Film, Television & Music – Page 75

Spook House Dave! – Monster Puppets with Heart (and a Werewolf)

What do you do when you’re an 11-year-old boy and the werewolf who lives with you is taking private phone calls from your Valentine crush? If you’re Dave of Spook House Dave!, you spin it into soap opera, complete with soft-focus shots and dramatic musical cues.

Spook House Dave! is a new online puppet series about Dave, an 11-year-old who lives in a haunted castle with a vampire, a witch, a werewolf, a mummy, a Frankenstein’s monster and an assortment of other ghouls and ghosts. Like Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, it’s geared towards kids, but any grown-up with a sense of humour will get a kick out of it. The dialogue is funny and genuine, the character design is creative and endearing, and everything on screen, from the puppets to the scenery, has a lovingly-handcrafted feel. The official web site, spookhousedave.com, currently features a special Valentine’s Day episode (shown above). The full site should be launching in the next month or two, and in the meantime you can visit DM Kids to watch the first two episodes. There’s also a Spook House Dave! Youtube channel, which has got some original content in the form of character confessionals. No confessional from Umberto the werewolf yet, but maybe he’s next.

Spook House Dave! is produced by Dragonfruit Studios and a team of puppeteers and improvisers in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s great to see artists and performers working together and using the web to distribute their work like this– here’s hoping Spook House Dave! takes off. I know I’ll be watching (and rooting for Umberto)!

Angela Quinton Feb. 18th 2009

Everyone Loves (to Download) Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

According to statistics posted by TorrentFreak, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is this week’s number one most downloaded film on the BitTorrent protocol. The stats posted don’t include total download numbers, but TorrentFreak confirms that the total number of downloads is “well over a million”. I’m not sure what says about the quality of the film. Given that another one of this week’s rising stars is Beverly Hills Chihuahua, probably nothing good.

What did you all think of Rise of the Lycans? I’m afraid I was still hibernating when it came out.

Angela Quinton Feb. 16th 2009

More Mezco Wolf Man Photos

Figures.com has posted some new photos of the 7- and 12-inch Mezco Wolf Man figures, including wicked-looking “bloody” variants of each. Mezco’s detail pages for these figures don’t include any info on the bloody versions, so I’m not sure when or how they’ll be made available, but rest assured, when I know, you’ll know. Of further note is Mezco’s ship dates for these: the 7-inch version now ships “mid to late October 2009″, probably to coincide with the film’s release date, but the 12-inch version apparently still ships in late April. I’m not sure if that’s an oversight or a deliberate decision, but in any case you can still pre-order both versions. Thanks for the tip, ArcLight.

Angela Quinton Feb. 16th 2009

Dire Wolf Trailer

If you like B-movies and unapologetic gore, you’ll want to check out the trailer (below) for Dire Wolf, a new werewolf movie from Fred Olen Ray and Retromedia Entertainment. Ray’s credits include Tomb of the Werewolf, Super Ninja Bikini Babes and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, so be aware that you probably don’t want to show this trailer to your mom.

Monty Python-style gore, a storyline borrowed from Jurassic Park and a werewolf costume that’s not obscured by cheesy, shadowy night shots? This looks like a lot of schlocky, low-budget, tongue-in-cheek fun. Check out direwolfmovie.org for photos and more info.

Angela Quinton Feb. 13th 2009

Rick Baker on “The Wolfman”

Crave Online has a two-page interview with Rick Baker, whose special effects genius brought us pretty much every fantastic silver–screen werewolf of the past 30 years. A lot of the interview is similar to ones conducted by MTV and ShockTilYouDrop back in August– Baker talks about how The Wolfman star Benicio del Toro already sort of looks like a werewolf, his rocky relationship with CG effects and his reasons for continuing to develop “old school” makeup and prosthetic techniques despite CG’s capabilites (hint: he says “I like making the sh*t.”).

What’s interesting are Baker’s comments on the challenges of making a dramatic transformation sequence out of a werewolf that’s relatively low-key compared to the ones in AWIL and The Howling.

I kind of said, “To be honest with you, I don’t know how we do this transformation. I don’t know how we make an American Werewolf in London kind of a thing out of this slight change.” His nose is only this much longer. His teeth grow and some things… he’s not a four-legged thing. His feet do get a little more doglike and the hands grow claws and stuff. There’s things we can do but also how do you do it and try to make it original. After Werewolf and the Howling movies, how many times can we see these stretchy faces and claws busting through and all that stuff.

Rick, I think I speak for werewolf fans everywhere when I say that the stretchy faces and claws busting through are exactly what we want… but if anyone can some up with something better, it’s you.

Angela Quinton Jan. 2nd 2009

Holiday Recap

Hey, everyone. Hope you all had a great holiday. I know December was kind of a spotty month at Werewolf News, with fairly sporadic posts, but as the new year approaches it’s time to get things back on track. I have a couple of new features planned for the site, which I aim to have set up by mid-January (real-life work permitting), so check back in the next two weeks for a Werewolf Event Calendar and… well, let me get things working first and then you can check ’em out.

Here are some recent news tidbits that I haven’t had a chance to write up.

Fox is moving ahead with the Michael Dougherty drama/comedy “Bitches”, about four female werewolves living in New York City.
A third poster for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans has been released, this one featuring Lucian… in human form, alas.
Image’s new comic imprint Man of Action is launching Bad Dog, a title about a hard-drinking Texas bounty hunter who’s also a werewolf who refuses to return to human form. 2009 is looking like a good year for werewolf comics!
You know Proposition 8, that unfortunate law that robbed same-sex couples in California of certain basic rights? According to The Onion, there was a typographical error in the paperwork that actually means Proposition 8 is good news for same-sex werewolf couples. Hooray for gay (werewolf) rights!

That’s it for now!

Angela Quinton Dec. 26th 2008

Fangs and Fur

Fangs and Fur is a new documentary by Italian filmmaker and wildlife photographer Michele Cogliati. In the 10-minute made-for-web film, Cogliati discusses the historical link between wolves, werewolves, human serial killers and cannibalism.

“The wolf is a pack hunter and a daylight predator,” Cogliati explains. “The werewolf is a lone hunter and often depicted as a night stalker. I have a few answers to justify these remarkable differencies that I’d like to share.”

The entire documentary is available for free at www.fangsandfur.com, as either streaming video or just the narration audio. I found it an interesting listen– what did you think?

Angela Quinton Dec. 15th 2008

“The Slaughtered Lamb” T-Shirt

Last Exit to Nowhere is a UK-based t-shirt company that specializes in designs “which are inspired and pay homage to some of the most memorable places, corporations and companies in 20th century fiction.” They’ve got some pretty incredible shirt designs, including one that fans of An American Werewolf in London will recognize:

The holiday shipping deadline for North America has already passed, but if you’re in the UK (or anywhere else and don’t mind waiting), you can snag one of these shirts for £17.50. Alternatively, if you’ve got a great idea for a shirt Last Exit to Nowhere ought to create, let MovieMaker Magazine know and you could win a shirt for free.

Angela Quinton Dec. 12th 2008

The Wimp Whose Woman Was a Werewolf

When the city comes under attack by a mysterious creature on the night of the full moon, the town is thrown into chaos. Jack (the wimp) follows the trail of death and destruction left behind by his girlfriend Cheyenne (the werewolf) and worries what might become of her when she’s finally stopped.

I’m a sucker for short films and alliteration, what can I say? Brothers Larry and Aaron Longstreth are premiering their short film “The Wimp Whose Woman Was a Werewolf” at The Kent Stage in Kent, Ohio tomorrow night. You can check out a trailer for “The Wimp…” on YouTube, and there’s a preview (including some decent shots of the werewolf suit/makeup) on Dailymotion. If you’re in the Kent area, get out and support your local filmmakers (and werewolves)!

Angela Quinton Dec. 12th 2008

Michael Sheen Defends Werewolf Role

Frank Lovece of Newsday.com recently conducted a brief interview with Underworld: Rise of the Lycans star Michael Sheen. Sheen, who recently played David Frost in Frost/Nixon and who has also been tapped to play the Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton’s upcoming vision of Alice in Wonderland, has appeared in each of the three Underworld films as Lucian, embattled leader of the Lycans. In his interview, Lovece is mystified as to why Sheen is willing to reprise his werewolf role:

Lovece: After all these rich roles in prestige movies and a storied career on the stage, you’re reprising your role as the werewolf Lucian in “Underworld 3: The Rise of the Lycans.” Umm … why?

Sheen: Wow. (Taken aback) That’s a (chuckles) – now, there’s a huge amount of snobbishness about a film, isn’t there? What’s so awful about those films? The only thing that matters is whether [a character] connects to people, whether it speaks to them about something that has to do with their experience of what it’s like to be a human being. Y’know, there is an audience that these stories speak to, and for one person to say that what speaks to one person is less valid that what speaks to them is the height of ignorance and snobbishness and arrogance, I suppose.

If I’m playing a werewolf and I play it in such a way that it has resonance and it has richness and complexity, then it has as much validity as playing [British ex-Prime Minister Tony] Blair or whomever.

Now, I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that the Underworld films are high cinema, but I admire Sheen’s tact and evident pride in the role of Lucian.

Angela Quinton Dec. 10th 2008