Werewolf links, news, and reviews
Here are some more werewolf pictures I’ve seen over the past few weeks and liked enough to want to save somewhere. More than a few of these came from the excellent Red Project and #Werewolf-Horror.
Fuzzy Camera / fuzzycamera.tumblr.com
Standard disclaimer: if I’ve posted something of yours here and you’d rather I didn’t, please let me know. Also, some of these are available on shirts or as prints. Support awesome artists and buy some of their work!
As reported first in the LA Times (and then quickly picked up by a dozen other movie news sites), the Weinstein Co. division of Dimension Films is moving ahead with a remake of “An American Werewolf in London”. The script will be written by Fernley Phillips, whose only other writing credit seems to be “The Number 23” (yes, the movie where a “dark” Jim Carrey plays a saxophone). When AWIL’s original writer and director John Landis sold the rights to the remake last year, I was cautiously neutral. 13 months can change a lot in a man, and my current feelings on the matter are much more focused:
Dimension? Fernley Phillips? Do not fuck this up. Give Rick Baker a blank cheque and convince Edgar Wright to direct and you might have a shot. Otherwise, put the whole thing back on the shelf and back away slowly.
Image credit: Alex Proimos
Normally I’m not inclined to pay much attention to fantasy novels with the word “wolf” in the title. If there are werewolves in the story (and there aren’t always), they tend to be framed in the context of mystical spirit warriors, in touch with nature but aloof from humankind. (more…)
It’s basically a “Twilight” spoof by the same people who did “Scary Movie” and its sequels, “Disaster Movie”, “Date Movie”, “Meet the Spartans”, etc. I will still be seeing it because I identify strongly with its message.
Hat tip: Graham T
Dread Central has the exclusive first word and concept art for a film that sounds like just the thing to take Mom to see on her birthday: “Strippers vs. Werewolves”. Producer Jonathan Sothcott has this to say:
Werewolves are the hardest monsters to get right on film – and I don’t just mean the special effects. Straight werewolf movies often come across as outrageous comedies – Howling 2, Silver Bullet, etc., and werewolf comedies don’t tend to be cinematic gold (though I have a soft spot for the delirious Haunted Honeymoon), but I’m enough of a genre buff to know that this one’s very special indeed and is going to be brilliant fun – think Shaun of the Dead meets Bitchslap in the style of The Howling, and you’re getting the idea.
I’m getting a few ideas, and they all start with me holding my poor head in my hands and end with me yelling a lot. The whole “vs.” thing only works if there’s a natural tension between the combatants or if it’s a particularly clever pairing. This doesn’t strike me as clever, and I don’t think strippers and lycanthropes are enemies (in as much as either entity can get along with others). I just can’t imagine this is going to work out well, especially given the “concept art”, which looks like the result of a quick search on Renderotica.com and five minutes in Photoshop. I love being wrong about these things, though!
Hat tip: ArcLight
Imagine a beautifully frosted, perfectly decorated cake. Lovely to look at, but under all that carefully-sculpted sugar lay three slabs of Betty Crocker Cherry Chip that should have been mixed better and baked half an hour longer. That, in a nutshell, is Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies: Compendium Monstrum by Suzanne Schwalb and Margaret Rubiano: it looks delicious, but the insides are a little lumpy and uneven.
I pulled this book out to read while at a beach party (yeah, I’m boring) and I had to pass it around to four or five people before cracking the cover myself. Everyone who saw it was immediately intrigued and wanted to see it for themselves: a tiny matte black book with an ornate gold and red design on the cover and a bright red ribbon for marking your place. The pages are yellowed and printed to look textured without looking cheesy, and the interior page layouts are moody yet crisp. And the maps! Each of the major sections begins with a fold-out map marking locations of interest. The overall design work is excellent. All credit to Rubiano, who laid the pages out– the book looks good.
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I’ve been super busy today, but I wanted to share this delightful chart with you. Have you ever wondered if you could gauge the general trustworthiness of a person, based on the beard they’re sporting? Graphic designer Matt McInerney says you can, and he has a chart to prove it. He claims there’s no scientific basis to his observations, but other than grossly exaggerating the threat of werewolves, I think he seems to be spot-on. The Philosopher? Good. The Neckbeard? Watch yourself.
Click for the full thing at a (much) larger resolution.
Over the past few weeks, beta testers have been getting a chance to check out the new races and terrain Blizzard’s latest Word of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm. So far the reactions seem to be extremely positive, particularly where the Alliance’s new werewolf-like race, the Worgen, are concerned. Donnie Ingalls of Ripten says “Everyone and and their mother is going to be playing a Worgen when Cataclysm hits the shelves,” right before unapologetically using the term “cool-o-meter”. Steve Butts at The Escapist goes into detail describing the start of the Worgen game. Apparently you start off as a human fighting against the Worgen in a foggy Victorian setting, until you’re inadvertently bitten and wake up in stocks with fur and claws.
I got giddy just typing that. When Cataclysm finally comes out I’m screwed.
Syfy has posted the first trailer for their latest original movie, “Red”, staring Felicia Day. I have a feeling this got rushed out for SDCC (assuming that’s where it was shown), because it looks a little disjointed and they’ve cut in some werewolf footage from “The Howling” to pad it out. Weird! Overall it looks pretty cheesy, but I think that’s sort of the point– Syfy original movies aren’t expected to bring home any award hardware.
It says something about Syfy’s production values that practical werewolf effects from 1981 look better than the CGI werewolves they came up with on their own.
Hat tip: ArcLight
Finally, someone at San Diego Comic-Con with an interest in horror has some info about MTV’s Teen Wolf show. Nomad at Dread Central got some interesting and somewhat encouraging news from producer Jeff Davis. Of particular interest are these two tidbits:
– KNB FX [sic] is handling the PRACTICAL effects!! The look of the werewolves (yes, I said “werewolves” plural) was very important so they brought in the best.
– There will be three types of werewolves in this show, all with a different look.
KNB EFX has got some pretty serious chops in the realm of practical effects, and they’ve done werewolves before too: for Wes Craven’s “Cursed” (pictured on the right) and “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”. I am now cautiously optimistic about this!
