Werewolf News

Friends, I’m sorry for the lack of posts lately – I’ve been busy and sick – but let me try to make it up to you with a jumbo-sized #WerewolfWednesday WolfCop update! I’ve got three things for you – one for your brain, and two for your eyes.

First, Echolands Creative (the production company behind the movie) has announced a week-long contest that could get your name in the credits, and your clever tagline on the theatrical poster.

Indie film fans! WOLFCOP IS ON THE PROWL FOR A NEW TAGLINE… Submit your entries here [as a comment on the Facebook post – aq] or Tweet: @WolfCopTheMovie ‪#‎TweetTaglineContest‬. Winner gets mention in film’s end credits and the tagline headlines the official theatrical poster by award-winning poster illustrator Tom Hodge, aka The Dude. Contest closes Wednesday, April 2 end of day. Give us your killer one liner for your chance to join the WOLFCOP universe!

I have a text document open right now and I’m just fillin’ it up with horrible one-liners. Look out, because if I can come up with any taglines that won’t get me thrown in word-jail, I aim to win that contest.

Second, Fangoria has just posted exclusive photos of the eponymous Lou Garou in werewolf form. I won’t repost them all because I’m not a mooch (not that Fangoria needs the pageviews), but I will share the one that made me laugh out loud, and include some great comments from Emersen Ziffle, the FX wizard behind WolfCop’s practical werewolf makeup.

The movie’s FX were created by Emersen Ziffle, who has worked on films like CHAINED and CURSE OF CHUCKY and combined Dean’s cues inspirations with his own. “I was influenced by the latest version of the Wolfman, done beautifully by Rick Baker and Dave Elsey—a less doglike, more human werewolf. How would the imagination see a werewolf cop? I feel we delivered on that while remaining unique within the genre.”

The process of turning Fafard into the hairy arm of the law took a couple of hours each day, and with the actor buried under foam latex and acrylic hair, “We were worried about Leo overheating,” Ziffle says. “But shooting in November in Saskatchewan [Canada] kept him just cool enough. We actually almost froze his fingers a few times because the resin claw tips acted as a cold conduit, wicking the heat from his fingertips.”

See, here’s the benefit of practical makeup over CG: the results are tactile, and they look really really good. Like, almost too good – I can practically smell Lou, and that ain’t good. Shampoo those forearms! Also, with CG creature effects, you can’t take photos of your gore-streaked werewolf character hug-biting your remarkably sanguine writer/director.

Lastly, here’s a WolfCop production diary video I missed from January. It examines the process of designing the film’s werewolf effects and then bringing the beast to life.

I tweeted a comment to some of the WolfCop crew earlier today, and I think it’s worth repeating here… I’ve never been so excited for a werewolf movie, and I’ve never been prouder of a Canadian production.

It’s been a while (too long!) since I posted a WolfCop update, and today’s exclusive premiere on Ain’t It Cool News was just the kick in the pants I needed. The 2013 CineCoup winner is currently in post-production and will have its Canadian premiere in select Cineplex theatres on June 6th. No word yet on which theatres have been selected, nor are there any details on US / international release dates, but I’m sure that information is coming. WolfCop, after all, cannot be stopped. (more…)

If you’re a fan of crime thrillers, truly excellent accents and hand pruners, might I suggest Bigger and Badder, a 2012 short film written and directed by Richard Wantuch and starring Phil Hemming, Sam Knight and Christopher Harvey. It’s 16 minutes of wonderfully-acted, tightly-edited, perfectly-scored tension by Plaural Films, and my only complaint about it is that it’s not a feature length film. (more…)

If you’re in Austin for SXSW this weekend, save some energy for a late-night screening of Late Phases, a new werewolf film from Adrian Garcia Bogliano. The Wrap has a great interview with the star Nick Damici, who’s only 54 but jumped at the chance to play “a 70-year-old blind man who has to battle werewolves after they kill his seeing eye-dog during his first day at a haunted retirement community.” (more…)