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Robert Zemeckis to Direct Beowulf Movie

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the new-takes-on-classics dept.

jangobongo writes "Robert Zemeckis, who directed the Polar Express and Back To The Future among many others, will helm a new remake of the epic tale of Beowulf. Sony Pictures is in discussions to distribute the picture. (This version is unrelated to another remake scheduled to be released in 2005 titled Beowulf & Grendel, which is currently in post-production.)" I have no idea which version will make for a better film, but this one has Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary writing the script for it as well.

4 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Neil by daeley · · Score: 4, Informative

    Neil Gaiman just posted about this in his online journal.

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  2. The sad thing is... by TooMuchEspressoGuy · · Score: 3, Informative
    ...that once Neil Gaiman is done writing an epic, intelligent script akin to his work in the medium of novels and graphic novels, Hollywood execs are probably going to pick it apart piece by piece. In the end, it will likely be just a bunch of random action sequences with little in the way of plot to tie it together, and with Neil's name attached to it to attract his fans.

    Then again, Hollywood hasn't ruined *everything* it has touched (think of the LotR movies.) There might still be hope.

    --
    Many Bothans died to bring you this sig.
  3. Re:Y.A.B by l2718 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yet Another Beowulf movie? How many is this now? 5? 6?

    Indeed hopefully this one will be better than "The Thirteenth Warrior". That movie is based on a Michael Crichton book, "Eaters of the Dead", which is a rather amusing literary exercize.

  4. Re:Just imagine... by saforrest · · Score: 3, Informative

    Most around here are gonna be confused when they watch the movie and there's only one monster.

    Proving the theory that Slashdotters know far more about Beowulf clusters than Beowulf.

    There are actually three monsters in Beowulf: Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon. (Of course, Beowulf takes them on serially rather than in parallel, and he waits a good forty years or so between Grendel's ma and the dragon.)

    (Hell, even Xena got this detail right, though in the Xena episode it was (predictably) Xena who did all the arse-kicking, while Beowulf mostly looked pretty.)

    In fact, there are even more monsters if you count the monsters mentioned in random digressions, such as when Beowulf is meeting the Danes and mentions how he basically swam across the Baltic in full armour carrying a sword while fighting sea monsters.

    As an aside, for Tolkien fans I would recommend the essay The Monsters and the Critics by J. R. R. himself, which argues that the monsters represent the central theme of the Beowulf poem.