Jeff Bridges, Dave Bautista, Bryan Cranston, Sam Elliott, Thomasin McKenzie, Aiden Turner and T Bone Burnett Star in Iconic Monster Tale “Grendel” from The Jim Henson Company with Robert D. Krzykowski Directing – Jim Henson The acclaimed Jim Henson’s Creature Shop (Five Nights at Freddy’s, Where the Wild Things Are, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) will handle the practical creature work and design. “Grendel represents everything I love about the movies. John Gardner’s mad masterpiece cleverly tackles what it is to be human through the wild-eyed lens of a monster,” said Krzykowski. “It’s an honor to work with such a remarkable group of storytellers, all of whom seek to bring something wonderful and unexpected to audiences now.” “We are delighted to be introducing this elevated, high-concept story to our distributors around the world,” added Tamara Birkemoe, CEO Palisades Park Pictures. “With this brilliant cast, Bob’s vivid vision and the extraordinary creative track record of our friends at The Jim Henson Company, we cannot wait to see Grendel come to life.” https://collider.com/grendel-movie-images-jim-henson-creature-shop/
Neat. I’m looking forward to seeing how Henson interprets the classic story…but being under the Disney banner, they will have a steep hill to climb to break free of the recent Disney stink. In art school, I was part of a group who put together a CGI rendition of part of the Beowulf epic. This Grendel actually looks somewhat like an upgraded version of the primitive 3D model I made
Grendel looks monstrous, but intelligent. The film is not adapting the Beowulf myth itself, but a 1971 novel by academic John Gardner which tells the myth from the view of Grendel himself. Grendel is seen as intelligent and doomed to be seen as a monster in a time of savages who don't see or care beyond their own beliefs. The novel is one of the earliest to use the "villain point of view" angle. An animated adaptation of the novel was done in 1981. It will be deep and interesting, if also brutal.
Disney bought the Muppets - Kermit, Fozzie, Piggy, etc. - but not the entire Jim Henson Company. It's an independent studio and all their non-Muppet work - The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Fraggle Rock, etc. - remains outside of Disney. Also, this looks really cool.
