Robert Zemeckis is currently putting together his big-budget animated adaptation of the epic poem Beowulf, about a Scandinavian warrior and his battle with a ghastly beast called Grendel. In a somewhat unexpected casting decision he’s selected the exceptionally sexy Angelina Jolie to play the mother of the creature, which for some reason makes me think of that Fountains of Wayne song (“Grendy’s mom has got it goin’ on…”)
The film will use same “performance capture” process that created such unintentionally creepy results in The Polar Express. On the plus side, the eventual DVD feature will have lots of footage of the stars wearing little metal discs all over their faces. Note that this version of Beowulf (penned by Roger Avary) is completely unrelated to the recently finished movie with Gerard Butler, or Matt Wagner’s Grendel comic, or the little-seen sci-fi flick with Christopher Lambert.
Other cast members who do not look like Angelina Jolie include Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Brendan Gleeson (he’s contractually required to appear in anything remotely medieval), Robin Wright Penn and Crispin Glover, who will apparently be playing the monster, making Jolie’s casting only slightly more weird than her turn as Colin Farrell’s mom in Alexander. Jolie and her ongoing hotness are also appearing with Matt Damon and Robert DeNiro in the CIA flick The Good Shepherd.