The Wolfman is a 2010 remake of the 1941 classic horror film of the same name. The remake is directed by Joe Johnston and stars Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving and Art Malik. Although originally scheduled for November 12, 2009, it has been successively pushed back and is slated to be released on February 12, 2010.

Premise

Set in the late 1880s, the film keeps the plotline of the original, with Lawrence Talbot (Benicio del Toro) reuniting with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins) following the disappearance of his brother. Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoore, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable blood lust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate.

As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoore. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself... one he never imagined existed.

Production

In March 2006, Universal Pictures announced the remake of The Wolf Man with actor Benicio del Toro (a fan of the original film and collector of Wolf Man memorabilia) in the lead role. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker was attached to the screenplay, developing the original film's story to include additional characters as well as plot points that would take advantage of modern visual effects. Del Toro also looked towards Werewolf of London and The Curse of the Werewolf for inspiration.

In February 2007, director Mark Romanek was attached to helm The Wolfman. In January 2008, Romanek left the project because of "creative differences". Brett Ratner emerged as a frontrunner to replace Romanek, but the studio also met with Frank Darabont, James Mangold and Joe Johnston. They were also interested in Bill Condon, and Martin Campbell was interested. Johnston was hired to direct on February 3, 2008, and the film's shooting schedule and budget remained as intended. Johnston hired David Self to rewrite the script.

Shooting took place from March 3 to June 23, 2008 in the United Kingdom. The film was budgeted at US$85 million. They shot at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, Chatsworth, Derbyshire, and Castle Combe in Wiltshire. They transformed Chatsworth House by adding weeds, dead grass and ivy. They also shot in Lacock in Wiltshire, a village conserved by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, for a day. Universal donated £5000 to the village, in return for filming in the tithe barn for a scene involving frozen corpses. A funeral scene was also shot beside the Temple of Ancient Virtue at Stowe House for the duration of an afternoon, with the temple coated in false ivy and copious amounts of smoke/mist floating over the setting. Pick-up at Pinewood were conducted in May 2009..

Rick Baker created the make-up for The Wolfman. When he heard Universal was remaking the film, he eagerly pursued it, as both The Wolf Man and Frankenstein inspired him to become a make-up artist as a child. He acknowledged transforming del Toro was difficult because he is a hairy man: "Going from Benicio to Benicio as the Wolf Man isn't a really extreme difference. Like when I did An American Werewolf in London, we went from this naked man to a four-legged hound from hell, and we had a lot of room to go from the transformation and do a lot of really extreme things. Here we have Benicio del Toro, who's practically the Wolf Man already, to Benicio del Toro with more hair and bigger teeth."

Baker and del Toro were adamant about the design resembling the make-up created by Jack Pierce, but Romanek went through thousands of concept art. When Johnston signed on, Baker returned to his second design, which is the finished result. The make-up took three hours to apply, and one hour to remove. New pieces of latex prosthetic makeup and loose hair was applied to del Toro's face each day, while several dentures and wigs were created in case some were damaged. Baker said the transformation will likely be computer-generated, which disappoints him as he is not being involved and therefore feels it will look unrealistic (as the animators do not have his knowledge of the design). In February 2009, ZBrush art of the transformation by Baker leaked online. In addition to the film, at the 2009 "Halloween Horror Nights," Universal Studios Florida is adding The Wolfman to the event.

Variety has reported that Mark Goldblatt and Walter Murch have been hired to re-edit the film.[361372]

Cast

• Benicio del Toro as Lawrence Talbot/The Wolfman
• Anthony Hopkins as Sir John Talbot, Lawrence's father. Hopkins said the Universal Horror series "when played today come across as pretty corny, but they were entertaining."
• Emily Blunt as Gwen Conliffe, with whom Talbot falls in love. Blunt liked the "mythological", "gothic and majestic" story and signed on despite her fear of horror films. Blunt said Gwen was probably the first "innately good" character she ever played.
• Hugo Weaving as Detective Aberline, who investigates murders by the transformed Talbot. The name Francis Aberline is a play on Frederick Abberline, who was a real life Victorian inspector working on the Jack the Ripper case; his real nickname was indeed Francis.
• Geraldine Chaplin as Maleva, an old Gypsy.
• Gene Simmons as The Wolfman (voice)

Art Malik, Rob Dixon, Nicholas Day, Michael Cronin, David Schofield, David Sterne, Roger Frost, Dianne Pilkington and Clive Russell have also been confirmed, although their roles are not known. Big Brother 8's Emily Parr has a small role in the film.

Release

During the course of its production, The Wolfman has seen its release date postponed several times. Originally scheduled for a November 12, 2008 release, it was first pushed back to February 13, 2009 (a Friday the 13th), in September 2007. Then, in April 2008, it got moved to April 3, 2009. Later, in December 2008, Universal moved the release to November 6, 2009 to give them more time to market the film. Finally, the film was yet again moved in late July 2009 to February 12, 2010.

The cast and crew were back on location re-shooting the movie in the grounds of Greenwich Royal naval college and park over the weekends of May 22-25 and 30-31, 2009. The purpose of the reshoots was to change the way one werewolf looked in the movie. Previously, it stood on two legs, but now, he stands on four. Also, an action scene was added between "the Wolf Man and the Werewolf" according to Vic Armstrong.

The first trailer for The Wolfman was attached to Inglourious Basterds, which was released to theaters on August 21, 2009. The trailer was also released online the previous evening and the second trailer was released on October 21, 2009 from Universal Studios and was attached to Saw VI and again with The Fourth Kind.

Soundtrack

It has been reported that Danny Elfman is not scoring The Wolfman anymore due to scheduling conflicts. Paul Haslinger has been hired to score the film instead. Also Dennis Virkler has been replaced by Mark Goldblatt and Walter Murch have been called in to recut Joe Johnston's long troubled project.The song, The Beast at Your Door by Groove Addicts was used for the second theatrical trailer.

References

1. New Wolfman trailer howls
2. TheFilmstage.com
3. New Images and Trailer: The Wolfman
4. http://english.ohmygore.com/elfman-replaced-on-the-wolfman-news-uk-6696.html

External links

• Official website
• October 8, 2007 script review by IESB.net
• August 4, 2006 script review from LatinoReview.com