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After a troubled, two year production slate, The 13th Warrior, directed by John McTiernan, opens. Adapted by William Wisher, Jr. and Warren Lewis, from the Michael Crichton novel Eaters of the Dead, the film, set in the sixth century, is a loose reworking of the Beowolf legend starring Antonio Banderas as an exiled, former court poet to the Caliph of Bahgdad who reluctantly hooks up with 12 Norse warriors who are on their way to do battle with an ancient evil entity which is laying seige to a kingdom in the far north. Despite a re-edit (by Crichton himself), a new title and new score (Jerry Goldsmith replacing Graeme Revell) after disasterous test screenings, the film fails to recoup even a third of its ballooned $160 million budget.
