Category: Film, Television & Music

Believe it or not, there are werewolf movies other than “An American Werewolf in London”.

Victoria Justice on being a werewolf for Nickelodeon

Reader ArcLight sent me this link about upcoming Nickelodeon film “The Boy Who Cried Werewolf” and actress Victoria Justice yesterday. I’m going to quote his email because it does the job nicely:

Hey…remember that Brooke Shields werewolf thing for Nickelodeon? I didn’t either but apparently it’s airing this October. Here’s a short bit with one of the actresses.

If you have an aversion to clicking on links or the New York Post web site, here’s the pertinent text:

“I got to do most of the prosthetic work and the transformation [into a werewolf] was all me,” Justice says, adding that she had to spend three hours in the makeup chair to get the werewolf prosthetics glued onto her face. “The cool thing about it is that I don’t look pretty at all, I look disgusting — like a beast.

“There’s a werewolf suit that somebody [else] had to operate,” she admits. “I’m 105 pounds, so there’s no way [she could’ve worn it]. I would’ve passed out from heat stroke.”

Some people have all the luck. You can see Justice as a “disgusting beast” when the movie airs on October 22nd.

Sep. 23rd 2010

Werewolf, Vampire, Mummy & other monsters to throw down in Monster Brawl’s pay-per-view wrestling match

“Monster Brawl” is an upcoming Canadian horror-comedy film in which eight wrestlers fight to the death in a Pay-Per-View tournament held in an abandoned and cursed graveyard. The competitors? A vampire, a witch, a mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, a zombie, a werewolf, a swamp creature, and Cyclops. I think Dread Central said it best: “the title and the concept sound like the basis for an old NES video game.” I would have added the words “awesome” and “kick-ass” in there somewhere, but, you know. I’m excitable.

My Google-fu couldn’t produce much more about this film besides that Dread Central post and some local news articles (Ready for the Monster Brawl? and Zombie for a day), but the few details are tantalizing: Lance Henriksen and Dave Foley have roles, as do WWF / WCW manager Jimmy Hart, MMA ass-kicker/ref Herb Dean and a number of other wrestling stars from the 90’s. It’s being produced by Ontario’s Foresight Features and should be out next year, hopefully accompanied by a downloadable 8-bit style wrestling game.

Sep. 21st 2010

Mark Romanek Explains Why He Bailed From “The Wolfman”: The Producers Were Idiots

In a recent FirstShowing.net interview to promote his latest film “Never Let Me Go”, director Mark Romanek explains why he walked away from “The Wolfman” with only three weeks of pre-production left.

And then I got involved in The Wolfman which was exciting because I was going to work with Benicio Del Toro. And I wanted to reinvent that genre and make this dark, rich, intelligent Jungian kind of piece that I was hoping could totally work as populist entertainment and yet be legitimate, like be an intelligent film that might even be critically well-received. And I just could never get on the same page with the producers about what it should be. I think they were scared of doing it the way I was suggesting. There was so much money involved that I ultimately couldn’t convince them of my idea of the film.

Read more at FirstShowing.net — the bit about The Wolfman is roughly halfway down the page.

Mark’s comments are very much in line with what Rick Baker had to say about the producers meddling and waffling on the werewolf design. Mark’s a great director, but with such spineless people in charge, had he stayed on I doubt he could have done much better than Joe Johnston did. What a shame. If only Bill Carraro, Ryan Kavanaugh and Jon Mone had trusted the people they hired.

Sep. 9th 2010

“Teen Wolf” pilot analysis & transformation photo

This is a month old, but interesting nevertheless. TheTorchOnline.com has an in-depth analysis of the pilot of MTV’s “Teen Wolf” remake, including quotes from executive producer / writer Jeff Davis and lead actor Tyler Posey. There’s also a rather boring photo of Posey’s transformation. One of the most telling quotes is from Davis, regarding the design of the show’s werewolves. Apparently there will be three kinds of werewolves– Alpha, Beta and Omega, with the Alpha being the most monstrous and the Omega looking like a straight-up wolf. And what’s the driving force behind the werewolf designs?

“The way we like to put it is, the other werewolf shows and movies have werewolves you can pet,” Davis said. “We wanted to have one you could kiss.”

Oh super. I think MTV and werewolf fans like you and I have different ways of assessing a werewolf’s kissability.

Read the whole post for more information.

Hat tip: Jason

Sep. 7th 2010

I’d have gone with the Chicken Nugget Burger

I saw this German Burger King ad on The Red Project and loved it. Great character design, especially on the Wolf.

Hey, it’s Saturday morning.

Sep. 4th 2010

Arrow In The Head gives us a first look at a “Howling Reborn” werewolf

Arrow In The Head is responsible for me fruitlessly using the “Sharpen” filter in Photoshop a whole lot this afternoon. They’ve got an exclusive first look at one of the werewolf designs being used in “The Howling Reborn” via a blurry photo from the set. I’m not sure who sent them the photo, but it came with this description:

The werewolf you see below is one of the henchmen werewolves. Flat snout. The head werewolves have the classic HOWLING sticking out snouts. I know you’re all better people for knowing this.

Conspicuously missing from that description is an explanation of the giant ears, the smaller-than-a-human’s nose and the Henry Rollins neck. Partial credit for originality and using practical effects instead of CG, but c’mon. Whoever approved the maquette for this design obviously look at it from the side.

Update: okay, it’s not as bad as that. I got carried away. There are definitely things I’d change about the design, but overall it’s pretty cool.

Hat-tip: @Karwood_Pub via @_Mjollnir_

Sep. 2nd 2010

“Dances With Werewolves” – an unfortunate title for a great-sounding film

Director Chad Ferrin recently told Fangoria that he wants to make an old-school werewolf movie that’s like “Sam Peckinpah doing THE THING with a dash of Sergio Corbucci”. That sounds fine to me. But Chad, what sort of a ride will it be? “It will be a bloody, violent, horrific ride through the Old West,” Chad says, “and I will pour my soul into every frame to ensure that it stands proudly amongst my two favorite genres.” Well, great! You sound really excited about this. Can you tell me more about the story? Oh, look, here’s the summary of David Chirchirillo’s script:

“Winter, 1864. William Singer and his young brother Henry, along with four other Confederate POWs, escape from a Union prison camp just outside of Chicago. The ragged band soon find refuge aboard a moving locomotive, only to wake the next morning, the train stopped and the passengers brutally butchered by what appears to have been a wild animal. Trekking through the frozen wasteland, the rebels discover that ‘wild animal’ is no animal at all, but a pack of Native American shapeshifting werewolves with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Relentlessly tracked by the Union Army, hunted by werewolves, trapped within the bitter cold with no food, no water and nowhere to go, they soon discover the hell they left is nothing compared to the horrors all around them.”

Chad, David, you’ve sold me. I want to see this movie. I will see this movie. What, pray tell, are you calling it?

“Dances With Werewolves”?

Oh.

Okay, well, I’m still excited, but I’m not going to lie: that is a terrible title, and I really hope you plan to change it. Surely you’ve got backers, executive producers and the like, who really believe in the integrity of your vision. They’ve got to be just as emotionally invested in the project as you are, and they’d want you to choose a title that’s as bad-ass as the premise, right? They care about the art of it. Say, here’s executive producer and Hannover House CEO Eric Parkinson, talking with Bloody-Disgusting. Let’s see what he has to say– I’m sure it’ll be inspirational.

“The legend of Native American warriors transforming themselves into enormously powerful wolves is centuries old, but it’s a concept that for many audiences was only recently re-introduced through the successful ‘Twilight’ series of books and films. We think that screenwriter David Chirchirillo has skillfully crafted a commercial thriller around this legend, and that Rohan, Chad and the entire production team will make a terrific movie from this property.”

Oh.

In all seriousness, this movie sounds really good, but I hope that 1) they change the title to something that doesn’t evoke images of Kevin Costner in a wolf mascot costume, and 2) people who use terms like “commercial”, “property” and “the successful ‘Twilight’ series” stick to signing cheques and stay the hell away from the creative process.

Aug. 27th 2010

Hey UK werewolf people, you have a week to register for the “She-Wolf” conference

I mentioned it in June and I’m reminding you again, so that perhaps some of you will register, and go, and tell me all about it. If you need a reminder about what the conference is, here is that reminder:

The conference is entitled She-Wolf: Female Werewolves, Shapeshifters and Other Horrors in Art, Literature and Culture (but She-Wolf for short). It’s on Thursday 9th – Friday 10th September 2010, at the University of Manchester, UK.

This is a smart conference put on by smart people who want to talk about werewolves, women, and werewolf women. They’ve got 40-ish spots left, so if you’re in the area, I encourage you to go. Check out the conference site or the official blog for more info.

Aug. 20th 2010

Underworld 4: has Kate Beckinsale, in 3D, out January 2012

Those are the facts, folks, as reported by Bloody Disgusting (and repeated by others): Sony Screen Gems has green-lit a fourth Underworld film, to be released January 20th, 2012. Word is that it will be shot in 3D, with Len Wiseman directing a script written by John Hlavin. And yes, fanboy-favourite Kate Beckinsale will be back as Selene, although it’s a “smaller role” in which she passes to one of her two(!) daughters the responsibility of wearing a lot of black latex and shooting werewolves. Hey, as long as we get to see more werewolves like this, bring it on!

Aug. 18th 2010

First Trailer for Dylan Dog: Dead of Night

Edit: Apparently this trailer wasn’t supposed to get out. It’s been set to “private” by the YouTube user who posted it, the official-looking DylanDogFilms. There were a few other copies re-uploaded, but they’ve been removed via copyright claims. Hey DylanDogFilms, what the hell? I’m leaving this embedded video here just in case it ever becomes public again.

Fans of the original Italian comic book might have mixed feelings about some of the liberties taken with the characters and story, but I thoroughly enjoyed this trailer for the film adaptation of Dylan Dog. The first scene depicts a werewolf getting punched out with a silver knuckle-duster, and I’m okay with this, because the movie looks like a lot of goofy 80’s style monster fun (despite the tiresome “vampires taking over the world” trope). Also influencing me is the fact that Dylan is played by Brandon Routh, who I am currently unable to see as anyone other than Todd Ingram.

Aug. 17th 2010