Movies I'm looking forward to

Seen Beowulf & Grendel already? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402057/

I thought they had already made a bunch of Beowulf movies already.

Did any of you hear of that movie supposed to be coming out about Algerians who fought for the Free French during WW2? I wonder if they came up with the idea after the riots and thought they needed to do something to bring people together or if it was already planned before that.

An historical war movie I'd like to see made is Storm of Steel.

TGGP, you're thinking about Indigènes.

Do you mean Jünger's "Storm of Steel"? His weird anti-Hitler allegory "On the Marble Cliffs" could make an interesting film, too.

Right on, Oliver, the standard to date is "Beowulf and Grendel" and should be seen first by anyone on scienceblogs who thinks the Zemeckis film warrants any consideration. Yes, there hvae been better movies made, and it is not without its flaws. But none better for depicting the Beowulf tale with as much care for historical plausibility. The CGI in the new "Beowulf" is called-for, unfortunately, in line with the magical realism literary genre. More importantly it will be appropriate for glossing over Jolie's man-hands and atrophied corpse legs. (Although she would have been just right for the role in a live action movie, given that she is the closest hollywood has to a marginally effable troll.)

I swear I have other things to do but worry about hollywood movies. But I must submit here, in the comments section of the scienceblogs movie thread, that I will not feel comfortable suspending common sense such as to believe the first literary Hero of Western Civ would think twice about compromising the future of mankind for a handjob from Grendel's bony fish-lipped mother. In the "Beowulf and Grendel" version directed by Sturla Gunnarson, we find that there was no foreplay, no hesitation, no deliberation, and no monologues when it came time for Beowulf to make a decision regarding Grendel's mum. Much more auspicious for the West would be Gunnarson's Beowulf, who was clearly dealing with bigger concerns than maximizing the screen time for overhyped TV-grade actresses married to Brad Pitt.

In fact, I believe I will take Oliver's advice and see "Beowulf & Grendel" even though I've already seen it a number of times. I will do it on principle and tell all my (at least 3, probably as many as 4 or even 5) friends about the wonderful Beowulf movie that is already available to the public. Friends will find that the director uses naturally eye-popping Icelandic landscapes as her backdrop, forgoing the need to spend gazillions in virtual reconstructions. In addition, she took the time to investigate some clever, plausible mechanisms for entry of Judaic-Christian mythology into the existing myth structure of the syncretic pagan north. I will claim I1a and vouch for the self-awareness of the scriptwriter; the character of norse ethnicity is nurtured in the poetic wordplay between characters, the content of the dialogue, the jokes and commiseration, the stoic tones of facial and body expression, the underlying matriarchy: All of it goes toward a just portrayal of a quintessential northern cultural outlook, ironic, fatal, idiosyncratic, absurd and serious as hell, all at once. No it is not the greatest script ever written, but it actually is the most faithful modern film adaptation of the Beowulf v. Grendel tale to date. Might I suggest there is reason to worry that there is already a new hollywood version getting injected into the Gaiman fanboy threads - via Jolie-dominated teaser trailer - like it's gonna be the best thing since LOTR left town, or something.

Neil Gaiman may be as qualified a "mythopoeic" revisionist as we have available, but this does not mean he's immune from taking license in his own interest, and I'd think anyone who cares about the actual nature and history of the northern mythos should maintain a healthy suspicion for any revisions informed by large hollywood studio production. Not that I'm saying anyone should care in the first place, unless one should already have interest in subjects like folk historical accounts of Neanderthal/CroMagnon interaction with modern humans, or literary sources of the relationship between Northern European and Semitic religious heritages. But I bet that as more is revealed about the Zemeckis movie, my suspicions will gain increased corroboration from the greater nerd community.

It isn't entirely uninteresting that the Descendants of Cain as described in the Beowulf poem may be the last remnants of the Ertebolle culture in Europe, right? I wonder if Zemeckis' film will have care to even approach such questions...right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erteb%C3%B8lle_culture#Physical_anthropolo…

I am absolutely positive no one's interested, but hypothetically speaking, "Pathfinder" would be fun to make a brief comment on.