Beowulf and Grendel is a film based loosely on the epic poem Beowulf. In it the protagonist Beowulf is summoned by King Hrothgar to help defend his kingdom against a raging troll named Grendel. Largely filmed in Iceland, the film contains panoramic cinematography similar to that found in the Lord of the Rings' trilogy.

Beowulf and Grendel certainly took liberties with the original source material, and as many film adaptation before it, this production omitted the last third of the poem that deals with an older Beowulf many years after the episode with Grendel and his mother. Many productions choose to leave this part due to the narrative jump of 50 years, which works well enough on paper but is confusing to audiences when on film. Another reason is that it features a vicious fire-breathing dragon, which would be costly to reproduce on film. Some previous adaptations have found ways around this, notably The Thirteenth Warrior with Antonio Banderas, which explained that the dragon was no more than a large group of feral men bearing torches, but this film skirted the issue entirely by omitting that part of the story.