What a hell-raiser: Angelina Jolie has been set to star in "Beowulf," the performance-capture adaptation to be directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steve Bing’s Shangri-La Entertainment.
Jolie will play the queen of darkness, who tempts the Viking as he makes his way in the quest to become king. She joins Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Brendan Gleeson and Robin Wright Penn in the pic, which will feature filmed perfs transferred to performance capture. Zemeckis used the process in "The Polar Express" as well as "Monster House," a film set for release next summer.
To ensure that every nuance of Angelina’s every facial expression was recorded, over 150 sensors were strategically glued onto Angelina’s face.
Around 50 more sensors were added to Angeline’s body suit to capture all of her movements from all angles. Each of these 200 sensors on Angelina’s face mask and body suit recorded and layered a 3-D digital skin to use as a base for animators to work with. This process was developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks and is known as performance-capture (an amped-up version of motion-capture that uses sensors to digitally record an actor’s every movement – even the slightest smile).
