Variety is reporting that Robert Zemeckis, the director of Polar Express, has secured financing for an animated 'performance-capture' adaptation of the Old English epic Beowulf, which will be filmed from a script by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary.  Angelina Jolie, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Brendan Gleeson, and Robin Wright Penn are set to 'star' in the film in which their performances are transferred to animation via a 'performance-capture' process that Zemeckis used on Polar Express.

In his online journal Gaiman discussed his adaptation of the epic poem, which had to be trimmed substantially: 'We didn't try to put everything in the poem onto the screen...anything where we only have someone in the story's word for it, what happened might -- or might not -- have happened like that.'  After discussing the changes from poem to script, Gaiman threw a bone to purists, saying: 'Yes, there is still some Old English in it.'