actor so I’d just as soon act as sit around." Malkovich also recalled that he studied the original poem in high school, and that “I think we got smacked if we couldn’t recite a certain number of stanzas. It was in the Old English class and I think my rendition was exemplary."[6]

The cast also includes:

Production

Author Neil Gaiman and screenwriter Roger Avary wrote a screen adaptation of Beowulf in May 1997 (they had met while working on a film adaptation of Gaiman's The Sandman in 1996, before Warner Bros. canceled it).[1] The script had been optioned by ImageMovers in the same year and set up at DreamWorks with Avary slated to direct and Robert Zemeckis producing. Avary stated he wanted to make a small-scale, gritty film, with a budget of $15-20 million, similar to Jabberwocky or Excalibur.[1] The project eventually went into turnaround after the option expired, the rights returned to Avary, who went on to direct an adaptation of The Rules of Attraction. In January 2005, producer Steve Bing, at the behest of Zemeckis who was wanting to direct the film himself, revived the production by convincing Avary that Zemeckis' vision, supported by the strength of digitally enhanced live action, was worth relinquishing the directorial reins.[7][8] Zemeckis did not like the poem, but enjoyed reading the screenplay. Because of the expanded budget, Zemeckis told the screenwriters to rewrite their script, because "there is nothing that you could write that would cost me more than a million dollars per minute to film. Go wild!" In particular, the entire fight with the dragon was rewritten from a talky confrontation to a battle spanning the cliffs and the sea.[1]

Sony Pictures Imageworks created the animation for the film, with visual effects supervisor Jerome Chen overseeing creative and technical development for the project. Animation supervisor Kenn MacDonald explained that Zemeckis used motion capture because “Even though it feels like live action, there were a lot of shots where Bob cut loose. Amazing shots. Impossible with live action actors. This method of filmmaking gives him freedom and complete control. He doesn’t have to worry about lighting. The actors don’t have to hit marks. They don’t have to know where the camera is. It’s pure performance." A 25 × 35-foot stage was built, and it used 244 Vicon MX40 cameras. Actors on set wore seventy-eight body markers. The cameras recorded real time footage of the performances, shots which Zemeckis reviewed. The director then used a virtual camera to choose camera angles from the footage which was edited together. Two teams of animators worked on the film, with one group working on replicating the facial performances, the other working on body movement. The animators said they worked very closely on replicating the human characters, but the character of Grendel had to be almost reworked, because he is a monster, not human.[9]

In designing the dragon, production designer Doug Chiang wanted to create something unique in film. The designers looked at bats and flying squirrels for inspiration, and also designed its tail to allow underwater propulsion. As the beast is Beowulf's son with Grendel's mother, elements such as Winstone's eyes and cheekbone structure were incorporated into its look.[10] The three primary monsters in the film share a golden color scheme, because they are all related. Grendel has patches of gold skin, but because of his torment, he has shed much of his scales as well as exposing his internal workings. He still had to resemble Crispin Glover though: the animators decided to adapt Glover's own parted hairstyle to Grendel, albeit with bald patches.[9]

Robert Zemeckis insisted that the character Beowulf resemble depictions of Jesus Christ, believing that a correlation could be made between Christ's face and a universally accepted appeal.[11] Zemeckis used Alan Ritchson (Aquaman of Smallville fame) for the facial image and movement for the title character of Beowulf.

Visual effects

Director Robert Zemeckis drew inspiration for the visual effects of Beowulf from experience with The Polar Express, which used motion capture technology to create three-dimensional images of characters.[12] Appointing Jerome Chen, whom Zemeckis worked with on The Polar Express, the two decided to chart realism as their foremost goal. Over 450 individual graphic designers were chosen for the project, the largest team ever assembled for an Imageworks-produced movie as of 2007.[12] Designers at Imageworks generated new animation tools for facial, body, and cloth design especially for the movie, and elements of keyframe animation were incorporated into the movie to capture the facial expressions of the actors and actresses.[12] The mead hall battle scene near the beginning of the film, among others, required numerous props that served as additional markers; these markers allowed for a more accurate manifestation of a battlefield setting as the battle progressed.[12] However, the data being collected by the markers slowed down the studios' computer equipment, and five months were spent developing a new save/load system that would increase the efficiency of the studios' resources.[12] To aid in the process of rendering the massive quantities of information, the development team used cached data. In the cases that using cached data was not possible, the scenes were rendered using foreground occlusion, which involves the blurring of different overlays of a single scene in an attempt to generate a single scene film.[12]

Other elements of the movie were borrowed from that of others created by Imageworks; Spider-Man 3 lent the lighting techniques it used and the fluid engine present in the Sandman, while the waves of the ocean and the cave of Grendel's Mother were modeled after the wave fluid engine used in Surf's Up. The 2007 film Ghost Rider lent Beowulf the fluid engine that was used to model the movements of protagonist Johnny Blaze.[12]

Jerome Chen worked to process large crowd scenes as early as possible, as additional time would be needed to process these scenes in particular.[12] As a result, the film's development team designed a priority scale and incorporated it into their processors so graphic artists would be able to work with the scenes when they arrived.[12]

So much data was produced in the course of the creation of the movie, the studio was forced to upgrade all of its processors to multicore versions, which run quicker and more efficiently. The creation of additional rendering nodes throughout Culver City, California was necessitated by the movie's production.[12]

Mark Vulcano, who had previously worked on VeggieTales and Monster House, was Senior Character Animator for the film.

Differences from the poem

"It occurred to me that Grendel has always been described as the son of Cain, meaning half-man, half-demon, but his mother was always said to be full demon. So who's the father? It must be Hrothgar, and if Grendel is dragging men back to the cave then it must be for the mother, so that she can attempt to sire another of demonkind."
— Roger Avary[1]

One objective of Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary was to offer their own interpretation for motivations behind Grendel's behavior as well as for what happened when Beowulf was in the cave of Grendel's mother. They justified these choices by arguing that Beowulf acts as an unreliable narrator in the portion of the poem in which he describes his battle with Grendel's mother.[13] These choices also helped them to better connect the third act to the second of their screenplay, which is divided in the poem by a 50-year gap.[14]

Some of the changes made by the film as noted by scholars include:

  • the portrayal of Beowulf as a flawed man
  • the portrayal of Hrothgar as a womanizing alcoholic
  • the portrayal of Unferth as a Christian
  • Beowulf's funeral
  • the portrayal of Grendel's mother as a beautiful seductress, more of a succubus rather, who bears Grendel as Hrothgar's child and the dragon as Beowulf's child
  • the fact that Beowulf becomes ruler of Denmark instead of his native Geatland[15][16][17]

Scholars and authors have also commented on these changes. Southern Methodist University's Director of Medieval Studies Bonnie Wheeler is "convinced that the new Robert Zemeckis movie treatment sacrifices the power of the original for a plot line that propels Beowulf into seduction by Angelina Jolie—the mother of the monster he has just slain. What man doesn’t get involved with Angelina Jolie?' Wheeler asks. 'It’s a great cop-out on a great poem.' ... 'For me, the sad thing is the movie returns to…a view of the horror of woman, the monstrous female who will kill off the male,' Wheeler says. 'It seems to me you could do so much better now. And the story of Beowulf is so much more powerful.'"[18] Other commentators pointed to the theories elucidated in John Grigsby's work Beowulf and Grendel, where Grendel's mother was linked with the ancient Germanic fertility goddess Nerthus.[19]

This is not the first time that the theme of a relationship between Beowulf and Grendel's mother was explored. In Gaiman's collection of short stories, Smoke and Mirrors, there is a poem, Bay Wolf, which is a retelling of Beowulf in a modern day setting. In this story, Beowulf as the narrator, leaves it ambiguous as to exactly what happened between him and Grendel's mother.

In addition, philosophy professor Stephen T. Asma argues that "Zemeckis's more tender-minded film version suggests that the people who cast out Grendel are the real monsters. The monster, according to this charity paradigm, is just misunderstood rather than evil (similar to the version presented in John Gardner's novel Grendel). The blame for Grendel's violence is shifted to the humans, who sinned against him earlier and brought the vengeance upon themselves. The only real monsters, in this tradition, are pride and prejudice. In the film, Grendel is even visually altered after his injury to look like an innocent, albeit scaly, little child. In the original Beowulf, the monsters are outcasts because they're bad (just as Cain, their progenitor, was outcast because he killed his brother), but in the film Beowulf the monsters are bad because they're outcasts [...] Contrary to the original Beowulf, the new film wants us to understand and humanize our monsters."[20]

Release

Columbia Pictures was set to distribute the film, but Steven Bing did not finalize a deal, and arranged with Paramount Pictures for U.S. distribution and Warner Bros. for international distribution.[21] Beowulf was set to premiere at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, but was not ready in time.[22] The film's world premiere was held in Westwood, California on November 5, 2007.[23]

At Comic-Con International in July 2006, Gaiman said Beowulf would be released on November 22, 2007.[24] The following October, Beowulf was announced to be projected in 3-D in over 1,000 theaters for its release date in November 2007. The studios planned to use 3-D projection technology that had been used by Monster House, Chicken Little, and 3-D re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but on a larger scale than previous films. Beowulf would additionally be released in 35mm alongside the 3-D projections.[25]

Several cast members, including director Robert Zemeckis gave interviews for the film podcast Scene Unseen in August 2007. This is noteworthy especially because it marks the only interview given by Zemeckis for the film.

To promote the film, a four-issue comic book adaptation by IDW Publishing was released every week in October 2007.[26] A video game featuring the vocals of Winstone, Gleeson, and Hopkins was released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and PSP formats.[27] The soundtrack composed by Alan Silvestri was released on November 20, 2007. Critics and even some of the actors expressed shock at the British rating (12A) of the film, which allowed children under twelve in Britain to see the film if accompanied by their parents. Angelina Jolie called it "remarkable it has the rating it has", and said she would not be taking her own children to see it.[28]

Box office

Beowulf ranked #1 in the United States and Canada box office during its opening weekend date of November 18[29] grossing $27.5 million in 3,153 theaters.[30]

As of April 27, 2008, the film has grossed an estimated domestic total of $82,195,215 and a foreign box office total of $113,954,447 for a worldwide gross of $196,149,662.[31]

Critical reception

As of July 1, 2009, on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Beowulf received a rating of 71%, based upon 183 reviews. Under the category "Cream of the Crop" Beowulf received a rating of 71 percent, with an average reviewer rating of 6.5/10.[32] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 59 out of 100, based on 35 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[33]

Giving Beowulf three out of four stars, Roger Ebert argues that the film is a satire of the original poem.[34] Time magazine critic Richard Corliss describes the film as one with "power and depth" and suggests that the "effects scenes look realer[sic], more integrated into the visual fabric, because they meet the traced-over live-action elements halfway. It all suggests that this kind of a moviemaking is more than a stunt. By imagining the distant past so vividly, Zemeckis and his team prove that character capture has a future."[35] Corliss later named it the 10th best film of 2007.[36] Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers argues that “The eighth-century Beowulf, goosed into twenty-first century life by a screenplay from sci-fi guru Neil Gaiman and Pulp Fiction's Roger Avary, will have you jumping out of your skin and begging for more... I've never seen a 3-D movie pop with this kind of clarity and oomph. It's outrageously entertaining."[37]

Tom Ambrose of Empire gives the film four out of five stars. He argues that Beowulf is "the finest example to date of the mo-capabilities of this new technique [...] Previously, 3D movies were blurry, migraine-inducing affairs. Beowulf is a huge step forward [...] Although his Cockney accent initially seems incongruous [...] Winstone’s turn ultimately reveals a burgeoning humanity and poignant humility." Ambrose also argues that “the creepy dead eyes thing has been fixed."[38] Justin Chang of Variety argues that the screenwriters "have taken some intriguing liberties with the heroic narrative [... the] result is, at least, a much livelier piece of storytelling than the charmless Polar Express." He also argues that “Zemeckis prioritizes spectacle over human engagement, in his reliance on a medium that allows for enormous range and fluidity in its visual effects yet reduces his characters to 3-D automatons. While the technology has improved since 2004's Polar Express (particularly in the characters' more lifelike eyes), the actors still don't seem entirely there."[39]

Kenneth Turan of National Public Radio criticizes the film arguing: “It's been 50 years since Hollywood first started flirting with 3-D movies, and the special glasses required for viewing have gotten a whole lot more substantial. The stories being filmed are just as flimsy. Of course Beowulf does have a more impressive literary pedigree than, say, Bwana Devil. But you'd never know that by looking at the movie. Beowulf's story of a hero who slays monsters has become a fanboy fantasy that panders with demonic energy to the young male demographic."[40] Manohla Dargis of the New York Times compared the poem with the film stating that, "If you don’t remember this evil babe from the poem, it’s because she’s almost entirely the invention of the screenwriters Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman and the director Robert Zemeckis, who together have plumped her up in words, deeds and curves. These creative interventions aren’t especially surprising given the source material and the nature of big-studio adaptations. There’s plenty of action in Beowulf, but even its more vigorous bloodletting pales next to its rich language, exotic setting and mythic grandeur."[41] San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle suggests: "It's the Beowulf saga once again, and the movie becomes tiresome and trivial - well done within the narrow limits of its aspiration but not worth the inflated effort. To do Beowulf again, there should be some reason to do Beowulf at all. In 2005, for example, Beowulf & Grendel revisited the tale in order to present Grendel as a nice guy with his own point of view. That was a very bad reason to revisit Beowulf, but at least it was a reason."[42]

Home media

Beowulf was released for Region 1 on DVD February 26, 2008. A director's cut was also released as both a single-disc DVD and two-disc HD DVD alongside the theatrical cut. The theatrical cut includes A Hero's Journey: The Making of Beowulf while the single disc director's cut features four more short features. The HD DVD contains eleven short features and six deleted scenes.[43]

The director's cut was released on Blu-ray Disc in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2008 and in the United States on July 29, 2008.[citation needed] The Blu-Ray edition includes a "picture-in-picture" option that allows one to view the film's actors performing their scenes on the soundstage, before animation was applied (a notable exception to this is Angelina Jolie, whose scenes are depicted using storyboards and rough animation rather than the unaltered footage from the set).

Soundtrack

Main article: Beowulf (soundtrack)
Untitled

The soundtrack was released November 20, 2007.[44] Composer Alan Silvestri was largely responsible for the production of the soundtrack album, although actresses Robin Wright Penn and Idina Menzel performed several songs in the soundtrack's score.[45] The score is notorious for violent and foreshadowing tones intertwined with gentler, anthem-like tendencies.[46]

Title Composer/ Performers Length
Beowulf Main Title Alan Silvestri (composer) 0:54[47]
First Grendel Attack Alan Silvestri (composer) 1:50[47]
Gently as She Goes Alan Silvestri (composer),[47] Robin Wright Penn (performer)[45] 1:36[47]
What We Need is a Hero Alan Silvestri (composer) 1:40[47]
I'm Here to Kill Your Monster Alan Silvestri (composer) 1:47[47]
I Did Not Win the Race Alan Silvestri (composer) 2:16[47]
A Hero Comes Home (In-film version) Alan Silvestri (composer),[47] Robin Wright-Penn (performer)[45] 1:08[47]
Second Grendel Attack Alan Silvestri (composer) 4:02[47]
I Am Beowulf Alan Silvestri (composer) 4:32[47]
The Seduction Alan Silvestri (composer) 4:03[47]
King Beowulf Alan Silvestri (composer) 1:44[47]
He Has a Story to Tell Alan Silvestri (composer) 2:42[47]
Full of Fine Promises Alan Silvestri (composer) 1:11[47]
Beowulf Slays the Beast Alan Silvestri (composer) 6:01[47]
He Was the Best of Us Alan Silvestri (composer) 5:23[47]
The Final Seduction Alan Silvestri (composer) 2:25[47]
A Hero Comes Home (End credits version) Alan Silvestri (composer),[47] Idina Menzel (performer)[45] 3:13[47]

Video games

Beowulf: The Game, a video game based on the film for PC and consoles. The game was announced by Ubisoft on May 22, 2007 during its Ubidays event in Paris.[48] It was released on November 13, 2007 in the United States. The characters are voiced by the original actors who starred in the film.[49]

On November 1, 2007, Beowulf: The Game was released for mobile phones. The side-scrolling action video game was developed by Gameloft.[50]

Novelization

A novelization of the film, written by Caitlín R. Kiernan, was published in September 2007.[51]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Tom Ambrose (December 2007). "He Is Legend". Empire. pp. 139–142.
  2. ^ a b Rob Carnevale (November 12, 2007). "Beowulf". BBC. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
  3. ^ a b c Sheila Roberts. "Cast of Beowulf Interview". Movies Online. Archived from the original on 2007-11-07. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
  4. ^ "Becoming Beowulf". IGN. July 25, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
  5. ^ Sheila Roberts. "Anthony Hopkins Interview, Beowulf". Movies Online. Archived from the original on 2007-11-11. Retrieved 2007-11-13.
  6. ^ Sheila Roberts. "John Malkovich Interview, Beowulf". Movies Online. Archived from the original on 2007-11-14. Retrieved 2007-11-13.
  7. ^ Nicole Laporte (January 20, 2005). "Sony, Bing get Anglo on "Beowulf"". Variety. Retrieved 2007-01-13. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Kevil Kelly (July 26, 2007). "Comic-Con: 'Beowulf' Footage Screening, Q&A, and Party!". Cinematical. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
  9. ^ a b Barbara Robertson (November 28, 2007). "Beowulf Effects". CG Society. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  10. ^ Sheigh Crabtree (November 4, 2007). ""Beowulf" breathes fire into a new kind of dragon". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2007-11-14. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
  11. ^ "Jerome Chen Talks Beowulf VFX Oscar Potential". VFXWorld. AWN, Inc. 2007. Retrieved November 28, 2008.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Beowulf: A New Hybrid for an Old Tale". VFXWorld. AWN, Inc. 2007. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  13. ^ "Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary: Shaping Beowulf's story, video interview".
  14. ^ Jeremy Smith (July 30, 2007). "Interview: Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (Beowulf)". CHUD. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
  15. ^ Walter Quinn (November 23, 2007). ""Beowulf" movie takes poetic license — and then some — from the original text". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
  16. ^ Duane Dudek (November 16, 2007). "The Real Beowulf". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on 2007-11-21. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
  17. ^ John V. Fleming (November 29, 2007). "Good Grief, Grendel". The New Republic. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
  18. ^ "Beowulf movie cops out with revised theme:It's that evil woman's fault". SMU. November 16, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
  19. ^ Paul Vallely (November 10, 2007). "Beowulf: A her for our times". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  20. ^ Asma Stephen (December 7, 2007). "Never Mind Grendel. Can Beowulf Conquer the 21st-Century Guilt Trip?". The Chronicle of Higher Education: B20. {{cite journal}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |journal= (help)
  21. ^ Michael Fleming (August 17, 2005). "Par, WB cry "Beowulf"". Variety. Retrieved 2007-01-13. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ Eric J. Lyman (June 13, 2007). ""Beowulf" misses Venice festival bow". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-11-08. [dead link‍]
  23. ^ Robert Sanchez (November 5, 2007). "Exclusive Photo Gallery: World Premiere of Beowulf!". IESB. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  24. ^ Hilary Goldstein (July 21, 2006). "Comic-Con 2006: Neil Gaiman's Future Movies". IGN. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
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  26. ^ ""Beowulf" coming to theaters and comics". Comic Book Resources. June 19, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-13.
  27. ^ John Gaudiosi (October 23, 2007). "Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone Make Video Game Debuts in Beowulf". Game Daily. Retrieved 2007-11-13.
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  34. ^ Roger Ebert (November 15, 2007). "Beowulf". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
  35. ^ Richard Corliss (November 16, 2007). "Beowulf and Grendel — and Grendma". TIME. Retrieved 2007-11-17.
  36. ^ "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  37. ^ Peter Travers (November 15, 2007). "Beowulf (Paramount)". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-11-17.
  38. ^ Tom Ambrose. "Beowulf". Empire. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
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  40. ^ Kenneth Turan (November 16, 2007). ""Beowulf" Sexes Up, Dumbs Down an Epic". National Public Radio. Retrieved 2007-11-16. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  41. ^ Manohla Dargis (November 16, 2007). "Confronting the Fabled Monster, Not to Mention His Naked Mom". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-16. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  42. ^ Mick LaSalle (November 16, 2007). "Review: "Beowulf" is back, beefed up, in 3D". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-11-17. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  43. ^ Tom Woodward. "Beowulf (US - DVD R1 | HD)". DVD Active. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  44. ^ "Beowulf Soundtrack: Alan Silvestri: Music". Amazon.com. Amazon.com. 2007. Retrieved 2008-11-06.
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  51. ^ Beowulf. Harper Entertainment. 2007. p. 384. ISBN 0061341282. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |writer= ignored (help)
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