Беовульф: Актерлер құрамы және түсірілім процесі

Film by Robert Zemeckis

John Malkovich as Unferth. Malkovich became involved in the project because one of his friends, who had worked with Zemeckis, "spoke very highly of him. I had always found him a very interesting and innovative filmmaker. I liked the script very much and I liked the group involved and the process interested me a great deal also." He found the experience of working with motion capture to be similar to his experiences working in the theater. He also found the process intriguing: "Say you do a normal day of filmmaking. Sometimes that's 1/8 of a page, sometimes it's 3/8th of a page, normally let's say it's 2½ pages, maybe 3. Now it's probably a little more than it used to be but not always. So you may be acting for a total of 20 minutes a day. In this, you act the entire day all the time except for the tiny amount of time it takes them to sort of coordinate the computer information, let's say, and make sure that the computers are reading the data and that you're transmitting the data. It interests me on that level because I'm a professional actor so I'd just as soon act as sit around." Malkovich also recalled that he studied the original poem in high school, and that "I think we got smacked if we couldn't recite a certain number of stanzas. It was in the Old English class and I think my rendition was exemplary." Brendan Gleeson as Wiglaf, Beowulf's lieutenant
Robin Wright Penn as Queen Wealtheow
Alison Lohman as Ursula, Beowulf's concubine when he is an old king
Costas Mandylor as Hondshew
Sebastian Roche as Wulfgar
Greg Ellis as Garmund
Tyler Steelman as Young Cain, Unferth's disabled slave
Dominic Keating as Adult Cain
Rik Young as Eofor
Charlotte Salt as Estrith
Leslie Harter Zemeckis as Yrsa
Fredrik Hiller as Finn of Frisia

Author Neil Gaiman and screenwriter Roger Avary wrote a screen adaptation of Beowulf in May 1997 (they had met while working on a film adaptation of Gaiman's The Sandman in 1996 before Warner Bros. canceled it). The script had been optioned by ImageMovers in the same year and set up at DreamWorks with Avary slated to direct and Robert Zemeckis producing. Avary stated he wanted to make a small scale, gritty film with a budget of US$15–20 million, similar to Jabberwocky or Excalibur. Zemeckis did not like the poem, but enjoyed reading the screenplay. Because of the expanded budget, Zemeckis told the screenwriters to rewrite their script, because "there is nothing that you could write that would cost me more than a million dollars per minute to film. Go wild!" In particular, the entire fight with the dragon was rewritten from a talky confrontation to a battle spanning the cliffs and the sea. Appointing Jerome Chen, whom Zemeckis worked with on The Polar Express, the two decided to chart realism as their foremost goal. Animation supervisor Kenn MacDonald explained that Zemeckis used motion capture because "Even though it feels like live action, there were a lot of shots where Bob cut loose. Amazing shots. Impossible with live action actors. This method of filmmaking gives him freedom and complete control. He doesn't have to worry about lighting. The actors don't have to hit marks. They don't have to know where the camera is. It's pure performance." A 25 × 35 foot stage was built, and it used 244 Vicon MX40 cameras. Actors on set wore seventy eight body markers. The cameras recorded real time footage of the performances, shots which Zemeckis reviewed. The director then used a virtual camera to choose camera angles from the footage which was edited together. Two teams of animators worked on the film, with one group working on replicating the facial performances, the other working on body movement. The animators said they worked very closely on replicating the human characters, but the character of Grendel had to be almost reworked, because he is a monster, not human. Over 450 graphic designers were chosen for the project, the largest team ever assembled for a Sony Pictures Imageworks produced movie as of 2007. The three primary monsters in the film share a golden color scheme, because they are all related. Grendel has patches of gold skin, but because of his torment, he has shed much of his scales and exposed his internal workings. He still had to resemble Crispin Glover though: the animators decided to adapt Glover's own parted hairstyle to Grendel, albeit with bald patches. Zemeckis used Alan Ritchson for the physical model, facial image and movement for the title character of Beowulf. Avary had the idea to make Beowulf fight Grendel naked as a reference to Richard Corben's comic book Den, while also taking inspiration from legendary berserkers, who purportedly fought in battles while naked. Silvestri was largely responsible for the production of the soundtrack album, although actresses Robin Wright Penn and Idina Menzel performed several songs in the soundtrack's score.

Drawing extensively on the theories of Freud, Kristeva, In the film, the character laments the old, heroic pagan religion is being replaced by Christianity, "leaving humankind with nothing but weeping martyrs, fear, and shame." The following October, Beowulf was announced to be projected in 3D in over 1,000 theaters for its release date in November 2007. The studios planned to use 3D projection technology that had been used by Monster House (another motion captured animated film that Zemeckis was involved on, but only as an executive producer), Chicken Little and the 3D re release of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but on a larger scale than previous films. Beowulf would additionally be released in 35 mm alongside the 3D projections. Originally, Columbia Pictures (which also distributed Monster House) was set to distribute the film, but Steve Bing did not finalize a deal and instead arranged with Paramount Pictures for North American distribution and Warner Bros. for international distribution. Beowulf was also set to premiere at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, but was not ready in time. Instead, the film's world premiere was held in Westwood, Los Angeles on November 5, 2007. Critics and even some of the actors expressed shock at the British Board of Film Classification rating of the film—12A—which allowed children under twelve in Britain to see the film if accompanied by their parents. Angelina Jolie called it "remarkable it has the rating it has", and said she wouldn't be taking her own children to see it. In the United States, the Motion Picture Association of America gave the film a PG 13 rating for "intense sequences of violence including disturbing images, some sexual material and nudity".

To promote the film, a novelization of the film, written by Caitlín R. Kiernan, was published in September 2007. This was followed by a four issue comic book adaptation by IDW Publishing released every week in October 2007. A video game based on the film entitled Beowulf: The Game was released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and PSP formats. The game was announced by Ubisoft on May 22, 2007, during its Ubidays event in Paris. It was released on November 13, 2007, in the United States. The characters are voiced by the original actors who starred in the film. On November 1, 2007, Beowulf: The Game was released for mobile phones. The side scrolling action video game was developed by Gameloft. Several cast members, including director Robert Zemeckis, gave interviews for the film podcast "Scene Unseen" in August 2007. This is noteworthy especially because it marks the only interview given by Zemeckis for the film.

Beowulf was released for Region 1 on DVD February 26, 2008. A director's cut was also released as both a single disc DVD and two disc HD DVD alongside the theatrical cut. The theatrical cut includes A Hero's Journey: The Making of Beowulf while the single disc director's cut features four more short features. The HD DVD contains eleven short features and six deleted scenes. The director's cut was released on Blu ray Disc in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2008, and in the United States on July 29, 2008. The Blu ray edition includes a "picture in picture" option that allows one to view the film's actors performing their scenes on the soundstage, before animation was applied (a notable exception to this is Angelina Jolie, whose scenes are depicted using storyboards and rough animation rather than the unaltered footage from the set).

Beowulf ranked #1 in the United States and Canada box office during its opening weekend date of November 18, grossing $27.5 million in 3,153 theaters. At the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed an estimated domestic total of $82.3 million and a foreign box office total of $114.1 million for a worldwide gross of $196.4 million.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Beowulf has received an approval rating of 71% based on 194 reviews, with an average score of 6.50/10. The website's consensus reads, "Featuring groundbreaking animation, stunning visuals, and a talented cast, Beowulf has in spades what more faithful book adaptations forget to bring: pure cinematic entertainment." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 35 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. Giving Beowulf three out of four stars, Roger Ebert commented that the film is a satire of the original poem. Time magazine critic Richard Corliss described the film as one with "power and depth" and suggested that the "effects scenes look realer [sic], more integrated into the visual fabric, because they meet the traced over live action elements halfway. It all suggests that this kind of a moviemaking is more than a stunt. By imagining the distant past so vividly, Zemeckis and his team prove that character capture has a future." Corliss later named it the tenth best film of 2007. Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers praised the motion capture used in the film and argued that "The eighth century Beowulf, goosed into twenty first century life by a screenplay from sci fi guru Neil Gaiman and Pulp Fictions Roger Avary, will have you jumping out of your skin and begging for more I've never seen a 3 D movie pop with this kind of clarity and oomph. It's outrageously entertaining." Tom Ambrose of Empire gave the film four out of five stars. He wrote that Beowulf is "the finest example to date of the capabilities of this new technique [ ] Previously, 3D movies were blurry, migraine inducing affairs. Beowulf is a huge step forward [ ] Although his Cockney accent initially seems incongruous [ ] Winstone's turn ultimately reveals a burgeoning humanity and poignant humility." Ambrose also argues that "the creepy dead eyes thing has been fixed." Justin Chang of Variety thought that the screenwriters "have taken some intriguing liberties with the heroic narrative [ the] result is, at least, a much livelier piece of storytelling than the charmless Polar Express." He also stated that "Zemeckis prioritizes spectacle over human engagement, in his reliance on a medium that allows for enormous range and fluidity in its visual effects yet reduces his characters to 3 D automatons. While the technology has improved since 2004's Polar Express (particularly in the characters' more lifelike eyes), the actors still don't seem entirely there." Kenneth Turan of NPR criticized the film, writing: "It's been 50 years since Hollywood first started flirting with 3 D movies, and the special glasses required for viewing have gotten a whole lot more substantial. The stories being filmed are just as flimsy. Of course Beowulf does have a more impressive literary pedigree than, say, Bwana Devil. But you'd never know that by looking at the movie. Beowulf's story of a hero who slays monsters has become a fanboy fantasy that panders with demonic energy to the young male demographic." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times compared the poem with the film, stating that "If you don't remember this evil babe from the poem, it's because she's almost entirely the invention of the screenwriters Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman and the director Robert Zemeckis, who together have plumped her up in words, deeds and curves. These creative interventions aren't especially surprising given the source material and the nature of big studio adaptations. There's plenty of action in Beowulf, but even its more vigorous bloodletting pales next to its rich language, exotic setting and mythic grandeur."

Scholars and authors criticized the changes made to the poem's story. Southern Methodist University's Director of Medieval Studies Bonnie Wheeler is "convinced that the new Robert Zemeckis movie treatment sacrifices the power of the original for a plot line that propels Beowulf into seduction by Angelina Jolie—the mother of the monster he has just slain. What man doesn't get involved with Angelina Jolie?' Wheeler asks. 'It's a great cop out on a great poem.' 'For me, the sad thing is the movie returns to a view of the horror of woman, the monstrous female who will kill off the male,' Wheeler says. 'It seems to me you could do so much better now. And the story of Beowulf is so much more powerful.'" Other commentators pointed to the theories elucidated in John Grigsby's work Beowulf and Grendel, where Grendel's mother was linked with the ancient Germanic fertility goddess Nerthus. However, there were also positive academic reviews. Philosophy professor Stephen T. Asma argued that "Zemeckis's more tender minded film version suggests that the people who cast out Grendel are the real monsters. The monster, according to this charity paradigm, is just misunderstood rather than evil (similar to the version presented in John Gardner's novel Grendel). The blame for Grendel's violence is shifted to the humans, who sinned against him earlier and brought the vengeance upon themselves. The only real monsters, in this tradition, are pride and prejudice. In the film, Grendel is even visually altered after his injury to look like an innocent, albeit scaly, little child. In the original Beowulf, the monsters are outcasts because they're bad (just as Cain, their progenitor, was outcast because he killed his brother), but in the film Beowulf the monsters are bad because they're outcasts [ ] Contrary to the original Beowulf, the new film wants us to understand and humanize our monsters."