Beowulf Actors on Board for Game

Ubisoft today announced that several of the main cast members of the upcoming film Beowulf will reprise their roles for the video game. Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins will join Ray Winstone, Brendan Gleeson and Sebastien Roche in bringing Robert Zemeckis’s performance-capture feature to the interactive arena. Developed by Ubisoft’s Tiwak studio for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP and Windows PC, the action combat game is scheduled for worldwide release in conjunction with the movie’s opening on November 16.

According to Ubisoft, the Beowulf video game will feature exclusive content that is unexplored by the film and even the classic epic poem on which it is based. The title covers 30 years of the life of Beowulf, voiced and performed by Winstone. Hopkins returns to the role of King Hrothgar, Gleeson is Wiglaf and Roche plays Wulfgar, making each of the actors’ video game debuts.

‘This is the first time I’ve worked on a video game, and I must say it was one of the hardest working days of my career,” says Winstone ‘But it was vital to capturing the power of the film and translating that into a great gaming experience. Beowulf is a brutal character, a Dark Age gangster with both hero and monster in him. As a player, I can identify with the monster slayer.’

‘These performances stir us like a great soundtrack does’you get shivers,’ adds writer and lead story designer Gabrielle Shrager. ‘The starring actors lend authenticity and intensity to the Beowulf video game experience, something that was indispensable in order for us to extend the story beyond the movie. The actors seamlessly translated their characters’ depth and emotion, breathing life into their video game roles as they did for the film.’

Beowulf from Paramount Pictures and Shangri-La Ent. was realized at Sony Pictures Imageworks using the company’s patented Imagemotion performance capture system. The movie will roll out in conventional theaters, IMAX venues and select theaters equipped with Dolby 3D Digital Cinema technology next month.