'Beowulf: The Script Book' is a tremendous book for the typical interested reader. The book includes narrative of the movie Beowulf's history from its conception in Roger Avary's high school English class assignment through creation of the original script in 1997 to production of the film released in full 3-Dimensional representation in 2007.

There are not one, but two full scripts of the movie. The second is the script for the movie that was made. The first is the original script for the movie that was not made, representing the original vision for the film. Beowulf was not originally envisioned as a digital blockbuster - it was envisioned as a low-budget adventure film. There were very significant changes between the two versions, and it is fascinating to see what it might have been, but is not. It is additionally fascinating to read in the script of the film that was produced the intent of what should be communicated through action. Often enough, we, the movie-goers, do not see what was meant, and the extra text of the script illuminates parts of the movie we did not note or understand when seeing it.

The other fascinating narrative is the comments from Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman on their experience in taking the movie from an idea to the film it is. This tale is given no more than twenty pages, but is fully as fascinating as the scripts. Neil Gaiman makes a comment in the Afterward that may draw one into this part of the world of movie-making we do not see. "There are those who believe that the art form of Hollywood is movies. I believe this - except on my cynical days, when I believe that the art form of Hollywood is contracts, and that occasionally a movie gets made as an unavoidable part of the contract-making process."

The original tale of Beowulf was created as part of the Scandinavian oral tradition. Incorporated into high school and college literature curricula, it was considered for movies but regularly discarded because of seemingly insurmountable obstacles of storyline and the uncomfortable attachment to classroom lessons. Roger Avary was dedicated to making the film, Neil Gaiman overcame the greatest of the obstacles, and finally under the direction of Robert Zamekis the film became a reality as the first full-length movie ever created entirely in 3-D. As a work of literature, the script is not the equal of either the original tale in its ancient language or the novelistic rendition of the movie as 'Beowulf' by Caitlin Kiernan. But as history and illumination of a movie likely to be held as a landmark in the future, 'Beowulf: The Script Book' is unique and fully as entertaining as the movie or the literary works. On this basis, the reviewer assigns a five-star rating. ( )