Category: Film, Television & Music

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

Man Man – “Rabbit Habits” Music Video

The official music video for Man Man’s song “Rabbit Habits” (from the album of the same name) is a story of loneliness, lycanthropy and love.

Werewolf transformations, circus freaks, rabbit ice cream cones and severed limbs. Aaaaah, love.

Gladiators V Werewolves

This might be a matchup worth watching!  AV Pictures is currently working on a werewolves, swords and sandals film called Gladiators V Werewolves: Edge of Empire. Here’s the synopsis and a rather awesome looking poster / one-sheet of one of the film’s titular beasts (if anyone knows of a larger version of this image, can you please post a link in the comments?):

Gladiators V Werewolves poster

The Hunt. The Trap. The Games.

AD 160. The Romans occupy Britain, and the great Hadrian’s Wall divides the land, built to keep back the northern warrior tribes, and something far more dangerous; a clan of savage wolf-like creatures which roam the lowlands.

Word reaches Governor Flavius that the Emperor has decreed that new, more fearsome beasts should be captured for the games. The ambitious Governor, having heard rumours of the fierce wolf-beasts beyond the great wall, senses an opportunity to win favour with the Emperor and even a place in the senate.

The heroic Centurian, Titus, is tasked with hunting and trapping the wolf-creatures. Titus and his legionaries track the beasts to their mountain lair and discover a warrior clan who transform at will into mighty, armour clad werewolves. In a fierce battle, the beasts slaughter half of the legionaries. Titus and his surviving men escape and ensnare the pursuing werewolves.

The Governor is delighted he has his prized new fighting savages, but Titus realizes that anyone bitten by a werewolf is cursed to become one of their kind. He warns the Governor that the werewolves pose a grave threat if they increase their numbers. Titus’s reward for challenging the Governor is to be stripped of his rank and thrown into the arena where the beasts’ savagery will be tested.

Excited spectators cram the amphitheatre. Titus and the land’s best gladiators are pitted against the ferocious werewolves, but the beasts are powerful and smart. For every two fighters they slay, they leave one wounded and alive. Titus’s fears are confirmed; the werewolves are building an army. The final day of the games will be a blood and thunder battle, more savage than any Roman has seen or experienced before.

No release date or cast has been announced that I can find, but as soon as more information becomes available you’ll find it here.

“Dead Of Night” Set Report and Photos

For those following Dead of Night, the film adaptation of the 1980s’s comic book Dylan Dog, ComicBookMovie.com has posted some photos and a set report involving a zombie swarm (in which the author takes part).

The world of Dylan Dog is one where supernatural creatures like werewolves, zombies and vampires exist, although they tend to stay hidden from humans. The movie stars Brandon Routh as Dylan, a reluctant paranormal investigator, and Sam Huntington as Marcus, Dylan’s best friend and partner. Anita Briem also stars as a mysterious woman who becomes Dylan’s client, for whom Dylan investigates the murder of her father by what appears to be a werewolf.

Reminder – Underworld: Rise of the Lycans Release on Tuesday

I care about you. I care about you a lot. Your happiness is important to me, and it would kill me to know that you slept through the DVD / Blu-ray release of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans this Tuesday. Imagine how bad you’d feel if Wednesday came and you realized you’d missed it. You’d feel terrible, and then I’d feel terrible. We can’t have that! So consider yourself reminded: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans hits stores Tuesday, May 12th, and if you want to avoid a social anxiety flare-up, you can order either the standard DVD version or the Blu-ray version from Amazon. You can even do it now, if you like, and then you can relax about Tuesday– they’re taking pre-orders.

Sorry if I’m being overbearing here, but I honestly do care about spreading werewolf movies far and wide you. Truly.

New EELS album “Hombre Lobo” is one for the werewolves

Rock band EELS is set to release their new album Hombre Lobo on June 2nd (preorder at Amazon.com), and the werewolf theme extends much deeper than the album title (which means “werewolf” in Spanish– but you knew that, right?). (more…)

“We’rewolves” Documentary to Explore an Earth with Werewolves

We'rewolves - It's in the bloodThis Hallowe’en, Animal Planet US is airing a “documentary” called We’rewolves. Written by Japser James (the same guy who wrote Walking With Dinosaurs) and produced by the UK’s Wide Eyed Entertainment, We’rewolves will combine fantasy and fact to examine how werewolves might live today if they really existed.

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“The Wolfman” Werewolf Fight Scene Re-Shoot + Potential Spoiler

This may be making a mountain out of a molehill, but Dark Horizons has an interesting reader-submitted scoop about some additional filming being done for The Wolfman. Apparently stuntman Vic Armstrong is doing some stunts and acting as second-unit director for a CG-heavy werewolf fight scene being shot (or re-shot) at Pinewood Studios. Read on for an interesting detail (and potential spoiler) that this news brings to light.

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“Werewolf” TV Series Coming to DVD

Werewolf TV Series Ad

Back in 1987, when I was six and too young to care about what was on TV after the cartoons were over, Fox ran a series called Werewolf. It only lasted for 28 episodes (plus a 2-hour pilot), but today it still lives on in the form of extremely thorough fan sites, bootleg DVDs and episodes posted to YouTube. The plot was nothing ground-breaking (werewolf evades bounty hunter while searching for a cure to his “curse”), but the werewolf effects were handled by everyone’s favourite werewolf creator, Rick Baker.

Now, after 22 years of VHS copies and sketchy DVD bootlegs, TVShowsOnDVD.com has learned that Werewolf is being re-released on DVD. Shout! Factory is currently working on a package called Werewolf – The Complete Series. Details of the package’s contents aren’t available yet, but with a tentative release date of September 1st 2009, Shout! Factory has got the summer to (hopefully) cram the DVDs full of extras. I know I’m not alone in hoping there’s an extended featurette on Baker’s kick-ass seven-foot-tall werewolf costumes!

Brooke Shields and The Boy Who Cried Werewolf

ArcLight wrote in with a link to some news that’s happening in my own backyard. Filming for the Nickelodeon horror-comedy The Boy Who Cried Werewolf wrapped up yesterday in Victoria, BC. It stars Brooke Shields as Madame Varcolac, the caretaker of a Romanian castle recently inherited by an American family. The title might look familiar, but apparently it’s got nothing to do with the 1973 film of the same name (which is a relief– how many remakes do we need?).

Co-writer and executive producer Doug Sloan thinks the time is right for more werewolf movies, whether they’re comedy, horror or both.

“Right now there seems to be this movement in Hollywood’s collective consciousness that werewolves have come out again,” he says. “There’s the lycan thing, the Underworld franchise that has a lot of werewolf in it, and Twilight…. What’s happening now with visual effects, makeup and creatures has come so far. The werewolves will be scary. They won’t be funny, playing basketball. Kids love to be scared.”

The cynic in me wants to write this off as a family-friendly money-grab by movie producers who know that werewolves are the new vampires, but the kid in me is excited by the idea of a silly, playful but scary werewolf movie being filmed in a castle 5 minutes away from where I used to live. And I’d rather listen to kids than cynics.

Two Werewolf Novel Series to Transform from Page to Screen

I wanted let you know about two book series that involve werewolves and which might be making the transition to television or film– one for young adults, and one for mature adults.

The first item comes from a Publishers Weekly post about books being shopped around for translation to film. Wolven is a ‘planned trilogy’ by author Di Toft, the first book of which is set to be released later this year by The Chicken House (a U.K.-based subsidiary of Scholastic). Wolvens are described as being “werewolves in reverse” (a popular topic lately!), and the trilogy revolves around a boy and his wolven friend “out to save the world from a gang trying to turn shape-shifting creatures into weapons”. According to the PW article, there’s already a lot of interest in the manuscript from various producers and financiers.

The second series is one that’s probably already occupying the shelves of many Werewolf News readers. The Boston Sci-Fi Examiner is reporting that Laurell K. Hamilton‘s popular (and steamy) Anita Blake series is being adapted to the small screen by the Independent Film Channel in conjunction with Lionsgate Films. The books chronicle the adventures of a Federal Marshal in an alternate reality where werewolves, vampires, faeries and other supernatural creatures exist. No word on casting or a production schedule yet, but when I know, you’ll know.