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The Wolf Man (2009 film)
Encyclopedia
The Wolfman is a 2010 American remake of the 1941 classic werewolf horror film of the same name. This film's second half was significantly altered and expanded from the original film's plot. Directed by Joe Johnston
, the film stars Benicio del Toro
, Anthony Hopkins
, Emily Blunt
and Hugo Weaving
. It was released on February 10, 2010 in France and in the United States on February 12, 2010.
While receiving mostly mixed reviews by critics, the film grossed more than $140 million worldwide and found more success in DVD/Blu-ray sales and won an Academy Award for Best Makeup.
), recites an old rhyme:
In 1891, Ben Talbot (Simon Merrells) is confronted by a ultrahuman wolf-like creature in the Blackmoor woods. He tries to escape, but is mauled and killed by the beast.
Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt
), Ben's fiancée, has contacted his brother, Lawrence Talbot (Benicio del Toro
), the world-renowned Shakespearean actor, saying that Ben disappeared a month ago. Lawrence leaves his theater tour to return to his family's estate in Blackmoor where he has an uneasy reunion with his estranged father, Sir John (Anthony Hopkins
). Later, it is revealed that Lawrence's mother, Solana (Christina Contes), had committed suicide when he was a boy. Lawrence saw his father standing over her dead body, after which, Sir John sent his young son to an insane asylum in London, ostensibly for suffering delusions.
Ben's body, found the day before, has been stored at a slaughterhouse. When Lawrence views his brother's remains, he is horrified—Ben has been viciously mauled. Among Ben's personal effects is a medallion embossed with a monk encircled by three wolves that Ben apparently purchased from gypsies. Later, at the local pub, Lawrence overhears the locals discussing the killing. Many blame the gypsies who are camped outside the town, while another patron claims there was a similar murder several decades earlier, and a werewolf was the suspected killer.
After Gwen returns to London, Lawrence visits the gypsies during a full moon. Maleva, an old gypsy woman, tells him something evil had befallen his brother. The local townspeople then raid the camp to confiscate a dancing bear
they believe is the killer. But a wolf-like creature suddenly attacks, slaughtering many people. Lawrence chases a frightened young boy who has run into the woods, but Lawrence is savagely bitten by the creature. The townspeople chase it off before Lawrence is killed. As Maleva sutures his neck wounds, her daughter insists Lawrence should be killed. Maleva refuses, saying he is still a man and that only a loved one can release him.
Gwen returns to Talbot Hall to care for Lawrence. He suffers several fitful dreams, but after a few weeks, appears to have completely recovered. Sir John's faithful Sikh
manservant, Singh (Art Malik
), shows Lawrence the silver bullets he has and implies that something monstrous is loose in Blackmoor. Inspector Aberline
(Hugo Weaving
) arrives from London to investigate the recent murders. He suspects Lawrence is responsible based on his mental history and masterful portrayals of mentally-ill protagonists such as Hamlet and Macbeth. As the night comes near, several hunters from the town take position in the woods, waiting for the beast to appear. Worried about what might happen, Lawrence sends Gwen away. He then follows Sir John to Solana's crypt. Beneath the crypt is a catacomb containing a shrine to Lawrence's dead mother. There is also a chair specially fitted with restraints. Sir John tells Lawrence that he has been "dead" for years, then locks himself into the room alone. As Lawrence is leaving, he undergoes a painful transformation into a wolf-like creature. Lawrence, now the Wolfman, runs off to the woods and kills the hunters stationed in the woods. The next day, Sir John leads Aberline and the local police to where a dazed, bloodied, and now-human Lawrence is hiding.
Taken to the same asylum he was committed at as a child, Lawrence is subjected to ice-water and electrotherapy
treatments overseen by the sadistic Dr. Hoenneger (Antony Sher
). Sir John visits Lawrence and explains that many years before while hunting in India, he was bitten by a feral boy infected with lycanthropy
. Lawrence realizes that he saw his father, transformed as a werewolf, kill his mother. Sir John has relied on Singh to imprison him during full moons. Yet one night, Sir John became drunk and got into a heated argument with Ben. Having knocked Singh out and unable to lock himself in, Sir John killed Ben and attacked the gypsy camp. Now intoxicated by the werewolf's immense power, Sir John no longer intends to restrain that potency.
Dr. Hoenneger presents Lawrence, strapped in a chair, to his colleagues as an interesting case study. He claims that when Lawrence is forced to see the moon and his own self unchanged, in front of "all these witnesses", he will be made to see his delusion for what it is, just that, which will be the first step in the beginning of his recovery. Inspector Aberline is also in attendance. As the full moon streams through the window, Lawrence, transforming into the Wolfman, breaks loose and kills Hoenneger. Pursued by Aberline, the Wolfman runs off and goes on a bloody rampage in the streets of London. The next day, the now-human Lawrence goes to Gwen's antique shop for help. The two realize they are falling in love. Aberline arrives and searches the shop, but Lawrence has already escaped and begun the long trek back to Blackmoor.
Gwen studies lycanthropy to find a cure, and tracks down Maleva for help. Maleva confirms that Lawrence cannot be saved and asks God to help Gwen to do what she must. Aberline tracks Lawrence to Blackmoor, this time armed with silver bullets. Gwen also makes her way to Blackmoor.
Lawrence arrives at Talbot Hall and finds Singh's mutilated body hanging in the foyer. He loads a gun with Singh's silver bullets, but when he attempts to shoot Sir John, he discovers that Sir John had secretly removed the powder from the cartridges years ago. When the full moon rises, both transform into werewolves. A vicious fight erupts, they knock over lamps, setting fire to the estate, and Lawrence kills his father. Gwen arrives hoping to save Lawrence, he tries to pounce at her but the Inspector arrives as he is about to attack her. Inspector Aberline bursts in and attempts to shoot the Wolfman, but Gwen disrupts the shot, then flees with Aberline's revolver. The Wolfman bites Aberline, but chases Gwen rather than finish him off.
The Wolfman traps Gwen above a gorge. She pleads with Lawrence, whose consciousness faintly recognizes her. As he hesitates, Gwen shoots him with a silver bullet. As he lies dying, the Wolfman transforms back to Lawrence and thanks Gwen for doing what needed to be done. The wounded Aberline arrives, along with the mob, as Lawrence dies in peace.
Gwen's parting words are heard:
Aberline looks lost and dismayed, not just at the chaotic scene around him: noisy mob, burning estate, Lawrence and Gwen, but with realization and horror at the bite wound in his shoulder and then at the moon and what will be his inevitable fate.
Overlooking a burning Talbot Hall in the distance, the Wolfman's howl is heard once more, which might imply that Aberline is now the new Wolfman, as he was bitten by the Wolfman Lawrence.
Max von Sydow
appears as an elderly man who gives Lawrence the wolf-head cane; his part was cut from the theatrical film but is restored on the DVD release. Make-up artist Rick Baker makes a cameo appearance as the Gypsy man who is the first killed. The Wolfman's howl incorporated elements from Gene Simmons
and David Lee Roth
, as well as opera singers and animal impersonators.
announced the remake of The Wolf Man with actor Benicio del Toro, a fan of the original and collector of Wolf Man memorabilia in the lead role. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker
was attached to the screenplay, developing the original film's story to include additional characters as well as plot points that would take advantage of modern visual effects. Del Toro also looked towards Werewolf of London
and The Curse of the Werewolf
for inspiration.
In February 2007, director Mark Romanek
was attached to helm The Wolfman. In January 2008, Romanek left the project because of creative differences. Brett Ratner
emerged as a frontrunner to replace Romanek, but the studio also met with Frank Darabont
, James Mangold
and Joe Johnston
. They were also interested in Bill Condon
, and Martin Campbell
was interested. Johnston was hired to direct on February 3, 2008, and the film's shooting schedule and budget remained as intended. Johnston hired David Self
to rewrite the script.
Shooting took place from March 3 to June 23, 2008, in the United Kingdom. At that time the film was budgeted at US$85 million. They shot at Pinewood Studios
in Buckinghamshire
, Chatsworth, Derbyshire
, and Castle Combe
in Wiltshire
. They transformed Chatsworth House
by adding weeds, dead grass and ivy. They also shot in Lacock
in Wiltshire, a village conserved by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
, for a day. Universal donated £
5000 to the village, in return for filming in the tithe barn
for a scene involving frozen corpses. A funeral scene was also shot beside the Temple of Ancient Virtue at Stowe House
, with the temple coated in false ivy and copious amounts of smoke/mist floating over the setting. There was also scenes filmed on Dartmoor, Devon at Foggintor Quarry.Pick-ups at Pinewood were conducted in May 2009.
Rick Baker created the make-up for The Wolfman. When he heard Universal was remaking the film, he eagerly pursued it, as both The Wolf Man and Frankenstein
inspired him to become a make-up artist as a child. He acknowledged transforming del Toro was not difficult because he is a hairy man: "Going from Benicio to Benicio as the Wolf Man isn't a really extreme difference. Like when I did An American Werewolf in London
, we went from this naked man to a four-legged hound from hell, and we had a lot of room to go from the transformation and do a lot of really extreme things. Here we have Benicio del Toro, who's practically the Wolf Man already, to Benicio del Toro with more hair and bigger teeth."
Baker and del Toro were adamant about the design resembling the make-up created by Jack Pierce, but Romanek went through thousands of concept art. When Johnston signed on, Baker returned to his second design, which is the finished result. The make-up took three hours to apply, and one hour to remove. New pieces of latex
prosthetic makeup
and loose hair was applied to del Toro's face each day, while several dentures
and wigs were created in case some were damaged. Baker said the transformation would likely be computer-generated, which disappointed him as he would not be involved and felt it would look unrealistic (as the animators did not have his knowledge of the design). Director Joe Johnston explained that joining the picture three weeks before photography placed limitations on his ability to film without using CG effects. He has stated, “I recognized that there were things that I was going to be able to do from the beginning to the end... and things that I had to rely on post-production for.” In reference to filming Benicio del Toro's actual transformation into the Wolfman, Johnston further explained, “I decided to basically shoot just Benicio, in the sequence where ... he transforms ... and decide in post-production what I wanted the transformation to be. That was really my main reason [for using CG]; it gave me so much more flexibility.” In February 2009, ZBrush
art of the transformation by Baker leaked online. In addition to the film, at the 2009 Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Studios Florida
added The Wolfman to the event.
The cast and crew were back on location re-shooting the movie in the grounds of The Old Royal Naval College and park in Greenwich over the weekends of May 22–25 and 30–31, 2009. The purpose of the reshoots was to change the way one werewolf looked in the movie. Previously, it stood on two legs, but now, he stands on four. Also, an action scene was added between "the Wolf Man and the Werewolf" according to Vic Armstrong.
The first trailer for The Wolfman was attached to Inglourious Basterds, which was released to theaters on August 21, 2009. The unrated director's cut is released with an exclusive Wolfman glow-in-the-dark cup and a Wolfman Dog Tag Keychain.
reports that 32% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 193 reviews, with an average score of 4.7/10. The critical consensus is: Suitably grand and special effects-laden, The Wolfman suffers from a suspense-deficient script and a surprising lack of genuine chills. It received a weighted average score of 43% on Metacritic
based on 36 reviews, indicating mixed or average reviews.
Film critic Roger Ebert
gave the film two and a half stars out of four.
Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone assigned the film one and a half stars out of four, concluding that "The Wolfman bites, but not — I think — in the way the filmmakers intended."
Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly
praised Del Toro's performance as Lawrence, comparing it favorably to Lon Chaney, Jr.'s in the original.
In 2010, The Wolfman had won the 37th award
for best make-up
.
In 2011, the film and makeup artists, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey, received an Academy Award for Best Makeup for the 83rd Academy Awards
.
and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Thus far, the film has grossed $142,634,358 worldwide, plus $20,715,505 from DVD-sales.
wrote a dark, melodic, and moody score for The Wolfman, which was rejected by the studio after the film was cut down half an hour in length and the music became too "wall-to-wall," creating what Johnston called too much repetition. Due to his not being able to come back and re-score (because he was contractually obligated to work on Tim Burton
's Alice in Wonderland
feature film), the producers decided rather than to expand on his ideas with a new composer (a path that they would eventually take), to take a gamble and attempt a different composer, along with a completely different approach, which would include extensive re-shooting of scenes. The idea was to quicken the pace and strike a similar tone to the successful Underworld films, turning a slow-paced story into a much faster one. Paul Haslinger
subsequently wrote an electronic contemporary incarnation of The Wolfman score, which the studio quickly realized was not appropriate for the 1800s Gothic setting.
Elfman's score, which was previously recorded is as a result, the one that is used in the final film instead.
Universal decided to switch back scores close to the last minute, realizing their experiment had failed. It is believed the material Haslinger did record specifically for the studio as his intended version of the score was subsequently destroyed shortly after his removal. Whether Haslinger retained any of his work for personal purposes is currently unknown. There has of late been two versions of the film Universal has known to have shown to test audiences, both featured Elfman's score in some form. Elfman's original recording was used in the final film, however, some additional music composers (Conrad Pope, Edward Shearmur, and Thomas Lindgren) were brought in to shape Elfman's score to fit the final cut of the film, as well as compose new material for the film.
Some confusion has surfaced regarding this, as many news sources are claiming Elfman never "completed" his score, sidestepping that he did, in fact, complete it, but had not re-shaped it to fit the studio's ever evolving changes. Conrad Pope, additional composer, previously worked with Elfman on Sleepy Hollow
as an orchestrator and is a frequent collaborator with composer John Williams
.
A similar situation formed for Elfman's Spider-Man 2
, where the music in the final film stood mostly separate from the original work on the CD release, which reflected the first incarnation of the score.
Varese Sarabande Records has announced a CD of Elfman's score, which is already available on iTunes. In terms of style, Elfman's Wolfman is very much inspired by the works of Bartok, Prokofiev, and Bernard Herrmann, as well as the soundtrack Wojciech Kilar
wrote for Francis Ford Coppola's
1992 version of Dracula, a film which Anthony Hopkins also co-starred in. The main theme has a similar "Eastern-European edge" to it.
Danny Elfman's version of The Wolfman score was officially released on February 23, 11 days after the film's release.
This is actually the original score Elfman made for the earlier cut of The Wolfman before it was temporarily rejected.
A believed-to-be sample of Haslinger's rejected score was released around the same time, but was ultimately confirmed a false sample by Film Score Monthly
record producer Ford A. Thaxton and Haslinger himself.
Dark ambient
musician Lustmord
mentions on his personal blog that he made "some sounds for the score". However, he is not credited for his work on the film.
Elfman's score was made available via publisher Varèse Sarabande
Rubies Costumes is making both child and adult costumes. Because costumes are sold to retailers months in advance, the Halloween costumes came out in 2009 since the film being pushed back to 2010 happened after the costumes had been shipped to retailers.
Mezco Toyz is making 7 inch and 12 inch tall Wolfman action figures. They are also producing replicas of the medallion from the film.
In early January 2010, Mezco Toyz donated the prototypes of the toys to the Museum Of The Moving Image in New York. The Company released a 7 and a 12-Inch figure, alongside publishing The Wolfman Collectible Medallion Replica.
wrote a novelization to the film, of which the paperback was released on February 2, 2010, the same day the original The Wolf Man movie was re-released on DVD with Universal's Legacy Series. It includes a scene early in the story which explains how Lawrence obtained the cane with a silver wolf's head (which features prominently in the original film but only sparingly in the remake), with Lawrence exchanging his ordinary wooden cane with an elderly Frenchman for the silver wolf's head cane on his initial trip to Blackmoor. It also has Gwen and her father owning an apothecary rather than an antiques shop, suggesting this was changed during the remake's development to be closer to the original film.
has claimed that an extended cut of the film will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Joe Johnston stated that the 17 minutes of additional footage will be re-instated on the extended cut.
Johnston said the reason for deleting the 17 minutes from the final cut was "to push the story along so that audiences would get to the first Wolfman transformation sooner."
The extra footage contains the origin of the silver cane-sword and also the uncredited and completely removed part played by Max von Sydow
who was the original owner of the cane. Though Max von Sydow's credit is absent from the theatrical cut, there is still a credit for "Assistant to Mr. von Sydow."
The release date for the UK has also been announced, although it has gone through changes; originally it was thought to be announced for June 14, but it was later confirmed for June 7.
A limited edition in Steelbook packaging, exclusive to the UK, is available on Blu-ray Disc. The UK Standard Definition DVD only contains the Extended Director's Cut and the Deleted Scenes.
The Blu-ray Disc includes many special features and featurettes on the making of the film, including two alternate endings of the film. The only special features included on the standard DVD are a set of deleted and extended scenes. Best Buy has released an exclusive 2-Disc DVD set that includes a bonus disc featuring most of the BD features, and also includes the standard DVD with the extended and deleted scenes.
Also to appear on the Blu-ray Disc version will be the opportunity for viewers to stream the original 1941 version of The Wolf Man.
The original Universal Studios logo used in the original Wolfman movie was inserted at the very beginning of the Uncut version, either as way to pay homage and respect to the original Wolfman and the original Universal Horror films
or to foreshadow the return of the Universal Monster movies
.
, Ed Quinn
, and Steven Bauer
have been confirmed for the film. Bauer confirmed he will play a hunter.
Joe Johnston
Joseph Eggleston "Joe" Johnston II is an American film director and former effects artist best known for such effects-driven movies as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Jumanji, The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III, the period drama October Sky, The Wolfman, and Captain America: The First Avenger.- Life and...
, the film stars Benicio del Toro
Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican and Spanish actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic . He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual...
, Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
, Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
and Hugo Weaving
Hugo Weaving
Hugo Wallace Weaving is a Nigerian born, English-Australian film actor and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy, Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, "V" in V for Vendetta, and performances in numerous Australian character dramas.-Early...
. It was released on February 10, 2010 in France and in the United States on February 12, 2010.
While receiving mostly mixed reviews by critics, the film grossed more than $140 million worldwide and found more success in DVD/Blu-ray sales and won an Academy Award for Best Makeup.
Plot
The film opens as the elderly gypsy, Maleva (Geraldine ChaplinGeraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
), recites an old rhyme:
- Even a man who is pure of heart
- and says his prayers by night
- may become a wolf when the wolfsbaneAconitumAconitum , known as aconite, monkshood, wolfsbane, leopard's bane, women's bane, Devil's helmet or blue rocket, is a genus of over 250 species of flowering plants belonging to the buttercup family .-Overview:These herbaceous perennial plants are chiefly natives of the mountainous parts of the...
blooms - and the autumn moon is bright.
In 1891, Ben Talbot (Simon Merrells) is confronted by a ultrahuman wolf-like creature in the Blackmoor woods. He tries to escape, but is mauled and killed by the beast.
Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
), Ben's fiancée, has contacted his brother, Lawrence Talbot (Benicio del Toro
Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican and Spanish actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic . He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual...
), the world-renowned Shakespearean actor, saying that Ben disappeared a month ago. Lawrence leaves his theater tour to return to his family's estate in Blackmoor where he has an uneasy reunion with his estranged father, Sir John (Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
). Later, it is revealed that Lawrence's mother, Solana (Christina Contes), had committed suicide when he was a boy. Lawrence saw his father standing over her dead body, after which, Sir John sent his young son to an insane asylum in London, ostensibly for suffering delusions.
Ben's body, found the day before, has been stored at a slaughterhouse. When Lawrence views his brother's remains, he is horrified—Ben has been viciously mauled. Among Ben's personal effects is a medallion embossed with a monk encircled by three wolves that Ben apparently purchased from gypsies. Later, at the local pub, Lawrence overhears the locals discussing the killing. Many blame the gypsies who are camped outside the town, while another patron claims there was a similar murder several decades earlier, and a werewolf was the suspected killer.
After Gwen returns to London, Lawrence visits the gypsies during a full moon. Maleva, an old gypsy woman, tells him something evil had befallen his brother. The local townspeople then raid the camp to confiscate a dancing bear
Dancing Bear
Dancing Bear is a Croatian record label.Croatian artists that released their albums on the label include The Bambi Molesters, Daleka obala, Darko Rundek, Dino Dvornik, Gustafi, Hladno pivo, Ibrica Jusić, Dunja Knebl, Kojoti, Leteći odred and Majke....
they believe is the killer. But a wolf-like creature suddenly attacks, slaughtering many people. Lawrence chases a frightened young boy who has run into the woods, but Lawrence is savagely bitten by the creature. The townspeople chase it off before Lawrence is killed. As Maleva sutures his neck wounds, her daughter insists Lawrence should be killed. Maleva refuses, saying he is still a man and that only a loved one can release him.
Gwen returns to Talbot Hall to care for Lawrence. He suffers several fitful dreams, but after a few weeks, appears to have completely recovered. Sir John's faithful Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
manservant, Singh (Art Malik
Art Malik
Art Malik is a Pakistani-born British actor who achieved international fame in the 1980s through his starring and subsidiary roles in assorted British and Merchant-Ivory television serials and films...
), shows Lawrence the silver bullets he has and implies that something monstrous is loose in Blackmoor. Inspector Aberline
Frederick Abberline
Frederick George Abberline was a Chief Inspector for the London Metropolitan Police and was a prominent police figure in the investigation into the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.-Early life:...
(Hugo Weaving
Hugo Weaving
Hugo Wallace Weaving is a Nigerian born, English-Australian film actor and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy, Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, "V" in V for Vendetta, and performances in numerous Australian character dramas.-Early...
) arrives from London to investigate the recent murders. He suspects Lawrence is responsible based on his mental history and masterful portrayals of mentally-ill protagonists such as Hamlet and Macbeth. As the night comes near, several hunters from the town take position in the woods, waiting for the beast to appear. Worried about what might happen, Lawrence sends Gwen away. He then follows Sir John to Solana's crypt. Beneath the crypt is a catacomb containing a shrine to Lawrence's dead mother. There is also a chair specially fitted with restraints. Sir John tells Lawrence that he has been "dead" for years, then locks himself into the room alone. As Lawrence is leaving, he undergoes a painful transformation into a wolf-like creature. Lawrence, now the Wolfman, runs off to the woods and kills the hunters stationed in the woods. The next day, Sir John leads Aberline and the local police to where a dazed, bloodied, and now-human Lawrence is hiding.
Taken to the same asylum he was committed at as a child, Lawrence is subjected to ice-water and electrotherapy
Electrotherapy
Electrotherapy is the use of electrical energy as a medical treatment In medicine, the term electrotherapy can apply to a variety of treatments, including the use of electrical devices such as deep brain stimulators for neurological disease. The term has also been applied specifically to the use of...
treatments overseen by the sadistic Dr. Hoenneger (Antony Sher
Antony Sher
Sir Antony Sher, KBE is a double Olivier Award winning South African-born British actor, writer, theatre director and painter.- Early years :...
). Sir John visits Lawrence and explains that many years before while hunting in India, he was bitten by a feral boy infected with lycanthropy
Lycanthropy
Lycanthropy is the professed ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a werewolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from Greek Lykànthropos : λύκος, lykos + άνθρωπος, ànthrōpos...
. Lawrence realizes that he saw his father, transformed as a werewolf, kill his mother. Sir John has relied on Singh to imprison him during full moons. Yet one night, Sir John became drunk and got into a heated argument with Ben. Having knocked Singh out and unable to lock himself in, Sir John killed Ben and attacked the gypsy camp. Now intoxicated by the werewolf's immense power, Sir John no longer intends to restrain that potency.
Dr. Hoenneger presents Lawrence, strapped in a chair, to his colleagues as an interesting case study. He claims that when Lawrence is forced to see the moon and his own self unchanged, in front of "all these witnesses", he will be made to see his delusion for what it is, just that, which will be the first step in the beginning of his recovery. Inspector Aberline is also in attendance. As the full moon streams through the window, Lawrence, transforming into the Wolfman, breaks loose and kills Hoenneger. Pursued by Aberline, the Wolfman runs off and goes on a bloody rampage in the streets of London. The next day, the now-human Lawrence goes to Gwen's antique shop for help. The two realize they are falling in love. Aberline arrives and searches the shop, but Lawrence has already escaped and begun the long trek back to Blackmoor.
Gwen studies lycanthropy to find a cure, and tracks down Maleva for help. Maleva confirms that Lawrence cannot be saved and asks God to help Gwen to do what she must. Aberline tracks Lawrence to Blackmoor, this time armed with silver bullets. Gwen also makes her way to Blackmoor.
Lawrence arrives at Talbot Hall and finds Singh's mutilated body hanging in the foyer. He loads a gun with Singh's silver bullets, but when he attempts to shoot Sir John, he discovers that Sir John had secretly removed the powder from the cartridges years ago. When the full moon rises, both transform into werewolves. A vicious fight erupts, they knock over lamps, setting fire to the estate, and Lawrence kills his father. Gwen arrives hoping to save Lawrence, he tries to pounce at her but the Inspector arrives as he is about to attack her. Inspector Aberline bursts in and attempts to shoot the Wolfman, but Gwen disrupts the shot, then flees with Aberline's revolver. The Wolfman bites Aberline, but chases Gwen rather than finish him off.
The Wolfman traps Gwen above a gorge. She pleads with Lawrence, whose consciousness faintly recognizes her. As he hesitates, Gwen shoots him with a silver bullet. As he lies dying, the Wolfman transforms back to Lawrence and thanks Gwen for doing what needed to be done. The wounded Aberline arrives, along with the mob, as Lawrence dies in peace.
Gwen's parting words are heard:
- "It is said there is no sin in killing a beast
- Only in killing a man
- But where does one begin and the other end?"
Aberline looks lost and dismayed, not just at the chaotic scene around him: noisy mob, burning estate, Lawrence and Gwen, but with realization and horror at the bite wound in his shoulder and then at the moon and what will be his inevitable fate.
Overlooking a burning Talbot Hall in the distance, the Wolfman's howl is heard once more, which might imply that Aberline is now the new Wolfman, as he was bitten by the Wolfman Lawrence.
Cast
- Benicio del ToroBenicio del ToroBenicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican and Spanish actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic . He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual...
as Lawrence Talbot / The Wolfman - Anthony HopkinsAnthony HopkinsSir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
as Sir John Talbot - Emily BluntEmily BluntEmily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
as Gwen Conliffe - Hugo WeavingHugo WeavingHugo Wallace Weaving is a Nigerian born, English-Australian film actor and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy, Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, "V" in V for Vendetta, and performances in numerous Australian character dramas.-Early...
as Inspector Francis Aberline - Geraldine ChaplinGeraldine ChaplinGeraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
as Maleva - Art MalikArt MalikArt Malik is a Pakistani-born British actor who achieved international fame in the 1980s through his starring and subsidiary roles in assorted British and Merchant-Ivory television serials and films...
as Singh - Antony SherAntony SherSir Antony Sher, KBE is a double Olivier Award winning South African-born British actor, writer, theatre director and painter.- Early years :...
as Dr. Hoenneger - David SchofieldDavid Schofield (actor)David Schofield is an English actor who was born in Wythenshawe, Manchester, Lancashire in 1951. He has appeared in numerous television programmes and feature films during his career.-Early life:...
as Constable Nye - Simon Merrells as Ben Talbot
- Cristina Contes as Solana Talbot
- Michael Cronin as Dr. Lloyd
- Nicholas Day as Colonel Montford
- Clive RussellClive RussellClive Russell is a British actor.Clive was born in Reeth, England and brought up in Fife, Scotland.He is a familiar face on British television and has appeared in numerous television series including Boys From the Black Stuff ,Hope And Glory, Neverwhere, Great Expectations, The Mists of Avalon,...
as MacQueen - Roger Frost as Reverend Fisk
- Shaun SmithShaun SmithShaun Smith is a former Australian rules footballer in the VFL/AFL.Originally from the Ainslie Football Club in the Australian Capital Territory, but recruited from Werribee and debuting in the Australian Football League in 1987, Smith is best known for his incredible leap and ability to take...
as Carter
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
appears as an elderly man who gives Lawrence the wolf-head cane; his part was cut from the theatrical film but is restored on the DVD release. Make-up artist Rick Baker makes a cameo appearance as the Gypsy man who is the first killed. The Wolfman's howl incorporated elements from Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, actor, and rock bassist. Known as "The Demon", he is the bassist/vocalist of Kiss, a hard rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s.-Early life:...
and David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....
, as well as opera singers and animal impersonators.
Production
In March 2006, Universal PicturesUniversal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
announced the remake of The Wolf Man with actor Benicio del Toro, a fan of the original and collector of Wolf Man memorabilia in the lead role. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker
Andrew Kevin Walker
Andrew Kevin Walker is an American BAFTA-nominated screenwriter. He is known for having written the Academy Award-nominated film Seven , for which he earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, as well as several other films, including 8mm , Sleepy Hollow and many...
was attached to the screenplay, developing the original film's story to include additional characters as well as plot points that would take advantage of modern visual effects. Del Toro also looked towards Werewolf of London
Werewolf of London
Werewolf of London is a 1935 Horror/werewolf movie starring Henry Hull and produced by Universal Pictures. Jack Pierce's eerie werewolf make-up was simpler than his version six years later for Lon Chaney, Jr., in The Wolf Man but, according to film historians, remains strikingly effective as worn...
and The Curse of the Werewolf
The Curse of the Werewolf
The Curse of the Werewolf is a British film based on the novel The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore. The film was made by the British film studio Hammer Film Productions and was shot at Bray Studios.-Plot:...
for inspiration.
In February 2007, director Mark Romanek
Mark Romanek
Mark Romanek is an American filmmaker, whose directing work includes feature films, music videos and commercials.He wrote and directed the critically acclaimed 2002 film One Hour Photo starring Robin Williams...
was attached to helm The Wolfman. In January 2008, Romanek left the project because of creative differences. Brett Ratner
Brett Ratner
Brett Ratner is an American film director, film producer and music video director. He is best known for directing the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Tower Heist. He was also a producer on the Fox drama series, Prison Break.- Early life :Ratner was...
emerged as a frontrunner to replace Romanek, but the studio also met with Frank Darabont
Frank Darabont
Frank Darabont is a Hungarian-American film director, screenwriter and producer who has been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Golden Globe. He has directed the films The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist, all based on stories by Stephen King...
, James Mangold
James Mangold
James Allen Mangold is an American film director and screenwriter. He is perhaps best known for Walk the Line which he co-wrote and directed.-Life and career:...
and Joe Johnston
Joe Johnston
Joseph Eggleston "Joe" Johnston II is an American film director and former effects artist best known for such effects-driven movies as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Jumanji, The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III, the period drama October Sky, The Wolfman, and Captain America: The First Avenger.- Life and...
. They were also interested in Bill Condon
Bill Condon
William "Bill" Condon is an American screenwriter and director. Condon is best known for directing and writing the critically acclaimed films Gods and Monsters, Chicago, Kinsey, and Dreamgirls. In 1998, Condon debuted as a screenwriter in Gods and Monsters, which won him his first Academy Award....
, and Martin Campbell
Martin Campbell
-Life and career:Campbell was born in Hastings, New Zealand. He directed two James Bond films, 1995's GoldenEye, starring Pierce Brosnan, and 2006's Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, and was the first Bond director since John Glen to direct more than one film, as well as the oldest director in...
was interested. Johnston was hired to direct on February 3, 2008, and the film's shooting schedule and budget remained as intended. Johnston hired David Self
David Self
-Current projects:David Self is writing two separate screenplays for films based on superheroes Deathlok and Captain America. The screenwriter also wrote an early draft based on another superhero, Namor...
to rewrite the script.
Shooting took place from March 3 to June 23, 2008, in the United Kingdom. At that time the film was budgeted at US$85 million. They shot at Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios is a major British film studio situated in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, approximately west of central London. The studios have played host to many productions over the years from huge blockbuster films to television shows to commercials to pop promos.The purchase of Shepperton...
in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, Chatsworth, Derbyshire
Chatsworth, Derbyshire
Chatsworth is a civil parish in Derbyshire, England, within the area of the Derbyshire Dales and the Peak District National Park.The population is largely in and around Chatsworth House and is considered to be too low to justify a parish council...
, and Castle Combe
Castle Combe
Castle Combe is a small village in Wiltshire, England, with a population of about 350. It is renowned for its attractiveness and tranquillity, and for fine buildings including the medieval church. The 14th century market cross, erected when the privilege to hold a weekly market in Castle Combe was...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
. They transformed Chatsworth House
Chatsworth House
Chatsworth House is a stately home in North Derbyshire, England, northeast of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield . It is the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, and has been home to his family, the Cavendish family, since Bess of Hardwick settled at Chatsworth in 1549.Standing on the east bank of the...
by adding weeds, dead grass and ivy. They also shot in Lacock
Lacock
Lacock is a village in Wiltshire, England, 3 miles from the town of Chippenham. The village is owned almost in its entirety by the National Trust, and attracts many visitors by virtue of its unspoiled appearance.-History:...
in Wiltshire, a village conserved by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
, for a day. Universal donated £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
5000 to the village, in return for filming in the tithe barn
Tithe barn
A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing the tithes - a tenth of the farm's produce which had to be given to the church....
for a scene involving frozen corpses. A funeral scene was also shot beside the Temple of Ancient Virtue at Stowe House
Stowe House
Stowe House is a Grade I listed country house located in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school. The gardens , a significant example of the English Landscape Garden style, along with part of the Park, passed into the ownership of The National Trust...
, with the temple coated in false ivy and copious amounts of smoke/mist floating over the setting. There was also scenes filmed on Dartmoor, Devon at Foggintor Quarry.Pick-ups at Pinewood were conducted in May 2009.
Rick Baker created the make-up for The Wolfman. When he heard Universal was remaking the film, he eagerly pursued it, as both The Wolf Man and Frankenstein
Frankenstein (1931 film)
Frankenstein is a 1931 Pre-Code Horror Monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff, and features...
inspired him to become a make-up artist as a child. He acknowledged transforming del Toro was not difficult because he is a hairy man: "Going from Benicio to Benicio as the Wolf Man isn't a really extreme difference. Like when I did An American Werewolf in London
An American Werewolf in London
An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 British-American horror film, written and directed by John Landis. It stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, and Griffin Dunne....
, we went from this naked man to a four-legged hound from hell, and we had a lot of room to go from the transformation and do a lot of really extreme things. Here we have Benicio del Toro, who's practically the Wolf Man already, to Benicio del Toro with more hair and bigger teeth."
Latex
Latex is the stable dispersion of polymer microparticles in an aqueous medium. Latexes may be natural or synthetic.Latex as found in nature is a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants . It is a complex emulsion consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins,...
prosthetic makeup
Prosthetic makeup
Prosthetic makeup is the process of using prosthetic sculpting, molding and casting techniques to create advanced cosmetic effects...
and loose hair was applied to del Toro's face each day, while several dentures
Dentures
Dentures are prosthetic devices constructed to replace missing teeth, and which are supported by surrounding soft and hard tissues of the oral cavity. Conventional dentures are removable, however there are many different denture designs, some which rely on bonding or clasping onto teeth or dental...
and wigs were created in case some were damaged. Baker said the transformation would likely be computer-generated, which disappointed him as he would not be involved and felt it would look unrealistic (as the animators did not have his knowledge of the design). Director Joe Johnston explained that joining the picture three weeks before photography placed limitations on his ability to film without using CG effects. He has stated, “I recognized that there were things that I was going to be able to do from the beginning to the end... and things that I had to rely on post-production for.” In reference to filming Benicio del Toro's actual transformation into the Wolfman, Johnston further explained, “I decided to basically shoot just Benicio, in the sequence where ... he transforms ... and decide in post-production what I wanted the transformation to be. That was really my main reason [for using CG]; it gave me so much more flexibility.” In February 2009, ZBrush
ZBrush
ZBrush is a digital sculpting tool that combines 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing and painting. It uses a proprietary "pixol" technology which stores lighting, color, material, and depth information for all objects on the screen...
art of the transformation by Baker leaked online. In addition to the film, at the 2009 Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida is an American theme park located in Orlando, Florida. Opened on June 7, 1990, the park's theme is the entertainment industry, in particular movies and television. Universal Studios Florida inspires its guests to "ride the movies," and it features numerous attractions and...
added The Wolfman to the event.
Release
During the course of its production, The Wolfman saw its release date postponed several times. Originally scheduled for a November 12, 2008 release, it was first pushed back to February 12, 2009. Then, in April 2008, it got moved to April 3, 2009. In December 2008, Universal moved the release to November 6, 2009. Finally, the film was yet again moved in late July 2009 to February 12, 2010. In most European countries the film was released on February 10 and 11, 2010. The film premiered in Rome on January 27, 2010.The cast and crew were back on location re-shooting the movie in the grounds of The Old Royal Naval College and park in Greenwich over the weekends of May 22–25 and 30–31, 2009. The purpose of the reshoots was to change the way one werewolf looked in the movie. Previously, it stood on two legs, but now, he stands on four. Also, an action scene was added between "the Wolf Man and the Werewolf" according to Vic Armstrong.
The first trailer for The Wolfman was attached to Inglourious Basterds, which was released to theaters on August 21, 2009. The unrated director's cut is released with an exclusive Wolfman glow-in-the-dark cup and a Wolfman Dog Tag Keychain.
Critical reception
The film has received generally unfavorable reviews. Review aggregate Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports that 32% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 193 reviews, with an average score of 4.7/10. The critical consensus is: Suitably grand and special effects-laden, The Wolfman suffers from a suspense-deficient script and a surprising lack of genuine chills. It received a weighted average score of 43% on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
based on 36 reviews, indicating mixed or average reviews.
Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film two and a half stars out of four.
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone assigned the film one and a half stars out of four, concluding that "The Wolfman bites, but not — I think — in the way the filmmakers intended."
Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
praised Del Toro's performance as Lawrence, comparing it favorably to Lon Chaney, Jr.'s in the original.
In 2010, The Wolfman had won the 37th award
37th Saturn Awards
The 37th Saturn Awards, honoring the best in science fiction, fantasy and horror film and television in 2010 were held on June 23, 2011.-Best Science Fiction Film:*Inception*Hereafter*Iron Man 2*Never Let Me Go*Splice...
for best make-up
Saturn Award for Best Make-up
The following is a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Make-up:...
.
In 2011, the film and makeup artists, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey, received an Academy Award for Best Makeup for the 83rd Academy Awards
83rd Academy Awards
The 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2010 and took place February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, Academy Awards ...
.
Box office
The film grossed $19,850,000 on its opening day, and $31,479,235 in its opening weekend, coming in third at the box office after Valentine's DayValentine's Day (film)
Valentine's Day is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall and based on the novel by Michael Connelly. The screenplay and the story was written by Katherine Fugate, Ivan Reitman, Jason Reitman, Akiva Goldsman, Rob Reiner, P. J...
and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Thus far, the film has grossed $142,634,358 worldwide, plus $20,715,505 from DVD-sales.
Soundtrack
It was reported that Danny ElfmanDanny Elfman
Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman is an American composer, best known for scoring music for television and film. Up until 1995, he was the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band Oingo Boingo, a group he formed in 1976...
wrote a dark, melodic, and moody score for The Wolfman, which was rejected by the studio after the film was cut down half an hour in length and the music became too "wall-to-wall," creating what Johnston called too much repetition. Due to his not being able to come back and re-score (because he was contractually obligated to work on Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
's Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American computer-animated/live action fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures...
feature film), the producers decided rather than to expand on his ideas with a new composer (a path that they would eventually take), to take a gamble and attempt a different composer, along with a completely different approach, which would include extensive re-shooting of scenes. The idea was to quicken the pace and strike a similar tone to the successful Underworld films, turning a slow-paced story into a much faster one. Paul Haslinger
Paul Haslinger
Paul Haslinger is an Austrian-born composer and musician currently based in Los Angeles, California.- Life and career :...
subsequently wrote an electronic contemporary incarnation of The Wolfman score, which the studio quickly realized was not appropriate for the 1800s Gothic setting.
Elfman's score, which was previously recorded is as a result, the one that is used in the final film instead.
Universal decided to switch back scores close to the last minute, realizing their experiment had failed. It is believed the material Haslinger did record specifically for the studio as his intended version of the score was subsequently destroyed shortly after his removal. Whether Haslinger retained any of his work for personal purposes is currently unknown. There has of late been two versions of the film Universal has known to have shown to test audiences, both featured Elfman's score in some form. Elfman's original recording was used in the final film, however, some additional music composers (Conrad Pope, Edward Shearmur, and Thomas Lindgren) were brought in to shape Elfman's score to fit the final cut of the film, as well as compose new material for the film.
Some confusion has surfaced regarding this, as many news sources are claiming Elfman never "completed" his score, sidestepping that he did, in fact, complete it, but had not re-shaped it to fit the studio's ever evolving changes. Conrad Pope, additional composer, previously worked with Elfman on Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy Hollow (film)
Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American period horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely inspired by the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and stars Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Marc Pickering, Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones,...
as an orchestrator and is a frequent collaborator with composer John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
.
A similar situation formed for Elfman's Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
, where the music in the final film stood mostly separate from the original work on the CD release, which reflected the first incarnation of the score.
Varese Sarabande Records has announced a CD of Elfman's score, which is already available on iTunes. In terms of style, Elfman's Wolfman is very much inspired by the works of Bartok, Prokofiev, and Bernard Herrmann, as well as the soundtrack Wojciech Kilar
Wojciech Kilar
Wojciech Kilar ; b. 17 July 1932 in Lwów, Poland) is a Polish classical and film music composer.-Biography:Wojciech Kilar is one of Poland’s esteemed composers. Born in 1932 in Lwów . His father was a gynecologist and his mother was a theater actress...
wrote for Francis Ford Coppola's
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
1992 version of Dracula, a film which Anthony Hopkins also co-starred in. The main theme has a similar "Eastern-European edge" to it.
Danny Elfman's version of The Wolfman score was officially released on February 23, 11 days after the film's release.
This is actually the original score Elfman made for the earlier cut of The Wolfman before it was temporarily rejected.
A believed-to-be sample of Haslinger's rejected score was released around the same time, but was ultimately confirmed a false sample by Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly is an online magazine founded by editor-in-chief and executive producer Lukas Kendall in June 1990 as The Soundtrack Correspondence List...
record producer Ford A. Thaxton and Haslinger himself.
Dark ambient
Dark ambient
Dark ambient is a subgenre of ambient music that features foreboding, ominous, or discordant overtones. Although it had its roots in the 1970s, Dark ambient emerged in the 1980s and 1990s with the introduction of newer, smaller, and more affordable Effects units, synthesizer and sampling technology...
musician Lustmord
Lustmord
Brian Williams is a British electronic musician often credited for creating the dark ambient genre with albums recorded under the name Lustmord.- History :Williams started recording as Lustmord in 1980 before joining SPK in 1982...
mentions on his personal blog that he made "some sounds for the score". However, he is not credited for his work on the film.
Elfman's score was made available via publisher Varèse Sarabande
Varèse Sarabande
Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums as well as newer releases by artists no longer under a contract...
Merchandising
Several companies are involved in the merchandising of the film.Rubies Costumes is making both child and adult costumes. Because costumes are sold to retailers months in advance, the Halloween costumes came out in 2009 since the film being pushed back to 2010 happened after the costumes had been shipped to retailers.
Mezco Toyz is making 7 inch and 12 inch tall Wolfman action figures. They are also producing replicas of the medallion from the film.
In early January 2010, Mezco Toyz donated the prototypes of the toys to the Museum Of The Moving Image in New York. The Company released a 7 and a 12-Inch figure, alongside publishing The Wolfman Collectible Medallion Replica.
Novelization
Jonathan MaberryJonathan Maberry
Jonathan Maberry is the multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Ghost Road Blues, the first of the Pine Deep Trilogy, a series of supernatural horror novels...
wrote a novelization to the film, of which the paperback was released on February 2, 2010, the same day the original The Wolf Man movie was re-released on DVD with Universal's Legacy Series. It includes a scene early in the story which explains how Lawrence obtained the cane with a silver wolf's head (which features prominently in the original film but only sparingly in the remake), with Lawrence exchanging his ordinary wooden cane with an elderly Frenchman for the silver wolf's head cane on his initial trip to Blackmoor. It also has Gwen and her father owning an apothecary rather than an antiques shop, suggesting this was changed during the remake's development to be closer to the original film.
Extended cut
Director Joe JohnstonJoe Johnston
Joseph Eggleston "Joe" Johnston II is an American film director and former effects artist best known for such effects-driven movies as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Jumanji, The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III, the period drama October Sky, The Wolfman, and Captain America: The First Avenger.- Life and...
has claimed that an extended cut of the film will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Joe Johnston stated that the 17 minutes of additional footage will be re-instated on the extended cut.
Johnston said the reason for deleting the 17 minutes from the final cut was "to push the story along so that audiences would get to the first Wolfman transformation sooner."
The extra footage contains the origin of the silver cane-sword and also the uncredited and completely removed part played by Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
who was the original owner of the cane. Though Max von Sydow's credit is absent from the theatrical cut, there is still a credit for "Assistant to Mr. von Sydow."
Home media
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in the US on June 1, 2010. Both editions include the theatrical version and the new director's cut, which incorporates 17 minutes of footage back into the film.The release date for the UK has also been announced, although it has gone through changes; originally it was thought to be announced for June 14, but it was later confirmed for June 7.
A limited edition in Steelbook packaging, exclusive to the UK, is available on Blu-ray Disc. The UK Standard Definition DVD only contains the Extended Director's Cut and the Deleted Scenes.
The Blu-ray Disc includes many special features and featurettes on the making of the film, including two alternate endings of the film. The only special features included on the standard DVD are a set of deleted and extended scenes. Best Buy has released an exclusive 2-Disc DVD set that includes a bonus disc featuring most of the BD features, and also includes the standard DVD with the extended and deleted scenes.
Also to appear on the Blu-ray Disc version will be the opportunity for viewers to stream the original 1941 version of The Wolf Man.
The original Universal Studios logo used in the original Wolfman movie was inserted at the very beginning of the Uncut version, either as way to pay homage and respect to the original Wolfman and the original Universal Horror films
Universal Monsters
Universal Monsters or Universal Horror is the name given to a series of distinctive horror, suspense and science fiction films made by Universal Studios from 1923 to 1960...
or to foreshadow the return of the Universal Monster movies
Universal Monsters
Universal Monsters or Universal Horror is the name given to a series of distinctive horror, suspense and science fiction films made by Universal Studios from 1923 to 1960...
.
Reboot
Despite not doing well at the box office, Universal originally planned a series of direct-to-video sequels but later reworked the project to produce a reboot instead. The reboot has the tentative title Werewolf and will be connected to the Original Wolfman film rather than the recent remake. Stephen ReaStephen Rea
Stephen Rea is an Irish film and stage actor. Rea has appeared in high profile films such as V for Vendetta, Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire and Breakfast on Pluto...
, Ed Quinn
Ed Quinn
Arthur Edward "Ed" Quinn is an American model and actor who has appeared in several film and TV roles, including Eureka, Starship Troopers 2, Young Americans and True Blood.-Early life:...
, and Steven Bauer
Steven Bauer
Steven Bauer is a Cuban-American actor. He is known for his role as Manny Ribera in the 1983 film Scarface, and his role on the bilingual PBS show Que Pasa, USA.-Early life:...
have been confirmed for the film. Bauer confirmed he will play a hunter.