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.
Category: Film, Television & Music
Believe it or not, there are werewolf movies other than “An American Werewolf in London”.
“Werewolf” TV Series Coming to DVD
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
Audie and The Wolf – The Chainsaw-Wielding Reverse Werewolf Movie
Last summer I posted about a werewolf-in-reverse film called Audie and The Wolf. At the time I think it had just got out of post-production, and the teaser was enough to intrigue me. Well, now it’s making the rounds at film festivals around North America, and if the trailer (posted below) is any indication, Audie and The Wolf is going to kick ass, Shaun of the Dead-style.
Audie is showing at Seattle’s True Independent Film Festival and the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. Unfortunately, neither festival has posted a 2009 schedule, so I don’t have the exact dates for you, but as soon as they’re updated (and whenever new dates and locations are announced), you can see them here. In the meantime, check out the official web site for previous festival accolades, press photos and mailing list details.
Rotkäppchen: The Blood Of Red Riding Hood
Writer/director Harry Sparks recently provided Fangoria with the lowdown on his new werewolf film Rotkäppchen: The Blood Of Red Riding Hood, including photos, posters and a teaser trailer. A synopsis:
Stefanie Geils stars as Rose, a German teenager who comes to America to live with her grandmother (Betty Biehler). Things don’t go so well when she begins attending the local high school, where she’s ridiculed by the other students; her only solace is an old book of fairy tales. She’s eventually befriended by sexy classmate Summer (Sativa Verte) and catches the eye of popular guy Nick (Phil Gibson)—thus earning the enmity of his girlfriend Bridgette (Nicole Leigh Vuono)—while something fierce and hairy starts bloodily killing the town’s residents.
I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, but really, does anyone really think the “monster + softcore lesbian porn + gore + low budget” equation really leads to success? Anyone?
Bruce Campbell Possibly Involved in Werewolf Biker Film
FEARNet has done an interview with Tony Luke Jr. in which he reveals that he’s written and starring in a werewolf / vampire / biker movie called Ride Into Terror, and that it might, just might also star Bruce Campbell.
The next film that I’m working on is a film that I wrote with my son Michael called Ride into Terror, which is such a great script. It’s very Quentin Tarantino-ish. It’s about werewolves and vampires and bikers and hot biker chick strippers… I have very dear friends of mine who are in touch with him [Campbell] and they’ve read the script and said, “Tony, Bruce would do this in a minute.”
So Bruce’s involvement isn’t a lock yet, but let’s hope it happens! Thanks to ArcLight for the tip.
Behind the Scenes of the Being Human Werewolf Transformation
One of the better things about the BBC is Being Human, a drama about three twenty-something roommates who also happen to be a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf (George Sands, played by Russell Tovey). The Being Human mini-site recently posted a video feature about the special effects behind last year’s season-finale werewolf transformation. For those of us who don’t live in the UK (and consequently can’t view any of the BBC’s video content without dealing with proxies), trusty YouTube saves the day. Enjoy!
This looks like a lot of work, but it also looks like a lot of fun. What werewolf fan wouldn’t willingly undergo hours of excrutiating makeup for an experience like this (at least once)?
Zuda Comic’s High Moon to be a Film?
ShockTillYouDrop.com and BloodyDisusting.com are both reporting on a Production Weekly update that mentions a werewolf script getting some attention in Hollywood these days. From the PW post:
In Eddie Nickerson’s horror Western ‘High Moon’ a reckless outlaw is a small town’s only hope for survival from a vicious band of werewolves.
There’s nothing further to go on at the moment, but the title and the premise sound a lot like David Gallaher and Steve Ellis’s outstanding web series High Moon. Let’s hope they’re one and the same!
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans DVD/Blu-Ray Release Date
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans will be released in two delicious home formats: standard DVD and high-def Blu-Ray. Bonus features include:
- “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – From Script to Screen” Featurette
- “The Origin of the Feud” Featurette
- “Re-Creating the Dark Ages – The Look of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” Featurette
- Music Video: “Deathclub” By William Control
- Filmmakers’ Commentary
Blu-Ray only features include:
- A Digital Copy of the film for PC, PSP, Mac or iPod
- Behind the Castle Walls: Picture-in-Picture
- “Lycanthropes Around the World” Interactive Map
Both version will be released on May 12th, but if you want to get in line now, you can preorder the Blu-Ray version from Amazon.