Interview: Director Sturla Gunnarsson - 'Beowulf & Grendel'

By Scott Rosenberg Jun 16, 2006, 11:46 GMT

Director Sturla Gunnarsson on set in Iceland

Opening on limited release roll out throughout the USA beginning June 16th is Director Sturla Gunnarsson's rendition of the classic poem ‘Beowulf and Grendel’.

The poem ‘Beowulf’ is the oldest text of recorded English, first set to sheepskin in 1000 A.D. after 500 years of survival through oral tradition.

‘Beowulf and Grendel’ was born from conversations between Sturla and screenwriter Andrew Rai Berzins more than seven years ago.

“I had been wanting to make a film that spoke to my tribal identity and was rooted in the primordial Icelandic landscape where I was born,” said Sturla. “Andrew suggested 'Beowulf.'  I had read it in high school but the main impression it made on me then was the similarity of the old Anglo Saxon text to Icelandic, which is my native tongue.

“On re-reading it I was struck by how potent a tale it is and how the sense of primal fear, of a people huddled together in the darkness conjuring monsters out there in the unknown seems to ring as true today as it did around the campfire fifteen hundred years ago.”

“The desire to write 'Beowulf and Grendel' started when I was a kid,” explained Berzins. “My mom had given me a children’s version of Beowulf, the book, 'Dragon Slayer' by Rosemary Sutcliff. The drawings, such as Grendel’s arm torn off and nailed up in the Mead Hall, were so powerful for me then. When I became a screenwriter, Beowulf never left me but it seemed like a big project to jump at. I met with Sturla and he said he wanted to do a movie in Iceland. So, we had the landscape and we had the base of the story, and we went from there.”

The movie, filmed without CGI on location in Iceland, hosts a true international cast starring Scottish born Gerard Butler (‘Phantom of the Opera’), as Beowulf, Iceland’s leading actor Ingvar Sigurdsson (‘K-19: The Widowmaker’) as Grendel, Swedish born  Stellan Skarsgard (‘Dogville’) as king Hrothgar and Canadian born Sarah Polley (‘Don’t Come Knocking’) as the pagan witch Selma.

waiting to fix the engine

Director Gunnarsson, dubbed Canada’s resident “Viking”, was born in Iceland, raised in Vancouver, and shot films in India, South Africa, Mexico, Central America, the United States and Canada.

His feature films, documentaries and television movies have won a multitude of awards including Emmy, Genie and Gemini Awards, a Prix Italia, the Prix Villes de Cannes and an Oscar nomination. Though diverse in form and content, they all share a thematic commitment to the exploration of the human condition in all its complexity.

His features include the comedy, ‘Rare Birds,’ starring William Hurt, Andy Jones and Molly Parker and the Bombay epic, ‘Such A Long Journey,’ starring Roshan Seth and Om Puri, both of which were among the top grossing Canadian movies in the years they were released.

Documentaries include the cinema verite classic, ‘Final Offer’ and the post-apartheid love story ‘Gerrie & Louise.’ He has also directed films for broadcasters in Canada, the UK and the United States and his last two films for television, ‘Scorn’ and ‘100 Days In The Jungle’ each won Gemini (Canadian Academy) Awards for ‘best television movie’ in the years they were telecast.

Mr. Gunnarsson was kind enough to spend some time with M&C movie editor Scott Rosenberg to talk about his epic movie.

M&C:  At one stage in your career, you directed classic sci-fi TV series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone and the Ray Bradbury Theater.

With ‘Beowulf and Grendel,’ you have switched genres to an historical epic. Quite a switch.  Why did you give up on sci-fi? Ever going to go back to that genre?

SG:  As far as genre goes, I guess you could say that I have very eclectic taste. I’ve never really worked in one particular genre, but rather pursued stories or themes that appealed to me at particular times in my life.

What appealed to me about adapting Beowulf, apart from the personal desire to explore my Viking ancestry and to make a film in Iceland, is that it deals with the dominant theme of our times – fear.  At its core, the poem is about a people huddled together in the darkness, afraid of what lurks in the twilight that surrounds them. It feels as relevant today as it did when the tale was born around the campfire 1500 years ago.

M&C:  Do you prefer directing TV or features?

SG:   Television is a practical reality for me. It pays the bills during the five or six years it takes me to get a feature made, it hones my skills, allows me to meet and work with premiere talent and keeps up the level of confidence required to make a film.

Directors need to direct or they fade away!

M&C:  It’s been said of your productions: "Though diverse in form and content,his films all share a thematic commitment to the exploration of the human condition in all its complexity." How does that relate to B&G?

SG:  The essence of the adaptation was to find the human face of the epic form.

We have taken the poem out of the mythological realm and placed it squarely in the natural world. Grendel is not the ‘spawn of Cain’ or some kind of embodiment of evil. Rather, he is a creature of the natural world, with feelings and motivations not unlike those of the other characters in the story.

His actions may be monstrous, but he is not a monster.

In that sense, the film becomes more about fear of the other, of how we make monsters out of what we don’t understand than it is about the black and white morality we often associate with this kind of a film.

Gerard Butler as Beowulf

M&C:  What was it about Gerard Butler that attracted you to tap him to play Beowulf? What was it like working with him?

SG:  He’s charismatic, has a powerful physical presence an unambiguous masculinity, knows how to swing a sword, looks good in chainmail – and he’s a subtle-complex actor.

I needed someone who could chart Beowulf’s inner journey and I had a lot of confidence in Gerard’s ability to do that.

Working with him was rewarding and a lot of fun.  He became an important ally in the making of the film.

Beowulf's Viking ship set against the stark Icelandic backdrop

M&C:  A lot has already been written about your decision to film on location in Iceland. You said previously: “you’d start every day with the grand vision, going full on, and then it became about surviving the day, surviving the scene, and by the end of the day, it was about just getting the shot.”

Looking back on those days, were you nuts subjecting the cast and crew to those conditions? (Said kind-heartedly)

SG:  Well, you have to be a little bit nuts to make any movie so I guess I have to plead guilty.

People say I became a bit of a troll during production (check out our website, www.beowulfandgrendel.com – it has tons of good stuff including documentary footage of me turning into a troll)

But I don’t regret choosing Iceland.  It was imbedded into the very concept of the film – part of the motivation for making it was that I wanted to make a film on that elemental landscape.

I was born there and some of those images have been in my consciousness since I can remember. I thought that the landscape and the elements would become a character in the film and they did.

Stellan (Skarsgard) said that it was like acting with a powerful, unwritten character in every scene – you never knew what he was going to do but you had to be alive in the moment to respond.

I think the performances and the look of the film would have been much less interesting if we hadn’t danced with those gods.

M&C:  ‘Beowulf and Grendel’ is a great epic tale whose imagery dazzles on the screen. But in today's action/CGI dominated world of the movies - can such an epic tale be a commercial success?

To you as an artist - does it matter if it is a commercial success or not - after all you were able to complete your art?

But it must make you feel good that you topped the Canadian box-office for a few weeks back in March when first released, huh?

SG:  I think audiences are really tired of CG overload. You end up with films that provide spectacle but no meaningful emotional journey because the spectacle becomes so overwhelming and the actors aren’t  acting in a real environment and they aren’t acting off each other.

What turns me on in a film is when I connect with the characters in situations I can relate to, empathize with them and recognize myself in them.

I think there’s still an audience out there for that kind of film. Every film maker wants their work to be seen by as big an audience as possible but ultimately that’s out of our hands. The marketing guys and the money guys and the movie gods determine that, so you have to make a film that turns you on and then let fate play its hand.

And yes, it was nice to be on top of the Canadian box office for a few weeks.

M&C:  What is your next project?

SG:  I’m still recovering from this one!

M&C:  It seems the DVD of B&G will be released in July. Aren't you afraid that will kill off your theatrical run?

SG:  Not really. The US DVD release is September. There may be some cross-border leakage of the Canadian DVD release but that will mostly be people who have already seen it on the big screen and want to own a copy and can’t wait ‘til September.

The film plays out on a very big canvas and I think those people who are interested in the film will want to be enveloped by it in the theater.

M&C:  (Producer Paul Stephens and Eric Jordan are the partners and owners of The Film Works, a company that has produced quality film and television projects for over 25 years. When he’s not producing films, Paul makes very tasty maple syrup on his farm north of Belleville, Canada.)

Is Paul Stevens’ maple syrup any good?

SG:  It’s EXCELLENT!

M&C:  Why did you tap Andrew Berzins to write the screenplay?

SG:  Andrew and I conceived the film together – he’s been wanting to tackle the poem since he was a kid.  We had made another film together and it was a painless experience – which is unusual in this business – so we thought we’d try our luck again.

M&C: Thanks so much for your time Sturla.

SG:  Thanks for the interest.

‘Beowulf and Gendel’ opens in the following cities over the next few weeks. (Schedule and locations subject to change)

Seattle - June 16th - Varsity (Landmark)
San Francisco - June 30th - Opera Plaza (Landmark)
New York - July 7th - Quad (not landmark)
Chicago - July 14th - Century (Landmark)
Los Angeles - July 28th - Westside Pavilion (Landmark)
Boston - August 11 - Kendall Square (Landmark)
Denver, Colorado - August 4-11 - Starz Film Center
Whitefish, Montana - September 8-10 - Whitefish Theatre Co.