LA Times Sneak Peek at 'Beowulf'
Filed under: Animation, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Paramount, Angelina Jolie, Comic/Superhero/Geek, ComicCon
Apparently Beowulf is premiering tonight at ComicCon with a 3-D-projection screening and it will be shown again twice tomorrow in non-3-D digital. From what I can tell, this is the whole movie, not just footage, and tickets are available at the Paramount booth on a first-come, first-serve basis (hurry!). The L.A. Times has a very interesting and very entertaining preview piece on the new motion-capture-animated movie from Robert Zemeckis, and it sounds like the thing is even further from The Polar Express than I expected. The article begins with a detailed description of Angelina Jolie's monstrous-mama character in a scene where she's naked and attempting to seduce Beowulf (Ray Winstone). Check out this sentence: "Gold dribbles down her inner thighs past her feet, revealing sharp stilettos merged with bestial hooves."
What is better than that? I'll tell you what: Neil Gaiman talking junk about The Polar Express (with its "horrid little rotoscope-y ghost people"), admitting that he's not sure if Beowulf is going to work, describing the production as looking like "the cast of Tron performing bad Shakespeare in the round," revealing Zemeckis' apprehension about casting Crispin Glover as Grendel, complaining about the movie's loss of most of its swear words, giving his support for an unrated version in the future, and defending the reason for a full-male-nudity climax between Beowulf and Grendel. The article also compares the look of Grendel to a Devi Kroell handbag from Target, compares that climactic fight scene to the Austin Powers movies and even tells us that Winstone's character's name in Indiana Jones IV is "Mac." If you weren't already looking forward to Beowulf, you will after reading the article. If only I could fly out to San Diego for tonight's screening instead of having to wait until the movie hits theaters November 16.
[ via Movie City News ]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-25-2007 @ 3:17PM
Doug Schoemer said...
New to this site, but based on the way these comments were totally taken out of context from today's LA Times piece I won't be returning any time soon. Here's a quote that would have helped your readers more:
"I have no idea if this thing is going to work because it isn't done yet," Gaiman said. "But because it's so hyper-real and immersive, once you are two to three minutes in, I think it will own you for the full 90 minutes."
Not quite the "Gaiman sabotages his own film" headline you were looking for though, huh?
Nice to see a site that makes Chud look like the Washington Post.
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7-25-2007 @ 4:13PM
Blair M said...
Doug, they didn't use that as a headline and the line was a throwaway in the context of the post. They probably wanted to quote the tron/shakespeare thing for the laugh and had to lead in to it or it would make no sense. And bravo for completely disregarding a site for one sentence. That kind of maturity impresses everyone.
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7-25-2007 @ 6:48PM
LRS62 said...
Sorry, Blair, but the way Gaiman's comments are taken out of context and parsed throughout the article, it does seem like he is trashing the movie he wrote. It is NOT a "throwaway" line. I know a "Tron performing Shakespeare" header is so much sexier, but you completely misconstrue the entire article by making that the emphasis of it.
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7-25-2007 @ 7:31PM
Blair M said...
Am I being epunk'd or something? You're both talking about sexy headlines and yet, regardless of how you phrase or pronounce it, the headline "LA Times Sneak Peek and 'Beowulf'" never sounds like "Gaiman doesn't think 'Beowulf' will work" or "Gaiman thinks 'Beowulf' looks like 'Tron performing Shakespeare'"
And I didn't misconstrue the article by making it the emphasis. You miscontrued the article by overemphasizing a single sentence and then you misconstrued my comment by assuming I was saying that the tron/shakespeare thing was the emphasis of the article when it obviously isn't and I didn't say that.
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7-26-2007 @ 11:23AM
LRS62 said...
You wrote it, that's why you can't see why it reads that way!
Anyway, after viewing the trailer- Gaiman SHOULD have worries...
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