Werewolf links, news, and reviews
Believe it or not, there are werewolf movies other than “An American Werewolf in London”.
Whenever one of my favourite bands is about to release a new record, I make a point of listening through their entire discography as a sort of warm-up to the main event. I find savouring the new creation all the more enjoyable while the history of the material is fresh in my mind (yes, fine, I’m a geek, but don’t act like you don’t do it too). In that spirit, you might wish to prepare for the 12th by checking out the Universal Legacy Edition of “The Wolf Man”
Thanks to Macabri for the link.
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.
Varese Sarabande has made available the full track listing and some audio samples for Danny Elfman’s “classically Gothic, Transylvania-flavored score” to The Wolfman. Interesting that no other musicians are credited, despite last month’s rumblings that “additional composers” would fill out Elfman’s work. Here’s the track listing, and direct links to the four sample-enabled songs. Enjoy!
According to this little Variety snippet, DreamWorks Animation is producing an adaptation of A. Lee Martinez’s novel Gil’s All Fright Diner
Something Evil (that’s with a capital E) is stalking Gil’s All Night Diner in Martinez’s terrific debut, a comic horror-fantasy novel. Heading the delightfully eccentric cast are buddies Earl (aka the Earl of Vampires) and Duke (aka the Duke of Werewolves), who are looking for a place to eat as they drive through Rockwood, a small desert community besieged by cosmically weird stuff. Soon after stopping at Gil’s Diner, the pair help Loretta, the formidable owner-operator, fend off a zombie attack. Determined to do the right thing, the two supernatural misfits take on further challenges, such as trying to prevent Tammy (aka Mistress Lilith, Queen of the Night) and her loyal but dumb boyfriend, Chad, from ending the world.
The screenplay is being adapted by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris (who also wrote Kung Fu Panda for DreamWorks) and the film will be directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (it’s been 11 years– I think we can forgive him for Wild Wild West now). With the right character design and an adherence to what sounds like a dark Douglas Adams style of humour, this could be pretty good. Have any of you read the book? What’d you think?
Okay, everyone, you can relax! According to MovieScore Magazine, Universal has confirmed that they will not be using Paul Haslinger‘s music to score The Wolfman. In a twist that would be crazy for any other film but which seems to be par for the course on this one, Danny Elfman’s back in… or at least, his ideas are. Elfman is still too busy with Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland to return to his work on The Wolfman, but Cinemusic.net reports that a number of additional composers (including Conrad Pope) will be brought in to stitch together the material Elfman’s already recorded with another 25 – 30 minutes of music. Word is that test audiences didn’t like Haslinger’s score, which (given his history with Tangerine Dream and his work on the Underworld films) may have been a bit too bleepy-bloopy for such a gothic, old-world looking film.
So, uh, yeah!
Details about Syfy’s immanent Americanization of BBC’s hit series Being Human are scarce, but The Futon Critic has shed a little light on the writing situation. “Husband-and-wife duo Jeremy Carver (“Supernatural”) and Anna Fricke (“Privileged”) have been tapped as the writers”, Syfy’s Mark Stern said. “[He’s] kind of got the genre cred and Anna comes out of a more character-based drama world so between them they’ll be really interesting.”
I’ve got to admit I’m not too familiar with the work of either writer, but my immediate reaction to this news is a little on the “meh” side. Perhaps their joining forces to work on the show together will being some magic to the writing.
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.
We’ve seen Universal promote The Wolfman with theatrical posters both awesome and dull, but this latest is anything but traditional. Legendary painter-of-monsters Basil Gogos was commissioned by Universal to paint a vibrant, fantastically retro Wolfman poster, shared with you here in all its hi-res glory courtesy of CHUD.com. You can enter to win a signed, limited-edition print through the Lunar Phases widget on the official Wolfman Facebook page. In addition to getting the scoop on this sexy poster, CHUD also has nice little interview with the artist himself. Check it out!
