Next-gen 3-D shows it can work as Beowulf passes $100M abroad and $80M US. Audiences eagerly accepted the new effects but Jolie and Hopkins say the Magic is pure Zemeckis

By Loren Lankford

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 12/24/07 – “Beowulf” with Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie didn’t have the biggest box office this holiday weekend in its fifth week of release, but it passed a milestone that may make it one of the most important.

The groundbreaking 3D movie “Beowulf” hit the $100 million mark in overseas grosses and $80 million in the U.S. “National Treasure” and “I Am Legend” will make more eventually, but they aren’t the harbinger of a new force in filmmaking that had every studio watching the numbers like a hawk. It shows the next gen 3D is accepted by the public as well as theater owners, most of whom installed pricey new equipment for the 750 3D screens (out of 3,150 total).

By 2010, there will be 10-20 big budget 3D films in wide release. (See related HT story) and highly anticipated films like James Cameron’s ”Avatar” will be out next year.

When the stars and producers were queried why they decided to take on a chancy new 3D-CGI format, they all replied that it was for the love of Bob.

Steve Starkey, a producer on the film who has worked with Bob Zemeckis a lot in the past, understands the gravitational pull of the director. “Every time out he chooses to use a story that demands a new style. One again, he has taken this new form of cinema and taken it to a new level. With him it was a challenge like all of the others.”

John Malkovich was quick to compliment the director, telling us ““Bob is very enthusiastic, precise and very clear. For me it was a great joy.” Similarly, Crispin Glover (Grendel) was happy for the chance to work with Zemeckis. “I worked with Bob one time before. It was interesting working in the two different styles,” he said. “I noticed a definite change because things weren’t as exacting with this style. You were finding things as you went along. It’s rare that I am in a film that I actually like but I am really excited about this film.”

Angelina Jolie perhaps said it best. “It was a great experience,” she told Hollywood Today. “So much of film has become a business. You lose the fun of it and Bob is a real artist and an original and he reminds you that you’re a creative person and he is a real artist and I needed that.”

Another fun reason to do the film seemed to be about seeing themselves digitally animated and the process of making a film that way, which was enjoyable for everyone (including the nearly nude Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins.)

Ray Winston (Beowulf) quickly chimed in when asked about his reaction to seeing himself on screen. “I loved it,” he told Hollywood Today. “The thing I had to think about the most was the way I moved because I was playing a 6’6’ Viking with an 8 pack! It’s weird. My wife loves it.” Although, he admits that during the shooting of it he wasn’t always so sure. “I felt like an idiot too, you do really feel naked,” he said. “There is a fear of letting go but once you get over that barrier you just let yourself go. The first time I saw it just blew me away. Even without all the gizmos, the story is still really great and that’s why I’m proud of it.”

Crispin Glover agrees and quickly chimed in. “I didn’t know if it would feel like I was watching myself with this type of technology but you do and you notice the nuances and the acting,” he said.

Alison Lohman, the youngest actor on the panel, enjoyed the new process. “We had the full body suits and the skullcaps and so it felt different but it was different and interesting,” she told Hollywood Today.

The other main female cast member, Angelina Jolie, was quick to remind people that although it was animation, they were still ‘acting’ in the film. “I wouldn’t call it animation because we we’re actually doing these things and we had these scenes together,” she said. “It’s different. Bob will make you do weird things. For swimming, my waist was attached to something; a harness and something with wheels. With flying, they hooked me up with wires and I was being moved.”

Anthony Hopkins had only good things to say as well. “It is freeing and paradoxically opens you up,” he told Hollywood Today. “You do feel like a bit of an idiot with the helmet on but you just jump in the deep end. It’s electrifying.” For Hopkins, there was a particular interest in doing a type of film that didn’t call for any rehearsal time, which he dislikes. “With this film, you take a scene and you go through the lines quickly. You have to know your stuff,” he told Hollywood Today. “But there are some directors where you sit around a table for two weeks and its so boring because you just talk it to death. You can talk a film to death and into an early grave and kill the spontaneity. But if you have a fine director, like Lumet, than maybe its part of the process and it helps.”

One of the drawbacks of making a CGI/animation film is that it takes around two years after the shooting is done to finish creating the film and have it ready for release. Many of the actors commented that it was hard to remember a lot of the details of the process because it had been so long ago.

“Beowulf” is the story of a young Scandinavian hero who fights to protect his people from the evil Grendel and goes on to fight the battle of his life as he attempts to slay a powerful dragon. The hugely popular Old English poem is written in two parts which screenwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (co-writer of “Pulp Fiction”) adapted into a screenplay. When asked what they had to do to change the poem or add to it in order to make it into a feature length film, the writers wanted to make sure people knew they didn’t mess with the storyline.

“We added mainly elements of motivation,” Gaiman told Hollywood Today. “Both Roger and I read it when we were young and experienced it as a story and loved it. The dragon fighting, the blood made it just a magical story. Sometimes, I think “Beowulf” purists would only be happy with someone standing there and reading the poem which would take about 35 minutes. “ Avary backed up his partner saying that, “the only real difference was that Beowulf stays in Denmark in the film.”

Whether or not people have a problem with their “version” of the story, the writers both feel lucky to have been able to show their view on the poem. “I think it’s an enormous mistake to think that a story that was of the oral tradition has never changed,” Gaiman told Hollywood Today. “That’s the point of the oral tradition. You don’t know what’s been left out or added in. We view it as our addition to the tradition and we feel included in a long line of storytellers.”

The writers said having Zemeckis come onto the project was a blessing. “Bob contacted us and wanted to make it, even though at first he just wanted to produce it,” Gaiman told Hollywood Today. “He is very mysterious but it was very easy. We just sat in a room and we just read it to him and he threw out these ideas that he would think were bad and they were actually brilliant.” Avary agreed, adding that he is “childlike and inventive and I couldn’t believe how collaborative he was. He was very excited about it.”

When asked about his collaborations and the differences between Quentin Tarantino and Neil Gaiman, Avary kept it civil. “Quentin and Neil couldn’t be more different people but they are both geniuses and its comes from a complete love of myth and tradition. I’ve been blessed to work in these collaborations.”

Next up for Gaiman is an adaptation of his novel “Coraline.” Avary has written “Driver,” slated for release next year and is currently writing “Return to Castle Wolfenstein,” which he hopes to have out in 2010. Zemeckis has “A Christmas Carol,” slated for a 2009 release. Angelina Jolie can be seen next in 2008’s “Wanted” and Anthony Hopkins will star in “City of Your Final Destination,” out later this year. He also has a CD coming out with music that he wrote for a film he did this year, “Slipstream.”