A Miraculous Way To Make ‘Twilight’ Not Suck

Simple: remove all the superfluous vampire crap and have three minutes of werewolves soundtracked by Radiohead.

Put together by a good friend of mine, Jeremy Leaird-Koch, also known as fledglyng, he’s also produced some pretty great video work under his real name on Vimeo. He also introduced me to Jon Macy, author/artist of Fearful Hunter (kinda NSFW-ish), “a Queer graphic novel with Druids and werewolves”, which I’ll be featuring on the site just as soon as I get out from this mountain of other comics. (Seriously. Send help. Maybe a sherpa.)

To quote Jeremy’s description of the video:

I like werewolves, not vampires, so I made a video edit of the only parts of Twilight : New Moon worth watching.

To be fair, though, they aren’t real werewolves. But it’s a pretty sweet video nonetheless.

Apr. 27th 2011

Supernatural Registration Authority to donate all March proceeds to Red Cross Japan Disaster Fund

Hey everyone. I’m doing a thing over on that other site I run to try and help the relief effort currently underway in Japan. Friday’s earthquake and the subsequent tsunami (and potentially imminent nuclear disaster) are going to take a lot of time, effort and money to clean up. If you’d like to help, you can donate directly to the American or Canadian Red Cross (the UK Red Cross isn’t yet accepting donations for Japan specifically) or you can buy a $5 physical registration document from the Supernatural Registration Authority– I will be donating all of the SRA’s proceeds for the month of March to the Canadian Red Cross’s Japan Earthquake/Asia-Pacific Tsunami fund. If you’ve been on the fence about registering as a werewolf (or any of the other indexed supernatural entities), now’s a good time– you’ll get a cool license document to show off your supernatural status, and your money will go to an extraordinarily worthy cause.

Mar. 12th 2011

WTF Moment of the Year (so far): Universal to Reboot “The Wolfman” Franchise… Again… Direct to DVD

When I first saw this in my Google Alerts feed by way of PerezHilton.com, I thought it was either a joke or a two-year-old article that had fallen through a time warp. The ever-reliable Bloody Disgusting has the exclusive, though, so I’m inclined to believe it: Universal is searching for writers to help reboot the “Wolfman” franchise just 13 months after the release of the previous reboot, and this time they’re skipping the theaters and going directly to DVD. “The only details I have,” writes DB’s MrDisgusting, “is that it’s supposed to start a fresh direct-to-disc franchise like what they’re doing with Death Race, although their direction is still unconfirmed.”

This sounds like a very recent development, possibly triggered by the 2010 film‘s recent Academy Award win for Best Makeup. The direct-to-DVD approach makes me doubt they’ll be willing to pay for the continued makeup services of Rick Baker or Dave Elsey, and let’s face it– other than Hugo Weaving’s performance, the makeup effects were the only reason to go see it in the first place. But wait! I can think of two reasons why this could be a Really Good Thing®:

  1. Direct-to-DVD releases don’t need to have Hollywood box office appeal, so they can take bigger risks. Big-budget films with wide theatrical releases need to clean up at the box office in order to pay for themselves, so they have to be more generically appealing. By releasing directly to private viewers, Universal can make this Wolfman re-imagining as dark, gory, twisted and otherwise stylistically radical as the material warrants without having to worry about what mainstream reviewers, audiences or Cate Blanchett think.
  2. A smaller budget means the film needs to earn Universal less money in order to be considered a “success”. A successful film tends to spawn sequels, no matter how niche the market is. If Universal plays this right (Universal executives: see point 1 and then trust your director, writer and other staff), the results could appeal to enough horror/werewolf fans that additional films pay for themselves. Thanks to the Internet, small but devoted audiences can turn a lovingly-produced oddity into a cult hit pretty easily.

This is all speculation stacked on top of a rumour, but in the face of vapid, expensively-polished duds like “Red Riding Hood”, a down-and-dirty hard-R-rated Wolfman reboot on DVD sounds pretty damn good.

Mar. 10th 2011

A Fair & Balanced “Red Riding Hood” Round-Up

It has been suggested that I am too quick to torch upcoming werewolf movies and television shows if they don’t fit my personal tastes. In response to this offensive and entirely true accusation, I offer this neutral, non-judgmental post.

Catherine Hardwicke’s teen-friendly re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood opens in theaters tomorrow, and people on the Internet are talking about it! If you would like to talk about it too, here are some things you could bring up:

  • SeenOn.com is a private sale site (registering an account is free) that deals in Hollywood exclusives. They’re selling Valerie’s red riding cape, pendants from the film, a signed script and other Red Riding Hood merchandise.
  • If you like posters of girls running through snowy forests, or posters in general, you can win a copy of the Red Riding Hood poster from The Trades just by giving them your contact information.
  • Amanda Seyfried wore nude heels from Lanvin’s spring/summer 2011 collection to the premiere. (???)
  • The colours in the film are vividly supersaturated because this one time, Catherine Hardwicke went to Burning Man.
  • Gary Oldman can be very polite when confronted by fluff interview questions from Moviefone.
  • Reviews so far have been very decisive: the film is a hollow, bloodless, joyless grab for teen money.
  • Hollywood executives will soon stop green-lighting trash like this, not because some guy was snarky on his blog, but because clueless fad-hopping, glossy over-production and deceptive marketing tactics provide rapidly diminishing returns.

Okay, so I couldn’t keep that whole “neutrality” thing going for the whole post. I tried, though!

Mar. 10th 2011

“The Howling” Hardcover Novel Re-Issued in Lettered, Deluxe & Collector’s Editions

Horror-crazed bibliophiles, doff your hats and get out your wallets! Mansion House Books has re-issued three gorgeous hardcover editions of Gary Brandner‘s “The Howling”, the classic werewolf novel that inspired the classic werewolf film. These came out last November (thanks to reader Chris L for poking me) and all three editions are still available for purchase. From the Mansion House Books site:

Out of print for many years and next to impossible to find in hardback, Gary Brandner’s horror novel is now available to collectors and fans in a quality signed hardback edition with a new introduction by the author.

The Collector’s Edition (£40) is limited to 300 numbered copies. Bound in Colorado cloth with headbands, coloured endpapers & bound in ribbon bookmark.

The Deluxe Edition (£110) is limited to 150 numbered copies. Quarter bound in grey goatskin leather with cloth-covered boards, headbands, marbled endpapers, bound in ribbon bookmark and raised bands on spine. Contains interior artwork not found in the Collector’s edition.

The Lettered Edition (£395) is limited to 26 copies, lettered A through Z. Hand sewn, fully bound in goatskin leather with foil blocking to front and spine, raised bands on the spine, gilt edges, handmade marbled endpapers, headbands and bound in ribbon bookmark. Housed in a hand-made solander traycase. Also contains interior artwork not found in the Collector’s edition. May cause nearby werewolf fans to weep.

All three editions are signed by Gary Brandner and feature cover and interior artwork by Dan Harding (see this earlier Werewolf News post for a closer look at the cover).

I’m an admirer of finely-crafted collectibles and a huge book nerd to boot, so I’m pretty excited about this! I’ve just requested a shipping invoice for a Canadian address– when my Collector’s edition arrives I’ll post a review!

Mar. 1st 2011

Rick Baker & Dave Elsey Win “Best Makeup” Oscar for “The Wolfman”

The Academy is pro-lycanthrope! Last night Rick Baker and Dave Elsey each won an Academy Award for Best Makeup in recognition of their fantastic work on The Wolfman. This is Baker’s second Oscar for werewolf work, the first being awarded for An American Werewolf in London on the eve of the category’s inception (insert Inception joke here).

I wasn’t able to find any video of the actual award for this (although I’ll update this post if one pops up), but apparently the Academy gives winners some extra time back-stage to continue their thank-yous.

Update: Six years later, the backstage video is long-gone, but here’s the award:

Congratulations to Mr. Baker and Mr. Elsey, and hey Rick? I really hope your Hugo Weaving wish comes true.

Feb. 28th 2011

Say “Hi” to the new Comic Book Guy

Greetings, wolf-fans. I’d like to introduce myself; I’m Mike, and I’ve been a fan of the site for some time, and a fan of werewolves for considerably longer — say around 15 or 16 years. I got talking to Andrew on Twitter, and approached him about doing some writing here. After some discussion, he recruited me — well, I say recruited, there was some biting involved — and here I am. For the time being, I’ve been assigned to review comics, and I plan to write features about the unfortunately-cancelled Willow Creek, along with the three-issue miniseries Thicker Than Blood. At the time of writing, we’re still awaiting a response from a couple of comics publishers regarding a Hellboy story featuring werewolves, and a series of issues based on the Werewolf: The Apocalypse RPG.

In the meantime, you can catch up with me on Twitter as @electricdog — with the help of a number of fellow lycanthropic connoisseurs, I instigated the #werewolfwednesday hashtag, which has become mildly popular — or you can take a look at my Tumblr, which features werewolfry on a regular basis. My most recent post was about werewolves in gaming, which drew some interest, so I figured I’d link it here for people to read.

Finally, I’m a creator of machinima, and I’ve discussed with Andrew the possibility of making a virtual video-blog for the site, though I’m still working on that. In the meantime, I made a short film based on a conversation I had about my new role writing for the site, which you can watch below.

Feb. 23rd 2011

Wicked Oliver Reed “Curse of the Werewolf” life-sized wall hanger from Black Heart

Black Heart Enterprises is a group of artists, sculptors and horror/sci-fi/fantasy fans who specialize in creating “accurately detailed resin kits, busts of horror, classic science fiction and fantasy characters”. They’ve produced a number of 1:1 wall-hangers inspired by the characters and creatures that haunt those genres, and one only has to look at their gallery to see they’re serious about bringing all the care, craftsmanship and detail of fine art to the task of modeling these monsters.

Black Heart’s George Stephenson got in touch with me recently about their 1:1 life-sized scale wall-hanger of Oliver Reed from The Curse of the Werewolf, sculpted by Joe Simon. I was immediately impressed by the balance of expression and detail– I don’t think I’ve seen Leon Corledo look more dangerous!

The kit is 1:1 scale and is just under 15″ from the top of the head to the fur just below his neck. There’s no assembly involved, as it’s molded and cast in one piece, and it comes with a 2-page, full-color profile and a short essay entitled A Century of Cinematic Lycanthropy.

George was kind enough to answer a couple of questions:

Why was this particular werewolf chosen (other than Oliver Reed being awesome)?

1) It was time to add a werewolf to Black Heart’s line and Lon Chaney has been done a hundred times, some done very well, and at least a couple in 1:1 scale.  COTW is one of my two favorites of lycanthropic cinema, the other being Werewolf of London.  I considered doing the Henry Hull werewolf but I am concerned about how well WOL will sell.  I love Jack Pierce’s WOL makeup design as much as Roy Ashton’s COTW design (maybe even a bit more) but I try to be conscious of marketability and COTW has broader appeal than WOL.  We also wanted to do a kit that would appeal to the Hammer Films fans. We WILL do WOL down the road; I have to have one on my wall.

2) COTW has been done a number of times as a resin kit, and done very well by some of the best sculptors in our niche of the hobby market, two of whom I know well and have worked with on past projects when I owned GEOmetric Design.  But it had not been done as a 1:1 scale sculpture that would be widely available as a resin kit.  I believed that Joe Simon, with whom I’ve worked since our GEOmetric days, would be challenged and motivated to outdo the other sculptors and I believed he could capture the intensity and fury in Oliver Reed’s expression like no one else has.

3) Yes, Oliver Reed was awesome in the film.  I saw the film on TV as a child in the late 60s and it scared the heck out of me; no other werewolf film had ever done that.  There was a depth to the story and the characters that made it more real for me, I guess.

What sort of material did Joe Simon use for reference when he was doing the sculpt?

I scoured the www for reference photos and found a number of them that gave us most of the angles that we needed for sculpting accuracy.  But there is one famous still from the jail cell scene that was the look I wanted for our kit.  That was Joe’s guide… and he nailed it. [He] has been sculpting for about 15 years and he feels this is his best work yet.  I agree.

The kit is regularly $175.00 but has currently marked down to $140.00. If I was at all competent in the art of model painting I would snatch one of these up right away (and probably a Predator too) – Black Heart tends to produce 100 of each kit before retiring it. Go check it out, and have a look at Black Heart’s other kits too.

Feb. 21st 2011

Joe Dante Brings Werewolf & Vampire Teen Romance “Monster Love” To Party, Also Brings PS2 & Vanilla Coke

Shock Till You Drop brings us the discouraging news that The Howling director Joe Dante is trapped in 2003: he’s starting preproduction for Monster Love, a horror-comedy film that chronicles a forbidden romance between “a werewolf and a vampire [who] fall in love, igniting a war between their respective communities. It’s ROMEO AND JULIET with fangs”. Experiencing déjà vu? Hang on, it’s about to get worse. Here’s a bit of the synopsis:

After PETE, a young dogwalker, gets dumped by his girlfriend, his slacker buddies convince him to run naked through the city park. As the moon rises, the boys laugh, howl, and transform… Later, a distraught young woman named MAGGIE is contemplating suicide when she’s surprised by an enormous wolf. She snarls, baring her vampire fangs. The wolf grins and barks: Let’s play!

This has got to be a mistake or a joke, right? Werewolf-vampire romance is not interesting anymore, if it ever was. Underworld made it (sort of) sexy, Twilight killed it and Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer defiled the corpse with Vampires Suck. I just can’t imagine how Monster Love is going to do anything new with this paper-thin concept.

Feb. 19th 2011

Gore is Boring, Yak Hair is Awesome! NYT Interviews “Wolfman” Makeup Artist Rick Baker

Oh boy, it’s Oscar time, and if you’re  a blogger for a major media outlet and you haven’t got something to blog about, you’re fired. The Carpetbagger‘s Melena Ryzik is no slouch– last week she posted an interview with Oscar nominee and Werewolf News perennial favourite Rick Baker. There are no earth-shattering revelations, but it’s a good read nevertheless, especially if you’re interested in the ways crepe, human and yak hair can be combined to wolf out one’s face and body, even the relatively hairless Benicio Del Toro.

“There was a lot of handling of hair, where we actually have a lot of loose hair that’s glued on the actor’s face. It’s almost a lost art in the makeup field, but it’s something that I perfected because of my love of Wolfman.”

I was also pleased to read about Baker’s disdain for Hollywood’s current love affair with buckets-of-blood horror filmmaking.

“I’m not a fan of slasher movies, of what a modern horror movie is,” he said. “I’m not a big fan of ‘let’s see how we can kill the people in the most graphic ways.’ Zombie gore doesn’t bother me, but when it’s just somebody killing another human being in a graphic way, I’m not a fan of that.” … The gory stuff is really easy to do, and I found that out as a kid… the gory stuff doesn’t impress me.”

Amen! Give us realistic monsters to be afraid of, not boring deranged humans. Read the full interview here.

Feb. 11th 2011