The 38th annual San Diego Comic-Con didn’t officially kick off until today, but that didn’t stop Paramount from getting an early start with footage of its upcoming 3-D release of “Beowulf” on Wednesday night. It did, however, stop the press from taking any pictures, video or audio of any kind. As a result, we weren’t able to snap any shots of co-writers Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary during their short Q&A session, nor any of the other celebs that stopped by at the party afterwards.
Nevertheless, we were shown an exclusive 3-D trailer for the film (now available on Apple), as well as the world premiere of the complete second reel, and suffice it to say, the movie looks pretty darn cool. Gaiman and Avery set up the fifteen-minute clip – which featured Beowulf’s defeat of the half-demon Grendel and his seduction by the demon Queen (played by a very naked Angelina Jolie) – and from what we were shown, you can definitely tell they were adamant about making the movie as mature as possible.
The question remains whether people are going to flock to theaters to watch their favorite actors (including Jolie, Ray Winstone and Anthony Hopkins) rendered in CGI, but methinks the “300” crowd will be chomping at the bits to see more sword-and-sandals action up on the big screen. The addition of 3-D certainly helps the cause, but I can’t help but think that it’s simply being used as a gimmick to get people in the seats.
The Q&A session was short, and mainly dealt with their decisions to a) make yet another movie about a story everyone already knows, and b) implement 3-D, but I was able to talk with Roger Avary later in the night to discuss the progress of something much more near and dear to my heart: the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ “Glamorama.” After successful adaptations of both “American Psycho” and “Rules of Attraction” (which Avary wrote and directed), you’d think making another Easton-inspired film would be easy, but Avary confirmed that no studio was currently attached to produce.
Avary seems to believe that the subject matter is incredibly important in such dangerous and paranoid times (and to a certain degree, I agree with him), but I can also understand why a studio wouldn’t want to get involved with a movie about international fashion models-turned-terrorists. Avary did promise to stay true to the novel – claiming that if he’s going to do it, he’s “going to do it right” – so fans can look forward to one helluva film if it ever does get made.
