Rejoice: The Jim Henson Company Are Building Monster Puppets For A New Live-Action Beowulf Movie

Here's some very cool news: the folks at the Jim Henson Company will lend their skills to building practical monster puppets for a new live-action movie based on "Beowulf" and on the John Gardner novel "Grendel." The film, titled "Grendel," will retell the legend of Beowulf from the monster Grendel's point of view (via THR). Jeff Bridges is set to play Grendel, while Dave Bautista will portray Beowulf. The cast also includes Bryan Cranston set as King Hrothgar, Sam Elliott as The Dragon, Thomasin McKenzie as Queen Wealhtheow, Aidan Turner as Unferth, and T Bone Burnett will also appear as a character named The Shaper. Burnett will also craft original songs for the film. Robert D. Krzykowski, who helmed the wonderfully titled film "The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot," is set to direct.

So what makes this so cool? Simply the fact that we're getting practical monsters created by the Jim Henson Company. Picture the incredible creatures designed for "Where the Wild Things Are" (see the image above) but applied to the story of Beowulf and Grendel. Imagine how much more interesting it will be to have tangible, practical puppets instead of terrible, unconvincing CGI (I'm looking at you, Robert Zemeckis). 

As mentioned above, the film will be an adaptation of John Gardner's 1971 novel "Grendel." Here's the book's synopsis: "The first and most terrifying monster in English literature, from the great early epic Beowulf, tells his own side of the story in this frequently banned book. This is the novel William Gass called 'one of the finest of our contemporary fictions.'" The book was previously adapted into a 1981 animated film called "Grendel Grendel Grendel." 

"Grendel represents everything I love about the movies. John Gardner's mad masterpiece cleverly tackles what it is to be human through the wild-eyed lens of a monster," said director Krzykowski. "It's an honor to work with such a remarkable group of storytellers, all of whom seek to bring something wonderful and unexpected to audiences now."

Brian Henson, producer and Chair of the Board of The Jim Henson Company, added (via IndieWire): 

"The Jim Henson Company is internationally known for our world creation and character creation. And we are most inspired when a character has a richly authentic personality, and can be sophisticated, thought-provoking, and believable. Grendel is the ultimate character, and will be brought to life using our Creature Shop's cutting-edge practical techniques in combination with Dennis Berardi's amazing digital effects."

Again: this is cool as hell. I can't wait see what the Henson folks conjure up here, and the cast is mighty impressive too. There's no release date set yet for the film, but here's hoping we learn more soon.