Sony Imageworks and director Robert Zemeckis will apparently get some more use out of the performance-capture technology used to produce The Polar Express. Daily Variety reports today that Sony and Express financier Steve Bing have plunked down a heafty sum for a Beowulf adaptation scripted by Pulp Fiction co-writer Richard Avary and novelist Neil Gaiman (Coraline).
The sixth-century Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf casts its title character as the one man who can defeat Grendel, a monster terrorizing a Danish kingdom, and his scaly, cave-dwelling mother. He even goes toe-to-toe with a fire-breathing dragon. While the original author is unknown, the tome is widely regarded as the first major horror tale in English literature.
The timeless story has been animated for the small screen with HBO’s 1998 TV special, Animated Epics: Beowulf, produced by Christmas Films, HBO and Right Angle. However, It’s curious that a feature film adaptation hasn’t yet been attempted. The closest anyone has come is Buena Vista Pictures’ The 13th Warrior, which was based on the Michael Crichton novel Eaters of the Dead but also incorporated many elements of the Beowulf story.
Sony’s Beowulf, which was originally at Warner Bros., is one of two adaptations in the works. A live-action version, titled Beowulf and Grendel, is in post-production. Gerard Butler (Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, Reign of Fire) will star as the monster slayer in the Archlight films production slated for a 2005 release.
ImageMovers principals Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey will produce Sony’s animated take. Martin Shafer will exec produce with Avary and Gaiman. The film’s reported $70 million budget will come largely from Bing’s Shangri-La, which made good on its investment in The Polar Express.
Sony Pictures Imageworks and ImageMovers are also applying their branded motion-capture technology to the summer 2006 release, Monster House, about three kids who discover that a neighbor’s house is a living monster and set out to foil its evil plans.
Gaiman’s Coraline is being adapted for the big screen by Vinton Studios. The stop-motion feature, directed by Nightmare Before Christmas helmer Henry Selick, is about a young girl who moves into a new home and discovers a secret door to an alternative reality.
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