RECENT PRESS
A BEOWULF IN ICELANDIC CLOTHING
Sturla Gunnarsson left his native Iceland when he was seven, but the land of ice, snow and magnificent cliffs has never been far from his heart. "I went back many times when I was a young person. And after I graduated from UBC, I worked on a fishing boat off the coast...
Ancient fable lacks epic punch on big screen
Beowulf and Grendel Directed by: Sturla Gunnarsson Stars: Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley, Stella Skarsgard, Ingvar E. Sigurdsson Where: Odeon Rating: 2 1/2 - - - College students beware. This movie version of Beowulf is not the one to watch before writing your English...
For whom la belle trolls
Sarah Polley is the Swiss Army Knife of actors. She's actor/activist/scriptwriter/Genie-Award winning short film director currently making her feature film directorial debut in Away from Her, starring Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent. She was featured in The Young...
FORGET THE GLEN OF TRANQUILLITY
..I WAS IN A WORLD OF AGONY; SUNDAY MAIL SHOWBIZ SPECIAL EXCLUSIVE ROBERT RELIVES SMASH HORROR HUNKY Robert Cavanah has revealed how his starring role in hospital drama The Royal, set in the 60s, brought back painful memories of the car crash that threatened to...
Monster’s POV matters to Beowulf director
Sturla Gunnarsson drew on his Icelandic roots, Vancouver film studies, and a pagan ritual or two to reimagine an ancient epic into Beowulf & Grendel. Sturla Gunnarsson drew on his Icelandic roots, Vancouver film studies, and a pagan ritual or two to reimagine an...
Lights, camera, Iceland
Hofn, Iceland — I'm standing on a mountain pass, looking out over a glacial river delta on Iceland's south coast. Looming behind me is the Myrdalsjokull, an immense glacier shrouding an active volcano. It is the most beautiful, primordial landscape I've ever seen —...
Movie Review: Beowulf and Grendel
This is a Canada-UK-Iceland production (not made by Hollywood), and it shows. It's actually refreshing to not see an overly slick epic sword film. Written approximately 1000 AD, anonymously, possibly by someone touted as a priest, this is one of the longest old...
THE WIND, THE VOLCANOES AND BEOWULF
Making a film in Iceland in October was no picnic for Sturla Gunnarsson and his cast and crew, MICHAEL POSNER writes Director Sturla Gunnarsson has seen his share of tough feature-film shoots, from Diplomatic Immunity (1991), part of which was shot amid nightmarish...
A very troll sense of humour
BEOWULF & GRENDEL Troll-on-witch sex, it can be said with a heck of a lot of understatement, isn't a beautiful thing to behold. All the grunting and the body hair and surely the halitosis -- not to mention the dank and smelly caves -- hardly make for a romantic...
Beowulf rides again
With swords and monsters all the rage, an ancient literary hero is now a hot showbiz property It's revered as the first epic work of English literature, although it's written in what looks like a foreign language. And it has become the bane of English students...
Beowulf & Grendel an epic movie
Starring Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgård, Sarah Polley, Ingvar Sigurdsson. Written by Andrew Rai Berzins. Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson. 103 minutes. At major theatres. 14A By stripping the ninth-century epic poem Beowulf down to its narrative bones, and by shooting...
Real characters emerge from myth
Beowulf & Grendel's people have both hero and villain in them Warning: 14A: Gory violence, sexually suggestive scenes, coarse language.103 minutes Grade: B "You want a beer?" -- Hrothgar "Oo-o-hh, yeah." -- Beowulf Seems an entirely appropriate way to greet the...
Epic
Beowulf & Grendel was shot on location on the Icelandic coast.By stripping the ninth-century epic poem Beowulf down to its narrative bones, and by shooting it with an unembellished, steely realism, the Icelandic-born Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson has made...
Beowulf saga gets an update for ‘postmodern’ movie
Beowulf and Grendel ** 1/2 Starring: Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley, Stella Skarsgard, Ingvar E. Sigurdsson Directed by: Sturla Gunnarsson. Rating: 14A, gory violence; sexually suggestive scenes; coarse language. Playing at: AMC Kanata, Empire 7, SilverCity - - - College...
Beowulf, circa 2006
Ancient tale remade; New version fails to satisfy purists or the bloodthirsty College students beware. This version of Beowulf is not the one to watch before writing your English literature exam. Featuring new characters, updated dialogue and a post-modern take on the...
1,200-year-old story has great visuals
Movie has new characters, updated dialogue and a post-modern take on the quest BEOWULF & GRENDEL Rating 21/2 Director: Sturla Gunnarsson Starring: Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley, Stellan Skarsgard, Ingvar E. Sigurdsson Classification: 14A Parental warning: Violence,...
Beowulf and Grendel: heroic epic
WE ALL KNOW the story of Beowulf, the hero from Geatland who rescued Danish King Hrothgar by destroying the monster Grendel and his mother. We know how Grendel had savagely slaughtered Hrothgar’s thanes celebrating in the great Hall of Heorot, how Beowulf tackled him,...
Epic Tale is Poetry in Motion
Trolls are bothersome at the best of times. At the worst of times they can be downright deadly. That's what the sixth century Danish king Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgard) learns in the epic revenge tale Beowulf & Grendel. Hrothgar kills a troll but spares its young...
Beowulf & Grendel – moview review
Coppola was the most famous, but I suspect every filmmaker gets to play Col. Kurtz eventually. Icelandic-Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson's mad folly is Beowulf & Grendel, a gamy retelling of the Anglo Saxon epic on what seems the least hospitable film location...
Eaten alive
Icelandic saga Beowulf and Grendel pits good against evil You can't go too wrong with a movie in which a 10-foot human monster gets his arm ripped off and sees the bloody fleshy stump nailed to the wall. But then again, that same movie also features Sarah Polley with...