Beowulf the Bold

[clayjs]

BEOWULF THE BOLD. The trickster Beowulf fabricates the attacks of Grendel and his mother on Hrothgar’s people and is crowned king, but when his kingdom is attacked by a real dragon and his secret comes out, he must use his trickery to defeat the dragon, save his people, and atone for his life.

[mscherer]

Clay,

Me thinks your logline may be just a tad too wordy (50 words), but I can see the movie (an important function of the logline).

The implication is that this will be a fantasy-comedy. After all, Beowulf, in this scenario, is a trickster (I can see someone like Jack Black playing the role) -- I could be wrong and often I am.

Here is my attempt at revising your logline (36 words):

In order to be crowned king, Beowulf lies about his ability to kill dragons and when his kingdom comes under attack by Grendel and his mother, he must use all his trickery to save his people.

Keep Writing!

[mbarrett]

Clay,

Beowulf, a consummate liar and conman fabricates a story to become king only to realize that he has put the whole kingdom in jeopardy, leaving him to use his trickery to save the day.

My take on the whole thing. I hope it's a comedy. By the tone of what you are saying, it sure sounds like it.

Have a great weekend.
Mark

[clayjs]

Thanks for the input, guys. I very much agree that it's too wordy, and I think even with all those words I failed to get the story across. I'll give you some background, and then I'd love to see your suggestions for how to make this mother work.

First, For anyone not familiar with it, Beowulf is an Old English poem, the plot of which is as follows (lifted from Wikipedia):

Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the help of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall (Heorot) has been under attack by a being known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is fatally wounded in the battle.

The idea for the script comes from a paper I wrote in college about how nobody but Beowulf sees Grendel or Grendel's mother, and everyone takes him at his word that he killed them, so he could just have easily have faked the whole thing. Then, years later, when he's king of the Geats and a dragon attacks, even though he now has an army at his command, he's horribly outmanned and only barely defeats it at the cost of his life.

I envision this as Old Beowulf, a good king, sitting on his throne and finding out that the Dragon has awakened and is headed for Geatland. Wiglaf, his young friend and protegee is excited to finally see his childhood hero in action, but Beowulf is petrified. Slowly, Beowulf admits (in flashback) how he hoodwinked the Speardanes into believing they were being attacked and that he fought off the horrible beasts. Wiglaf is crushed to find out that his hero is a phony, but destruction is imminent for the Geats if Beowulf doesn't lead them against the dragon. Wiglaf convinces Beowulf to use his talent for special effects to fight the dragon, they are successful, Beowulf is killed, Wiglaf proves himself to be a great warrior, and allows Beowulf's legend to be passed down as it is written.

Main problem I see as I write this out is that Wiglaf should definitely be the hero, not Beowulf. I'll work on constructing another logline around that, and anything you can come up with will be greatly appreciated!

Genre note: I was seeing it more as an Action/Fantasy with maybe some comedic elements, but not as an overt comedy.

Clay

[oz]

I think it's got great potential and I understood the story concept from the first log line. Although it may be wordy by usual standards, I think if it takes that many words to get to the concept, use them.

I, too, see this as a comedy but it could be a good drama, too. Overall, though, I'd love to read it!