Ubisoft Announces Beowulf Movie Tie-In

Not only will Grendel be coming to the big screen, but to the gaming screen as well. Ubisoft announced today at their Ubidays event in Paris that the renowned gaming publisher will be producing Beowulf, and that it should reinvent the hack and slash genre. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot (my hero) stated, “ We think it will be an amazing game”. Beowulf is the first English literary piece and one of the first epic poems written in vernacular instead of Latin, and was written during the end of the 10th century or the beginning of the 11th century.

Beowulf tells the tale of a warrior/hero who saves the people of a neighboring country from the scourge that is Grendel. The noble Beowulf, defeats Grendel, who had been coming at night to the great hall and devouring the King’s warriors. Like most epics, he dies heroically after becoming King – in this case, by slaying a dragon. The movie based upon this awesome masterpiece of literature will be directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump), and stars: Sir Anthony Hopkins, Crispin Glover, John Malkovich, Robin Wright-Penn, and Ray Winstone. Angelina Jolie will star as Gendel’s mother, and the movie will be in theaters November 2007. No word on whether the game will be released at the same time as the movie or not – stay tuned for more details as they become available.