While a 16 Jul 2004 HR news item announced that Warner Bros. Pictures and producer Ed McDonnell’s Maple Shade Films had hired Matthew Sand to adapt Beowulf into a feature film, a 25 Jul 2007 LAT article reported that screenwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary began their adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon poem in 1997 after reading numerous translations. HR stated that Maple Shade’s director of development, Dan Stone, initiated the project, but neither Maple Shade nor Warner Bros. is credited in the film.
       According to a 21 Jan 2005 DV article, director Robert Zemeckis’s studio, ImageMovers, optioned Gaiman and Avary’s script in 1997 and hired Avary to direct. However, the project remained in limbo and the rights were returned to the writers when the option expired. Avary spent one year unsuccessfully trying to secure financing independently, and when Zemeckis expressed interest in taking over as director, Shangri-La Entertainment founder Steve Bing, who financed Zemeckis’s The Polar Express (2004, see entry) for $80 million, bought the screen rights for Beowulf with Sony Pictures for $2 million. Avary, who had won an Academy award for co-writing the stories for Pulp Fiction (1994, see entry) with Quentin Tarantino, was reportedly not eager to hand over his directorial role, but Bing insisted that Zemeckis direct. Both Avary and Gaiman were credited as executive producers as well as screenwriters. Producer Steve Starkey told LAT on 25 Jul 2007 that he and Zemeckis edited the original script’s foul language, excessive violence and nudity to secure a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) but they considered producing an unrated version of the picture in the future.
       According to HR, Sony was negotiating for exclusive releasing rights to all Shangri-La productions in Jan 2005 when the script was collaboratively optioned by Shangri-La and Sony, but Sony is not credited in the film. HR also noted that the picture’s preliminary $70 million budget was expected to increase because of its motion-capture technology, a technique that was utilized by Zemeckis in The Polar Express. Various contemporary sources, including LAT articles on 15 and 16 Nov 2007, reported that the budget grew to between $150 and $160 million.
       Principal photography began 26 Sep 2005 in Los Angeles, CA, according to HR production charts on 8 Nov 2005. However, the 25 Jul 2007 LAT article, which referred to filming with motion-capture technology as “principal mocapography,” noted that the shoot at The Culver Studios in Culver City, CA, lasted thirty days in Dec 2005. The actors performed in bodysuits that were covered with “tiny sensors”; each marker was recorded by “dozens of digital cameras” and the footage was used to digitally animate the live action. According to a 16 Nov 2007 HR article, Beowulf’s large cast, with its various costume changes and science fiction creatures, required much more extensive utilization of visual effects technology than The Polar Express; thus, the filmmakers relied on recent advances in computer speed and employed over “250 4-megapixel Vicon cameras” as opposed to the “72 1-megapixel cameras” used in The Polar Express. Additionally, a larger “capture” area was built at The Culver Studios, measuring twenty-five feet by twenty-five feet.
       As stated in another 16 Nov 2007 HR article, the film was released that day in 3,155 theaters nationwide including one thousand 3-D equipped venues, making it the largest distribution of a 3-D picture in “modern film history" to that time. The article noted that after the success of The Polar Express, companies such as Real D had outfitted 1,100 theaters with 3-D projectors, as well as 120 Image Maximum (IMAX) venues, internationally. Sony Pictures Imageworks reportedly started production of the 3-D version of Beowulf during principal photography, working “in parallel” with the 2-D production team to “create a second eye from the source material.” The two images were converged at Imageworks’ 3-D theater “sweatbox” with Autodesk Maya customized animation software.
       As stated in the 16 Nov 2007 LAT article, filmmakers and theater industry insiders were hoping that the release of Beowulf in 3-D would mark an upswing in the dwindling statistics of audience attendance since 2002, a decline that was attributed to the popularity of computer games and home entertainment systems. Although theaters were charged between $30,000 and $50,000 to equip their facilities with 3-D technology and ticket prices were doubled to an average of $15 each to recover the costs, industry specialists argued that the investment would pay off and 3-D films would entice audiences back into theaters. LAT noted that industry insiders pointed to The Polar Express as indicator; the film generated $65 million of its $303 million gross worldwide at IMAX venues alone and was re-released every year to a successful run during the holidays. Beowulf filmmakers hoped that by appealing to a PG-13, “15-to-30-year-old male, techie crowd,” they would secure an even better financial outcome. In an effort to attract this demographic, the film’s release coincided with the 13 Nov 2007 premiere of a “triple-A” video game of the same name, according to a 31 Oct 2007 HR article. Noting the difficulty of releasing a game and a film on nearly the same day, HR stated that production on both projects ran concurrently. Game publisher Ubisoft was hired by Paramount in Oct 2005 and digital assets from the film were shared with Ubisoft throughout principal photography.
       The film received mixed reviews; while the 12 Nov 2007 HR stated that the marriage of the narrative with motion capture technology was “brimming with vitality,” the 16 Nov 2007 LAT argued that the effects were “more like a gimmick than an added value.” Still, the picture fared well and topped the box-office charts, grossing $28.1 million in the first three days of its release in the U.S. and Canada, according to a 19 Nov 2007 LAT news item. As reported in a 23 Jun 2008 HR brief, a Nielsen Company PreView study showed that theaters which exhibited the picture in 3-D grossed 65% more than those that did not, and theaters that projected the film in 3-D on more than one screen earned 100% more than their expected gross. Although the statistics reflected the increased price of 3-D tickets, Nielsen concluded that audiences were willing to pay more for enhanced theatrical exhibitions despite their general ignorance about the technology and the location of venues equipped with 3-D projectors.