The Art of Beowulf: Mark Cotta Vaz and Steve Starkey

Director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steve Starkey went all out with a next-generation method to make Beowulf - a method that began and ended in the art department. A team of talented artists led by Doug Chiang created a full, rich Dark Age world by way of character sketches, costume designs, blueprints and full-colour portraits and illustrations. Then an all-star cast - Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman and Angelina Jolie - interpreted Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary's adventurous script, their performances digitised with motion capture technology and finally, cutting edge computer wizardry brought these scenes together with Chiang's artwork brought the Dark Age of monsters and magic to complete life. This book is not just a gallery of stunning pictures - each step of the process is explained in depth, from script to the finished product.