Ryan Rotten at ShockTillYouDrop.com has posted some photos he took of promotional banners for The Wolfman. The banners are up at Universal Studios Hollywood, and you can see them as part of the Terror Tram tour I mentioned a few days back. The banners are fairly teaser-ish, and the photos are blown out by the flash, but you can certainly see that some care has gone into promoting this film. I’m looking forward to seeing what sort of marketing campaign Universal puts together for The Wolfman as the release date (April 3rd 2009) draws closer.
A Fool’s Utopia – Column of the Werewolf
This week, a generous chunk of Ron Martin column A Fool’s Utopia is dedicated to werewolves he has known and loved. He feels that werewolves don’t get the exposure they deserve, particularly during the Halloween season:
While never completely ignored, I’ve always felt that the werewolf was a little underappreciated during the Halloween festivities. That’s what I’m here for. Are you ready? Let’s take a look at some werewolves who have invaded out pop culture in the last oh, 70 years or so.
Most werewolf fans won’t learn anything new, but it’s still certainly worth a read, especially for the editorial comments (yes, Ron, Oz was a lame-looking werewolf). I also need to give Ron some serious kudos for covering two of my favourite 1980s werewolf phenomena: Fruit Brute cereal and the Teen Wolf cartoon. Saturday mornings at their best!
Life-Size Werewolf Prop by Fantaxy
Mike of Fantaxy FX sent me a link to a YouTube video of his latest creation– a 180cm (6′) tall werewolf with articulated head and arm movements.
Pretty impressive! You can see more of Mike’s work at www.fantaxy.es, although you’ll need to be fluent in Spanish to get the most out of the site.
“Little Red Riding Hood” by lessthanhuman
Consider photomanipulations. Specifically, consider the masterful work done by lessthanhuman, who has been blending humans and animals on DeviantArt since 2004. His most recent work, Red Riding Hood, is a prime example of what can be done with a little Photoshop, some decent source materials and ten tons of pure talent. Here Red Riding Hood is being menaced by the Wolf, but it’s clear that got a surprise in store for her assailant. This is the one time I’ve ever really rooted for Red in this scenario!
lessthanhuman’s work is beautiful in a way that goes far beyond the technical impressiveness of his photomaniputlation skills– he’s an artist whose work is portraiture of the finest type. Check out his other work on DeviantArt, and if you like what you see, keep in mind that you can commission him. Incredibly, his rates start at a paltry $40 US, so if you want to see what you’d look like as a werewolf (or other animal hybrid), now’s your chance.
“Woman Surprised By A Werewolf” on Display at the Walker Art Gallery
Back in July, I mentioned Stuart Pearson Wright‘s painting “Woman Surprised By A Werewolf”, and I wanted to remind everyone that you can now see it for yourself at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, England.
Eva Gordon’s Werewolf Fiction
Author Eva Gordon sent in this note late last week:
I’m an author of fantasy/paranormal novels. My debut novel The Stone of The Tenth Realm
‘s main male character is a Scottish Werewolf, Logan MacLeod, and he has to kick ass to set things right.
I was checking out Eva’s site, and noticed that she has a background in biology, environmental science and anatomy/physiology, and she’s also worked at a wolf sanctuary. This range of knowledge and experience could make for some extremely detailed and interesting werewolves, and I asked her how she applied this knowledge to her writing. She replies:
…my background in the biological sciences has certainly influenced my writings. I’ve read a few paranormal novels about wolves and I often cringe because some wolf biology and behaviors are off. I’m more lax with lycan characters because they are the author’s own creative invention. In my just released novel, my werewolf was cursed, but when he joins a pack of real wolves he behaves as they do. In my current work in process, The Wolf Maiden Chronicles my lycans are genetic and I even drew out a pedigree and punnet square (biology 101) before writing the first one, Werewolf Sanctuary, which is under consideration with a publisher at this moment.
It’s always a pleasure to see writers approaching the subject of werewolves with care and interest, particularly when they’ve got real-world knowledge to help shape the characters. You can find Eva’s first published novel, The Stone of The Tenth Realm, on Amazon.
Universal Studios to Show Wolfman Preview on Tram Ride
As several other sources have announced, Universal Studios Hollywood will be screening an exclusive preview of The Wolfman as part of its Terror Tram experience this Halloween. The Terror Tram, if you didn’t know, is a tram-based tour of “remote and menacing locations of Universal’s legendary backlot”, including sets from Nightmare on Elm Street, Psycho and War of the Worlds. Built into the trams are LCD screens which will display the Wolfman preview, which may or may not be the trailer that was played at Comic Con earlier this year.
From ComingSoon.net:
“Halloween Horror Nights” will continue on consecutive weekends beginning on Friday, October 3 through Saturday, November 1. Event dates are: October 3-4, 10-11, 17-19, 24-26, 30-31 and November 1. The event will begin nightly at 7:00 p.m.; closing hours vary by night throughout the event.
If anyone sees this, please do let us know what the preview is like!
New Sonic Unleashed Trailer with Were-Hog Footage
As we’ve mentioned a few times before, the forthcoming Sonic The Hedgehog game, Sonic Unleashed, will feature a “night mode” where everyone’s favourite spiky blue mammal turns into a werewolf (referred to informally as a “were-hog”). Kotaku has posted a new trailer which features extensive footage of this style of game play. Werewolf Sonic moves slower than regular Sonic, but boasts some punishing physical combat moves, which seems like it might lend some balance to a game that otherwise looks like it consists largely of running as fast as you can through beautiful terrain. Check out the video below:
Say what you want about where Sega has taken the Sonic franchise in the last decade, but this looks pretty damned cool. As previously mentioned, Sonic Unleashed is being released for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 18th 2008. An alternate version for the Wii will be released at the same time.
Back!
Sorry for the absence, everyone. I had some pretty excellent stuff happen over the weekend– my wife returned to Canada after an unplanned four-month absence caused by some problems with immigration paperwork. It was a long summer without her, and now that she’s back, you might see some interesting new art-related features appearing here before long.
Anyway, sorry again for the absence, and now it’s back to werewolf news!
Taking Friday Off
Hey, werewolf freaks. I’m taking Friday the 12th off to attend to some important personal business. Weekly Werewolf Art and any new lycanthropic tidbits that get sent my way will be posted on Saturday… and I’ve had some pretty sweet messages from an author and a comic book creator, so the wait should be worth it.
As always, if you’ve got some werewolf news, let me know, and if you like the site, please spread the word. Thanks!