There's a "motion capture" version of
Beowulf in the works. Angelina Jolie has just been signed to play "the queen of darkness, who tempts the Viking as he makes his way in the quest to become king," according to
Variety.
I must have somehow missed the queen of darkness the first four times I read
Beowulf.
However, the Variety article also says Neil Gaiman is working on the script, along with some Robert Avary person (his only noticeable credit on IMdB is
Pulp Fiction, but he gets points for that). This gives me some hope, that either:
A) The "queen of darkness" is a radical but well-done rewrite of either Wealhtheow or Grendel's mother
or
B) Variety's writers don't have any idea what they're talking about.
...wait, wait. Quest to be king? No, no, no. He becomes king off-stage, as it were, long after the Grendel incident, which took place in another country.
*sigh* If you
want to make a movie about a brave Viking warrior who kills a evil monster (and resists the wiles of the queen of darkness) to become king, go ahead and do that. Gaiman seems to eat that sort of archtypical story for breakfast. It would be great fun, I'm sure. But why call it
Beowulf when it's not? It's like
I, Robot all over again.
Or maybe it's Option B. That would explain much.