The official web site for “The Wolfman” has just gone from placeholder mode to a full-on content explosion. The site’s framework is the usual major motion picture Flash-based extravaganza with requisite decorative “loading” animations and photo collages (yes I’m a web design snob), but to its credit it’s been jam-packed with new film stills, downloads (including this wallpaper, which I have duly applied) and an impressive feature on the “truth” behind lycanthropy. There’s also a link to Universal’s Monster Legacy site, which uses The Wolfman as the kickoff point for a cool-looking retrospective of Universal’s classic monster movies (and probably to generate some buzz for the next Universal monster remake).
Many of the sections on the Wolfman site are marked as “coming soon”, so keep an eye on it as the February release date gets closer!
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?
Universal Home Video would like you to set a little time aside this coming February (the 2nd, to be precise). You see, they’re releasing the complete “She-Wolf of London” (also known as “Love and Curses”) on DVD, and you’re going to need 943 minutes (that’s two straight days) to watch all 20 episodes. While I don’t think this series had a big cult following, this little DVD collection should go some way towards filling the gap left in many a werewolf fan’s heart following the cancellation of the Werewolf: The Series collection.
If you weren’t watching TV during the rad early 90’s, you probably don’t know what “She-Wolf of London” is about, or that “rad” was a perfectly acceptable term back then. I can help you with the former, but you’ll have to take my word on the latter. From TVShowsOnDVD.com:
Beautiful American grad student Randi Wallace (Kate Hodge, “Fringe”) never suspected that traveling to England to study with handsome mythology professor Ian Matheson (Neil Dickson, Beowulf) would change her life forever. While conducting research on the misty and mysterious English moors, Randi is attacked and bitten by a werewolf. Now cursed to transform into a bloodthirsty werewolf during every full moon, the two must find a way to save her.
Follow their adventures from London to L.A., as they search for a cure, battle supernatural forces and the romantic feelings they have for one another. In the tradition of Universal’s famed collection of monsters comes She-Wolf of London. Now the complete series featuring all 20 episodes is available for the first time on DVD.
It’s Christmas Eve, so it’s not really time to open presents yet, but here’s a little something I’ve been saving for you since November. I want you to have it now, because, well, it’s the season of giving. Craig and the Werewolf is back for a second season of laughs and awkward werewolf – vampire tension. Five more episodes, aw yeah. Make sure to start from the bottom (episode 6) and work your way up to episode 10. Thanks to Absolute Disaster for keeping it alive!
If you haven’t already heard this from the manynewssources that exploded with panic over the subject last week, let me break it to you gently: Danny Elfman will not be composing the score to The Wolfman. I know. I’m sorry. He’s really very busy composing the score to Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland. It’s going to be okay, don’t worry. Here is a picture of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter you can look at while you regain your composure.
Taking Elfman’s place is Paul Haslinger, whose music you may have heard while watching Underworld, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Crank or While She Was Out. He was also a member of Tangerine Dream, which is a qualification I dare you to denigrate. Haslinger will be recording the score in January 2010, which is cutting it pretty close to the February release, but everything else in this production has gone haywire and then (seemingly) gone right at the last moment, so why not the score?
I’ve heard some people bemoaning this change as further proof that The Wolfman will stink, but I’m actually vaguely cheered by this news. I like Danny Elfman’s work, don’t get me wrong, but I’m of the opinion that a composer’s score should blend into the film, just as an actor should become invisible in the role of a character. Elfman’s music is always appropriate but never blends… the moment I hear that jaunty-yet-morbid brass section kick in, I think well, here’s Danny Elfman again.
Fire up your printers and make sure you have lots of black ink or toner! Here are printable (150 dpi) copies of the lovely new posters / one-sheets for The Wolfman. Click to download!
In case you didn’t already hear the badnews, the Werewolf: The Series DVD set that Shout! Factory was working on has been scrapped indefinitely, thanks to the greed of the music industry. Two of the bands whose songs were used in scenes refused to grant permission to use the music for the same scenes on the DVD. None of the official sources are naming the bands, but if word around the campfire is true, theseassholes wanted more money than Shout! Factory was reasonably able to pay. The audio tracks for the scenes were mixed down, so the offending songs and the critical dialog can’t be separated and re-mixed with different, less-made-by-greedy-clowns songs. I’m sharing this now because the original posts I made about the DVD set are still getting a lot of (presumably hopeful) traffic.
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!
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.
for $33.99.
