The LA Times Talk Beowulf

Two Beowulf pictures have turned up in a new LA Times piece. I'll pop them at the bottom of the post.

[EDIT: And now better versions have turned, up so I put them even further down. These new versions seem to show Zemeckis' framing, which was quite a thrill. Thanks to all of you who mailed them over]

The LA Times discuss the film at length, though defininetly not from the viewpoint of having seen the whole thing because it's some ways from being complete. Here's a hit-list of their intriguing tidbits (not all new news, and many of the points probably not quite true, but it is nice to see them compiled) and, sadly, it isn't all good news:

- The film is "a minimum of PG-13". Honestly, the script was definitely R-rated, so I was surprised and disappointed to hear "the producer and director purged the script of foul language, used an array of blood colors ranging from crimson to green and dreamed up gravity-defying nude scenes." Gaiman misses the swearing, and says so.

- Grendels mother's feet appear like "sharp stilettos merged with bestial hooves".

- Beowulf battles Grendel in the nude but "Beowulf's naughty bits are obfuscated by random objects in the foreground", a la Austin Powers, but not for (deliberate) laughs.

- The characters age from teenagers to septugenarians, courtesy of the CG skins on their motion captured skeletons.

- Neil Gaiman said of Crispin Glover's casting: "Then we got on the subject of Crispin. Bob said he would never work with him again because he never hit his mark and didn't understand how scenes cut together. But as he went on, you could see Bob realizing that was completely irrelevant if Crispin was in a motion-capture suit covered in dots, every move recorded."

- Oh, and mentioned here only as a curiosity, we learn that Ray Winstone's character in Indiana Jones IV is called Mac.

You Winstone, You Losestone

The Hollywood Reporter have framed Ray Winstone as Indiana Jones' sidekick in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Most Likely to be City of Gods. And that's all the news there is.

I think the first few minutes of Sexy Beast are genuinely hilarious. Perhaps they'll be filming in some sunny locales for Indiana Jones and the Most Likely to be City of Gods and Winstone will be able to reprise the same bright orange costume.

Gazza To Star In New Sci-Fi Film, Described As A Cross Between Black Hawk Down And Alien

Ray Winstone's daughter Lois is to star alongside Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne in Final Run, a cheap and cheerful British sci-fi actioner shooting this summer and described as Alien meets Black Hawk Down. Couldn't Thelma and Louise, Gladiator and A Good Year get a look in too?

The director is to be Stephen James Bland, who also directed a straight-to-video affair called Frank. I expect Final Run will be keeping Frank company on the bottom shelf and dusty ex-rental bins of Blockbuster from early next year.

The plot of Final Run apparently calls upon Gazza to sacrifice his life for the good of humanity. Sounds like a good idea. Couldn't this be a documentary instead?

I wish Bland his team all the best - they've got a real struggle ahead of them with this one. Particularly as Gazza isn't only appearing - he's producing the film as well.

RW 7 Foot Jesus

According to John Malkovich, talking to IGN, Ray Winstone's appearance as Beowulf will be a seven foot amalgam of himself and Jesus. Better still, Anthony Hopkins character is going to be really very, very fat indeed.

There's been no mention of just how Grendel is going to work, of how much Crispin Glover there will be underneath the CG-skinned monster. The fact that none of the images 'leaked' a few days back seem to include any Grendel make me somewhat suspicious of their underhand nature, suggesting maybe that their appearance and the subsequent legal threats was just another contrived publicity ruse.

Yawn.