In December I got an email and some photos from Jim Bycznski, founder of what might be the coolest program to ever grace the curriculum of a high school. Jim was inspired by the (then) imminent release of The Wolfman and he and his crew began working on a life-sized display figure of the titular beast. This weekend I got a few more photos of their progress– “Legs have been molded and casted, teeth made, and the body will be fabricated soon,” Jim writes. Here are seven shots of the process. Look on this, and wonder why your high school wasn’t this cool.

If I’d had access to a program like this when I was in high school, my career path would have been very different. You can see a gallery of more BHSFX work here– there are some more werewolves, if you look closely! Thanks for sharing, Jim.

With the premiere of “The Wolfman” only days away (remember when it was supposed to come out in 2008?) the web is sprouting Wolfman stories like so many tufts of fur from the collar of Benicio del Toro’s vest. Rather than spamming the site with a new post every time something interesting comes up, I thought I’d collect them all here. Enjoy!

• As part of a big press push last week, there were a lot of cast / crew interviews. Dread Central’s got interviews with Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, and ShockTillYouDrop.com had a nice chat with director Joe Johnston.
• Namco has released a Wolfman side-scrolling game for mobile devices. If you have a supported phone, you can “play through 10 thrilling stages as both Lawrence Talbot and The Wolfman and experience the brute strength and insatiable bloodlust that launched a legacy of horror!” My carrier isn’t supported, so, uh, if it’s good, let me know. It certainly looks cool!
• Bloody-Disgusting was one of several horror media web sites to get their paws on a recording of the vaunted Wolfman howl. Effective, and much better (in my opinion) than the shrill American Werewolf in London howl!
• Way back in November, Universal released a short “behind the scene” featurette. There are some comments from Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and producer Scott Stuber, and some trailer-style footage.
• As long as we’re talking about stuff from November, here are two rambling but worthwhile interviews from Ain’t It Cool News: one between Joe Johnston and Harry Knowles and another longer, rambley, spoilerific but fascinating conversation between some of the AICN guys and Rick Baker.
• Internet-to-TV providers Boxee have developed a Wolfman app as part of their public beta.
• Early reviews are starting to arrive. Here’s one from the New York Observer [warning: spoilers!].
• A fifth TV spot has surfaced, but it’s nothing we haven’t already seen: a silhouette of a claw, Del Toro getting dunked in ice water, and Rick Baker’s old-gypsy-guy-getting-killed cameo.

If all of this isn’t enough to keep you busy, stay tuned for more as we get closer to Friday!

These lovely photos of George (edit: and in the white pressure tank George’s girlfriend Nina) are from episode four of Being Human’s second series. Thanks to @SheenFanSite for bringing them to my attention! It looks like the official Being Human Facebook group is posting stills from each episode as it airs, so expect more photos of these excellent werewolf costumes as they become available.

Despite having to rely on crew to remove his fangs so he could speak and his claws so he could use his hands, Benicio Del Toro enjoyed his time as a werewolf while on the set of The Wolfman. He recently spoke to The Daily Record about the experience, which involved scaring the hell out of unsuspecting crew and the occasional walk through London at 5 AM while still made up.

For more on The Wolfman’s makeup and effects, check out last week’s issue of Make-Up Magazine (issue 82), which is dedicated to Rick  Baker’s work on the film.

George fans rejoice! Here are some new photos of your favourite Being Human werewolf, taken from episodes 1 and 4 of Series 2. Click for larger versions.

For those of you who aren’t already climbing the walls (Underworld Lycan-style) with excitement over the approaching release of The Wolfman, here’s a tidbit from Fangoria’s January 2010 issue (which features on its cover a great new photo of the eponymous beast).

Midway through our chat, the lights go out, plunging the room into total darkness. “Stay calm,” instructs the film’s unit publicist, “it’s just a problem with the fuse.” But something is afoot. Suddenly, there’s movement at a door, and a large shape enters the room. As our eyes become accustomed to the gloom, Fango can make out the silhouette of a 7-foot-plus Wolfman, chowing down on a severed arm. As the lights come back up, this growling, slavering, hirsute beast bounds over and puts his snarling, fanged-filled face within inches of our own. And roars…

I don’t know who I’d rather be– the guy in the makeup or an unsuspecting bystander in the room! Visit Fangoria to read an expanded teaser of the article. Issue 290 of Fangoria hits stores January 19th. Why do I not have a subscription already?

I recently received an email from Darren Nevin. “I recently sculpted & cast a silicone Werewolf display bust”, Darren writes, and he wonders if I might like to share some of the photos with the people who read Werewolf News. Darren, sharing stuff like this is the reason I started Werewolf News in the first place!

To see more photos visit this thread on TheEffectsLab.com.

Darren does his own stuff as DNA FX, but he also works for Millennium FX in the UK. He created this werewolf bust as a portfolio piece and as a way to keep his skills sharp. It took him a few months, as he was busy working on other werewolf stuff: the second series of BBC’s Being Human and… wait for it… pick-up shots for The Wolfman. Darren is a man who knows his werewolves!

If you’re in the UK you can see Darren’s werewolf bust at IMATS London, which is happening at Alexandra Palace January 30-31st 2010. If you’d like to see more of Darren’s work you can visit his MySpace page, and if you’d like to contact him regarding commissions or purchasing (yes, this werewolf bust is for sale), you can email him at DNA-FX@hotmail.co.uk.

Here’s an assortment of items that have hit my inbox over the course of October, but that I’ve been too busy or distracted to post.

• The Yorkshire Post has an interview with Jenny Agutter, who played nurse Alex Price in An American Werewolf in London. She discusses her role in AWIL and talks about how the audience reacted to the initial screening of the film.
• The Grosse Pointe Farms Department of Public Works in Michigan is home to a boulder that bears the footprint of Le Loup Garou, the werewolf of Grosse Pointe. Hooray for urban legends!
• Here’s a printable 3D werewolf paper craft, in case you’re locked in a room with a colour printer and 15 minutes to kill. I may have crafted one of these for my office desk.
• pjstar.com has an interview with Professor Leslie Sconduto, author of “Metamorphoses of the Werewolf: A Literary Study from Antiquity through the Renaissance”. Choice quote: “There’s a werewolf for everyone. Each to its own. One to suit each taste.”
• Champions Online is running a game event called “Blood Moon“, wherein the game’s world is overrun with werewolves, vampires and other monstrous creatures. Players can battle (and become) these monsters, and of course there’s a number of werewolf-related items to be had. There’s a free trial available for anyone who wants to try the game out, but it expires at 10 AM Pacific on November 2nd. That’s in, like, 10 hours. Hurry! HURRY!
• The BSC Beat has an interview with Mark Chadbourn, author of the recently-released Hellboy novel Hellboy: The Ice Wolves. You can read a preview of The Ice Wolves at the Dark Horse web site.
• Scribblenauts is an interesting game that’s just come out for the Nintendo DS. The idea is to solve puzzles by typing in the name of virtually any object you can think of that might help. That object then appears in the game and does its thing, whether it’s a ball, a chainsaw or a platypus. You can probably guess where I’m going with this… yes, you can summon werewolves. Here’s a Youtube video of two garlic and stake-infused werewolves scaring a vampire to death. I want this game just so I can do that, over and over.
• Cinematical explains why it’s worth it to replace your DVD copy of An American Werewolf in London with the recently released Full Moon Edition on Blu-ray. Apparently the new bonus content alone is worth the cost! I wish I had a Blu-ray player.
• I also wish I had an Xbox 360. The LIVE Marketplace has got werewolf costumes for your Xbox 360 Avatar.

Many thanks to people who submitted these items!

Last month Tom Spina made all of our living rooms feel empty when he shared with us his Underworld Lycan display. Now he’s back to trigger your envy reflexes again with this custom life-size white werewolf statue. Here are Tom’s comments on the statue!

The client who commissioned this piece had seen our original design werewolf statue (the brown wolf, seen here: Lifesized Movie Prop Style Werewolf Statue and here Movie Prop Style Werewolf Bust) and loved it. Initially, he was going to get the standard look, but after a little brainstorming, we hit on the idea of a white werewolf with a themed base and a new pose, based on the layout of his home theater.

The new pose has a great, dynamic feel to it… and the faux stone base sets off nicely against the white fur and the shape of it gives him a little of that old school “Aurora model kit” vibe.

This statue is a little over 6.5 feet tall and really massive feeling. His hands are huge and his shoulders and back have a powerful look to them.

The project is the result of work by myself and Richard Riley, with an assist from Mike Thomas on some of the casting and crating the beast when it was time for him to go home…

To see many more photos of Pale Moon, including detail shots of hands, feet, jaws and eyes, visit the Pale Moon page of Tom’s web site.

Wracked with jealousy? Wish Pale Moon was menacing your house guests? The full statue was a one-off custom job, but Tom has created a bust of the white werewolf and listed it on eBay. The auction runs until midday September 9th, so if you want it, get bidding!

Tom Spina spends a lot of time around werewolves. Last year he did some major restoration on “Oscar” from An American Werewolf in London, and now he’s just completed a custom mannequin to display an original Underworld: Rise of the Lycans werewolf costume (scroll down a bit for the link) for a private collector. Tom contacted me to let me know about this project, thinking that readers of Werewolf News might find it interesting, and he also kindly took the time to answer a few questions I had for him about the project.

Werewolf News: In what condition was the costume when you first received it from the client? Had it seen production use, and been banged up at all?

Tom Spina: The costume saw extensive use in the film (and we verified that with someone on-set who could ID this particular costume) and the condition was actually very good.

Beneath the fur, there’s a lot of skin exposed, and not a lot of places to hide seams. How many pieces did the costume break down to, and did you have to do anything out of the ordinary to create such a seamless result?

Some minor cracks and rubs but still supple and flexible.  It breaks down into 4 pieces: The bodysuit with attached arms, the stilt feet (seem hidden by fur) and the head.  Our responsibility was to find a means of displaying an otherwise awkward and difficult costume to display.  The nature of the costume required some careful planning when creating the support structure, as a “normal” mannequin would never be able to navigate its way inside the bodysuit.

What level of creative freedom did you have when it came to determining the pose and the details of the base? Were there any other aspects of the project that allowed you to add some creative, personal touches?

As always, we worked closely with the client to determine the pose.  That process is always a balance between the look desired and the needs of the wardrobe.  In this case, dealing with foam and such, you don’t want anything overly extreme, as you can cause unnatural wrinkles in the suit.  We settled on something with “quiet menace” rather than dynamic action.  There’s a bit of attitude in the torso and some more in the head positioning, with the legs and arms at interesting angles, but relatively neutral to keep the costume’s skin properly aligned and supported. The base was the client’s idea and something we actually consider temporary. Eventually, we’ll likely do a dark stone block look for the base.

Is it tough to say goodbye to a piece when it’s finished and the client ships it out?

YES, it’s always tough to say goodbye to these pieces!

As always, incredible work, Tom! Thanks for sharing your time and work with us werewolf fans.