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!
Werewolf Bust by “Being Human” & “Wolfman” Effects Artist Darren Nevin
I just received an email from Darren Nevin. “I recently sculpted & cast a silicone Werewolf display bust”, Darren writes, and he wonders if I might like to share some of the photos with the people who read Werewolf News. Darren, sharing stuff like this is the reason I started Werewolf News in the first place! (more…)
Kenshiro Suzuki Will School You
If you dug Kenshiro Suzuki’s awesome four-stage werewolf transformation sculpture, I strongly suggest you check out the four making-of videos he’s posted on his YouTube channel. Here’s one of them for your immediate viewing pleasure!
Zut! France Gets Alternate “Wolfman” Trailer and Poster
Apparently ShockTillYouDrop.com has agents everywhere, including France, where werewolf fans are getting a slightly different view of The Wolfman promotional materials. There’s an alternate poster (thumbnail below) and a theatrical trailer with some scenes not shown in the North American versions. Check ’em out!
“Wolfman” Score – Elfman Out, Haslinger In
If you haven’t already heard this from the many news sources 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.
Middled Aged Wolf – The Sad Sequel to the Scott Howard Story
Oh Scott, what happened? You had such dreams, such hope.
Excellent work (in a depressing way) by director Marc Milstein and company! Hat tips to to Viergacht and ArcLight.
Benicio and Blunt For Your Walls! Two Official “Wolfman” Posters
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!
The Return of McGinty & Hughes: Limited Edition John Allison “Red Riding Hood” Print
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of John Allison’s work. His long-running comic Scary Go Round sustained me for years, and his new (and even better) comic Bad Machinery was what finally convinced me to start using Google Reader– I require an immediate alert when the newest one is posted. John also managed to eat a chocolate bar and shake my hand at the exact same time, which just goes to show the industrious spirit that helped the British to colonize so much of the world.
If you like werewolves and you like comics, John’s just started taking pre-orders for a limited-edition print that you can probably add to your list of likable things. At £10 + £2.50 international shipping, there’s no reasonable excuse to refrain from buying one, especially considering that each purchase helps support a fellow who’s been giving away amazingly entertaining material for years. Here are the details:
A2 poster (420 x 594 mm — 16,5 x 23,4 in). Giclee prints on heavy glossy 200gsm stock.
McGinty (werewolf) and Hughes (small monkey) present “Red Riding Hood”. Signed and numbered run of 100. You can see a larger version of the poster here.
“Werewolf” TV Series DVD Cancelled (In Case You Slept Through September)
In case you didn’t already hear the bad news, 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, these assholes 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.
The Last Werewolves of October
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!
- The BSC Beat has an interview with Mark Chadbourn, author of the recently-released Hellboy novel Hellboy: The Ice Wolves
. You can read a preview of The Ice Wolves at the Dark Horse web site.
- 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
- I also wish I had an Xbox 360. The LIVE Marketplace has got werewolf costumes for your Xbox 360 Avatar.
Many thanks to people who submitted these items!