STUART GORDON

"My version of EATERS OF THE DEAD would have pushed the limits of an R rating!"

"I was the one who first contacted Michael Crichton's agent at CAA, Bob
Buchwalter (I think that's his name), about optioning the book in the early 90's. The agent had never heard of it and said he would get back to me. A few days later, he called to tell me that Dr. Crichton had reminded him that he had written a script for EATERS OF THE DEAD several years before and did I wish to see it?

Of course I did, and the script was brilliant, very close to the novel, perfectly capturing the essense of the book. I told Buchwalter that I wanted to option it, and he told me that the option price was one million dollars. I explained that I didn't have that kind of money, so he told me that I could have a free option for six months to set it up at a studio.

I spoke to Laurel and Carolco, as well as Disney, Paramount, Universal and 20th Century Fox. As I made the rounds, I was getting a great deal of interest in the project. Both Wesley Snipes and Dustin Hoffman wanted to play Ibn Fadlan. Richard Dreyfus expressed interest when I started sending out the script, but I favored the idea of using a black actor in the role (Wesley Snipes), to increase the contrast between Fadlan and the Vikings. I was talking to Dolph Lundgren's people about having him play Buliwyf. I was thinking of using European actors to play the Vikings. Christopher Lambert was also on my list to play Bulywif (Beowulf). There were rumors that Arnold Schwarzenegger was interested too.

My excitement came to an abrupt end a few weeks later when Buchwalter called to tell me that he had "forgotten" that he had already optioned "Eaters of the Dead"... to Martha Coolidge! None of this made any sense to me: I couldn't imagine Martha being interested in this type of material, so I called her and she confirmed that she was looking forward to directing it. (It seems her husband and Crichton are old friends.)

I couldn't help feeling that CAA had used me to drum up interest in the project and, when they discovered that it was viable, pulled it away from me!

Eventually, I read that John McTiernan was directing the project. And I was a bit disappointed in the finished film, as it was unclear to the audiences and all the critics that this was a re-telling of the story of Beowulf and that the Grendal was the last tribe of Neanderthal men. I also hated the new title.

I was attracted to the book because it was a wonderful re-telling of "Beowulf" - the true story behind the legend. Crichton skillfully weaves the historic text of Ibn Fadlan's Viking adventure with the ancient tale of Beowulf, and the idea of the Grendal being the last Neanderthal tribe is a brilliant concept (and consistent with modern theories of how they may have disappeared). Unfortunately, neither of these ideas made it into the movie...

I thought the look of McTiernan's film was quite good. But it felt like it had been recut and shortened, so a lot of the character details and relationships were lost. And I think the violence had been toned down by Disney (who unfortunately also changed the title). It should have been much bloodier. My version would have pushed the limits of an R rating!

I never did write my own draft, although in the late 70's I directed a stage version of "Beowulf" which was inspired by "Eaters of the Dead". It was entitled NIGHT FEAST and was written by my old friend and writing partner, Dennis Paoli. My theater company, The Organic Theater, performed it and the role of the Grendel was played by Dennis Franz, now famous as the star of "N.Y.P.D. BLUE".

I haven't really used any of my ideas for EATERS in another film of mine, but Dennis Paoli and I are developing a Viking project that is set in Ireland..."