Grendel Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I was lucky enough to get a seat in the packed house last night for a viewing of the first ever released footage from the upcoming Beowulf film, directed by Robert Zemeckis (or "Z", as Roger Avary calls him), and is written and produced by Neil Gaiman and Avary. The film is 100% CGI, and they used motion capture for all of the performances in the film. So close your eyes and picture Anthony Hopkins wearing a mocap suit with white balls all over it, and it's like you're on set!

Gaiman and Avary came down (to thunderous applause) to introduce the footage. Avary started to explain a bit but Gaiman thought this was something that would be best viewed without any setup at all. We then saw a short "taster" of material from the film set to a power rock soundtrack. Oh, and everything we saw was in REAL D (a 3D format), so we had to wear big giant clunky glasses, making us all look a bit like the late, great Roy Orbison. Pretty hot.

So, how many of you out there saw The Polar Express in 3D? Well, the 3D is that good, or in some cases much better. It's not extremely overdone, like everything seems fairly flat and 2D and then suddenly AHH! -- Grendel in your face. It's much more understated and subtle, more of an immersive aspect than a gimmick. After awhile you (thankfully) forget you're wearing the glasses, and it just becomes another part of the movie.

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 ]

The good folks over at CBR had another interesting guest visit recently; this time comic's creator Matt Wagner stopped by for a chat. He's an interesting and intelligent guy, and he had several things to say- you can read the whole exchange here. Most interesting for Cinematical and our readers, however, was an off-the-cuff announcement of a recently signed movie deal. It seems that Wagner is trying yet again to shop out his popular Grendel title. He's got a deal going with Warner Brothers, and seems to be rather optimistic about the film's chances.  When asked which Grendel would show up on the silver screen, Wagner answered "Christine. Not only is she the most sympathetic version but, since Hunter's presence runs so strongly throughout her tale, we get to introduce Grendel as both a character and a concept all in the same film. And, hey, vengeance driven action chick in a black leather outfit and mask ... what's not to love, right?"

I was with him until that last sentence. It sounds to me like he described Catwoman pretty accurately, and there's certainly a lot not to love about that film. However, the prospect of a Grendel film is certainly tantalizing, and I think that Christine is as good a choice as any  for a full length feature. I'll admit, however, that I'm only a casual fan. I've read through a good many of the books, but I don't collect them or follow them religiously. Serious fans, here's where you speak up.

[via CBR]