Lögberg-Heimskringla - 09.09.2005, Side 9

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 9. september 2005 • 9
PHOTO COURTESY OFWWW.BEOWULF-MOVIE.COM
Grendel (Invar E. Sigurðsson) makes his monstrous entance into the hall of King Hrothgar.
the Danish warriors of King
Hrothgar. Beowulf shows up to
run him out of town, (or, given
that this is the Dark Ages, kill
him). How, then, can the mon-
ster be more than a one-note
villain in a feature film?
“Grendel was surprisingly
open in the script,” says Sig-
urðsson. “Andrew Rai Berzins,
the scriptwriter, gave us the po-
tential to lead Grendel in many
directions. So my challenge
was to have an open mind, to
surprise myself in developing a
character that we could believe
in.”
Of course, any treatment of
this story has to include some
action. (Gunnarsson has said,
“Every Westem you’ve ever
seen is based on Beowulf.”)
Sigurðsson did some of his
own stunts, but when the film-
makers needed to show the im-
mense size difference between
Grendel and the other charac-
ters, they used a stuntman on
stilts.
He clearly enjoyed work-
ing on the film. “I loved hav-
ing a dialogue with my direc-
tor Sturla Gunnarsson while
we were creating Grendel, and
also working with Paul Spateri
and Nick Dudman, who were
in charge of prosthetics.”
There may be a growing
audience for this kind of movie
nowadays; witness a separate,
Hollywood version of Be-
owulf now in production and
the recent re-release of Hrafn
Gunnlagusson’s classic Viking
movie, Hrafnin flýgur (The Ra-
ven Flies). Sigurðsson himself
tackled the iconic role of Njáll
in a made-for-Icelandic TV
version of Njálssaga last year.
Does he think the audience is
there for modern versions of
the sagas?
“Well, I would like to see
them all filmed,” he says. “I
think there is always interest in
stories like that. But those kinds
of movies need clever scripts
and good acting, because it’s
very easy to make crap out of
them.”
Right now, Sigurðsson
has returned to the stage, per-
forming in Georg Biichner’s
Woyzeck. The production runs
at the Barbican Theatre in Lon-
don this October, and later in
Reykjavík.
As for his thoughts on
where his career has taken him,
he says, “Well, I am very happy
to have had the opportunity to
investigate a wide spectrum of
characters since I started acting
— which I hope has done me
good.”
Beowulf and Grendel pre-
mieres at the Toronto Interna-
tional Film Festival on Septem-
ber 16. For more information,
see the Calendar ofEvents.
Icelandic films to make
a splash at TIFF
Icelandic blood runs through sorne of the films premiering
this month at the Toronto Intemational Film Festival. The festi-
val runs until September 17.
ÍW
PHOTOS; THE iCELANDIC FILM CENTRE
Róbert Douglas’s Strákarnir okkar (Eleven Men Out).
Róbert Douglas’s
Strákarnir okkar (Eleven Men
Out) will be shown as part of
“Contemporary World Cin-
ema,” and Guy Maddin’s My
Dad is 100 Years Old will be
shown as part of “Dialogues:
Talking with Pictures.”
Gerard Butler as Beowulf.
Sturla Gunnarsson’s Be-
owulfand Grendel and Baltas-
ar Kormákur’s A Little Trip to
Heayen, an Iceland/USA co-
production, will be shown as
Special Presentations.
Forest Whitaker stars in A
Little Trip to Heaven.
For more information on show times and ordering tickets,
visit www.e.belI.ca/filmfest/2005 or call (416) 968-FILM.
Guy Maddin
fórtep Qnriip & Storag® LM.
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