According to Dark Horizons Robert Zemeckis will be directing an adaptation of Beowulf, the classic/mythical story that also formed the basis of Michael Crichton's The 13th Warrior.

Now, if that's not a project to get excited about, I don't know what is. Zemeckis doing a mythical hero vs. monster movie. And, of course, Silvestri would be scoring it.

Anyways. A lot can happen between now and then, so maybe it's best not to get hopes up too high. ...but man oh man, this would be a dream come true.

Coincidentally, Elliot Goldenthal and Julie Taymor have written an Opera entitled Grendel which tells the story of Beowulf from the monster's point of view. The opera is set to premiere sometime later in 2005.

pete (I left out any emoticons, because no emoticon can possibly capture the excitement I'm feeling,
although " :omg: :blink: :yahoo: :omg: :smoke: :blink: :yahoo: :smoke: :omg: " comes reasonably close.)

Whoops, I think I wet my pants. Bob Zemeckis is back in the game if you ask me with another great action/adventure film.

^ Which kind of wet? ;)


I'm not excited, I'm scared; Zimmer will get it.

What??????
What has Zemeckis to do with Hans Zimmer?
Of course Silvestri is the guy! Robert Zemeckis has the right concept of art :right:

I think this will be another kind of a Van Hesling score.....
But may it gets more the sounds of Judge Dredd or Back To The Future!



I am very exciting too... :yeah:

Yeah, Zemeckis would never do that to Silvestri. It's like stabbing a knife in his back, Zemeckis wouldn't do that. Beowulf eh... that's the Norse Mythology right? Epic like Troy, or something in King Arthur's style? Then there three choice, either it's Silvestri or James Horner or Hans Zimmer. But knowing Zemeckis he would use Silvestri. All those movies I've seen of Zemeckis were always with Silvestri. Romancing The Stone, Back to the Future, Cast Away, What Lies Beneath.

Zemeckis will go for Alan on this one. That's a sure bet!

I hope it will be a Judge Dredd like score and a little more gentle and elegant than Van Helsing. The sound of Van Helsing was a little bit too rude for me but the film needed that sound of course.

This information still seems to be rumour, so i won't get too excited about that. I will wait for Emile's confirmation.

I'm confirming it right now :)

A SUPER project! :drool2: I'm crossing my fingers (remember Macabre that Zemeckis was slated to direct, but didn't happen?)

It will be a CGI film with performance capture like with The Polar Express:
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/news.php?id=1678

And Zemeckis and Alan are like brothers, so don't worry.

Got it confirmed :yahoo: Alan and Robert talked about it last Friday. It will only premiere in late 2006 or 2007 though.

Woohoo!! 2006, 2007? Well these things takes time.

Intresting.
Very intresting indeed. 13th Warrior is one of my alltime favore films, the topic and theme of this film is very intresting. (Not to mention the score ;) )

I'm already looking forward to what Alan will have to say, musically!

Update: I just heard that no deal has been made yet with Alan. So it isn't officially confirmed yet. But I bet Alan will do it ;)

Yeah, he will.

That would probably be: FIGAAAAROOOO or SOLO MEOW!!!!!

Super babe Angelina Jolie has joined the cast. She will play the mother of Grendel. Very interesting choice of Zemeckis. Kind of shows that she can really act (which I already noticed). The rest of the cast is also interesting: Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn (Jenny from Forrest Gump) and Crispin Glover. Glover is no one other than George McFly from BTTF. I thought he and Zemeckis couldn't get along. In the BTTF documentary they said that Glover was a real difficult person to work with. Interesting.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/e...movies_eo/17181

Beowulf will use the same technology as The Polar Express: performance capturing and computer generated scenery.

Finally some info about the release date! They mention that Paramount is aiming for a summer 2007 release for Beowulf.

Also no other than Willard. The movie with those rats. I noticed that he didn't age so much since BTTF. How old is he anyway? Near 40?

Very interesting. Although, to be honest, I am sceptical towards these celebrities in animated films. They may be good as actors, but a voiceactor has to be a lot more then just a unique voice.
Look at talents like Billy West or Maurice LaMarche.
But I'm not going to be a Negative Nancy here ;)
Neat project, SPI will do a great job as always, and we get another score from Alan with very unique opportunities.

Release date of Beowulf is November 21, 2007. Zemeckis seems to be fond of November for some reason :)

And Zemeckis has almost finished shooting Beowulf with motion capture. Strange. The film will open 2 years from now.
http://www.cinematical.com/2005/10/30/neil...lmost-finished/

I wonder if he also had to extensively motion capture Angelina Jolie's lips :D

Jolie also seemed to make some trouble at the set. Poor Zemeckis. What a director has to do to make a film :D
http://www.spotlightingnews.com/article.php?news=823

Oh my! I know it is too early to tell but this movie could be the best project for Alan since Forrest Gump. Zemeckis and Silvestri were already working on the music so it seems to be a really important part of the production (probably more than ever).

Too bad we still have to wait more than 2 years for this epic masterpiece.

Please, Angie Jolie my Darling - stop that! ;)

Yeah, Angie what's making you do that? Ah well she'll have her reasons.

This one had better get a score release.

...You can add as much of a threatening tone to that as you feel necessary

Well, I don't think we will get a song album out of this film. That was the problem with BTTF and The Polar Express. Those evil song albums with only a few score tracks. So there is a good chance for a score album I suppose.

Glen Ballard will co-compose the songs for Beowulf.

-> http://gsamusic.com/Artists/BALLARDcredits2005.pdf

Songs in Beowulf? :right:

Well, I will give this weird artistical decision the benifit of the doubt. After all, the concept worked rather well in LOTR.

We should wait and see. Even Forrest Gump had both Song and Score albums so this one could also be the same. Especially, if it goes far into academy awards for the best original score, then there will be an even greater chance.

AICN reports about a promising first look at Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=22409

It says that Zemeckis has been working on the "dead eyes" criticism for The Polar Express and seems to have solved it. Everything seems to be photo realistic. Pretty cool is that Zemeckis seems to be able to fly through the sets during the scenes and can choose whatever cameria angle he wants. His buddy Spielberg also came by to play with Zemeckis' new toy :D Zemeckis, being a technology buff, seems to be crossing technological boundaries on this project.

It also seems to be a dark movie. A dark score seems to be logical. Something like Van Helsing? Probably not, because he often surprises us.

Freakin' Great! This could easily inspire Alan's best score to date.

Imagine a dark environment, beasts, vikings, dungeons, shadows moving on walls in the light of torches... and Alan's music will fill it with life again. As amazing as this new eye-cap method sounds, the real breath of life will be Alan's music, no matter how foto-realistic the CGI will look.

Will it sound like Van Helsing? Maybe a comparably gothic tone but overall more symphonic, like a dark Silvestri concert. I think of something like Siegfried & Roy or The Polar Express turned upside down into a dark and massive orchestral feast. Hey Emile, is there a chance that you can be there when the recordings begin?

I was told that I'm always welcome at Alan's scoring sessions. But I have no idea right now when it will be and if I can make it though.

Not sure if this was brought up before but there is an official site for Zemeckis' beowulf film which has an intro with music. Is it Alan's composition that we are hearing, maybe even his main theme? The rhythm, arrangement and orchestration definitely has a strong Silvestri feeling all over it.

Beowulf Official Site

Cool. I really didn't expect them to open a site more than a year before the opening date. I don't think the music is from Alan though.

The early opening of the site must be a good sign. Looks like things are going really well over there. If I remember correctly, Alan stated in an interview that he already recorded source music for Zemeckis to work with. Now that intro music does not really sound like source music but maybe its some sort of demo he did? If its really not from Alan then its a very well choosen piece and I would really love to find out who the composer is.

It's not hard to hear that this music has been composed by samples on the PC and not by real orchestra. :D

That's why I assumed it might be a demo ;)

Ah k^^
Hopefully Alan does some great music for the film and looks at the sessions like on the photo e-mail posted on another thread ;)

Definitely seems like a demo from Silvestri.

If that's really an early demo of what the main theme could sound like, I already love it. It's gothic, a bit like Van Helsing but with a slight middle eastern touch. Definitely a very unique theme. Too bad we only get a snippet of the theme. Damn, I can't wait to hear a big orchestra blasting this stuff through the air :)

Only 15 months :ouch:

A hell of a wait.

But until When Worlds Collide it is even a longer wait and I cant decide which score I am looking forward to the most. Both films are huge and unique in their own way. My only concern would be a lack of sufficient score releases.

Ah, well, what are 15 months? :blink:

62 weeks, 464 days, 23 hours, and 48 minutes ;)

I must be Data :D

i think starfleet would denie you because 62 weeks and 464 days are more than 2 years...maybe you just need an oil change