SIGGRAPH 2007 will present an exclusive preview of Robert Zemeckis upcoming performance-capture feature Beowulf as part of the Computer Animation Festival’s Electronic Theater. The 34th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques kicks off on Sunday, Aug. 5 and continues through Aug. 9 in San Diego, Calif.
“In an Electronic Theater filled with truly the best of the best in each category, Beowulf is on the absolute cutting edge of what is being produced today,” says Paul Debevec, SIGGRAPH 2007 Computer Animation Festival Chair from the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. “This year’s show weaves together amazing visuals from numerous disciplines into a single mind-altering experience.”
Beowulf is in production at Sony Pictures Imageworks using the company’s patented Imagemotion performance capture system. Academy Award nominee Jerome Chen is supervising visual effects for the pic, which was singled out by the SIGGRAPH jury for its facial animation, detailed textures and artistic lighting.
Written by an unknown sixth-century Anglo-Saxon poet, Beowulf casts its title character as the one man who can defeat Grendel, a monster terrorizing a Danish kingdom, and his cave-dwelling mother. The classic tale has been adapted for the screen by fantasy author Neil Gaiman (MirrorMask, Coraline) and Silent Hill scribe Roger Avary, and features the voices of Angelina Jolie, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson and Crispin Glover. The movie opens in conventional theaters and in IMAX 3D on Nov. 16.
The Computer Animation Festival received a record 905 submissions this year.
For more information on SIGGRAPH 2007 and the Electronic Theater, go to http://www.siggraph.org/s2007/media/releases/release12.html.
