The Wolfman is a 2010 American Gothic horror film directed by Joe Johnston, from a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self. A remake of the 1941 film The Wolf Man, it stars Benicio del Toro (who also produced), Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving. The film's story follows an actor who, after his brother's brutal murder, returns from the United States to his ancestral homeland in England, where he gets bitten by a werewolf and is cursed to become one.
Mark Romanek was originally attached to direct the film but left weeks before filming due to creative differences and budgetary issues. Johnston was hired four weeks before principal photography, under the impression he could shoot the film in 80 days as Universal intended. However, reshoots extended production, inflated the budget, and delayed the film's release several times. The film underwent numerous alternative versions during post-production. Danny Elfman was briefly replaced by Paul Haslinger as the film's composer; however, the studio changed back to Elfman's previously completed score a month before the film's release after finding Haslinger's electronic-based score unsuitable.
The Wolfman was theatrically released on February 12, 2010, by Universal Pictures, and received mixed reviews, although the makeup received praise. The film was a financial failure, grossing $142.6 million against a production budget of $150 million. For their work on the film, Rick Baker and makeup effects supervisor Dave Elsey won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the 83rd Academy Awards.
Plot In 1891, a man named Ben Talbot is killed by a humanoid wolf in the woods of Blackmoor. His mutilated body is found in a slaughterhouse. After learning of what happened, his brother Lawrence returns home, and reunites with his estranged father Sir John.
Some locals believe the killer to be a wild animal; many others blame the Romani camped outside Blackmoor. Another local claims that there was a similar murder twenty-five years earlier; a werewolf was the suspected killer. Lawrence tours his family's house. He recalls his childhood memory of seeing his mother Solana seemingly die by suicide, with Sir John standing over her corpse. He consequently suffered from delusions connected to the event and was sent to Lambeth Hospital in London for a year.
Lawrence visits the Romani during a full moon. The townspeople, led by Constable Nye, raid the camp to confiscate a dancing bear which they believe is the killer. The werewolf attacks the camp, kills Nye and some of the Romani and townspeople, bites Lawrence and escapes. Maleva, a Romani woman, sutures Lawrence's wounds. Another Romani insists that the now-cursed Lawrence should be killed before he kills others. Maleva says that only a loved one can release him.
After a night of feverish dreams, Lawrence recovers with unnatural speed and develops great vitality and heightened senses. Inspector Francis Aberline arrives to investigate, suspecting that Lawrence is responsible based on his mental history. Terrified of harming Gwen Conliffe, Ben's fiancée who is staying with the Talbots, Lawrence sends her to London. He later follows Sir John to Solana's crypt. There, Sir John locks himself in a room and gives Lawrence a cryptic warning. Lawrence turns into a werewolf before running off into the woods and killing hunters.
The next morning, Aberline and the police arrest Lawrence. Taken back to Lambeth, Lawrence is subjected to hellish treatments, both mental and physical, overseen by Dr. Hoenneger. Sir John visits Lawrence, explaining that twenty-five years before, during a hunting expedition in the Hindu Kush in India, he was bitten by a boy infected with lycanthropy. Sir John was the werewolf who bit Lawrence and is responsible for the recent murders, including Solana and Ben. He made Singh lock him up every full moon night and contemplated suicide for years. Now insane, Sir John has come to embrace his curse and has decided to let himself loose during his transformations. Knowing that the moon will be full, he leaves a razor in case Lawrence contemplates suicide.
By nightfall, Hoenneger conducts a lecture with Lawrence as a case study. Lawrence attempts to warn the attendees of the impending danger, but to no avail. Transforming once more, Lawrence kills Hoenegger and some orderlies before escaping and going on a rampage. The next day, Lawrence visits Gwen's antique shop for help. They admit their love for each other and kiss. Aberline waits outside Talbot Hall, arming himself and accompanying policemen with silver bullets. Gwen searches for Maleva hoping to cure Lawrence. However, Maleva says that there is no cure and that she must kill Lawrence herself.
Lawrence arrives at Talbot Hall, where Sir John has killed Singh and one of Aberline's men. He loads a gun with Singh's silver bullets and attempts to shoot Sir John. However, he realizes too late that Sir John had sabotaged the cartridges. As the two struggle, the full moon arises and the Talbots transform into werewolves. During their fight, they set Talbot Hall on fire. Lawrence eventually decapitates Sir John. Gwen and Aberline then arrive, and Lawrence attacks Aberline, biting him. Gwen picks up Aberline's pistol and flees into the nearby woods.
Still in his werewolf form, Lawrence pursues Gwen and corners her above a gorge. She pleads with Lawrence, and he spares her life. The hunting party approaches, distracting Lawrence long enough for Gwen to grant him mercy and end his life with shot in his heart from Aberline's gun. Lawrence reverts to human form, thanking Gwen for setting him free, and dies on her lap. Meanwhile, a wounded and horrified Aberline watches the full moon come into view. As Talbot Hall burns in the distance, the werewolf's howl is heard one last time.
Cast
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 in the unrated director's cut. Makeup effects creator Rick Baker makes a cameo appearance as the Romani man who is the first killed. The Wolfman's howl incorporated elements from rock singers Gene Simmons and David Lee Roth, as well as opera singers and animal impersonators.
Production
Development
In March 2006, Universal Pictures announced the remake of The Wolf Man with actor Benicio del Toro, a huge 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. Romanek's original vision was to "infuse a balance of cinema in a popcorn movie scenario", stating, "When there’s a certain amount of money involved, these things make studios and producers a little nervous. They don’t necessarily understand it or they feel that the balance will swing too far to something esoteric, and we could never come to an agreement on the right balance for that type of thing. Ultimately it made more sense for them to find a director that was gonna fulfill their idea of the film that they wanted, and we just sort of parted ways."
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 3 February 2008, and the film's shooting schedule and budget remained as intended. Johnston hired David Self to rewrite the script.
Filming Shooting took place from 3 March to 23 June 2008, in Britain. At that time, the film was budgeted at US$85 million. They shot at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, Chatsworth in 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 (the butcher's barn and external shots). Universal donated £5,000 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 were also scenes filmed on Dartmoor, Devon at Foggintor Quarry. Pick-ups at Pinewood were conducted in May 2009.
The cast and crew were back on location, reshooting the film in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College and park in Greenwich over the weekends of 22–25 and 30–31 May 2009. The purpose of the reshoots was to change the way one werewolf looked in the film. Previously, it stood on two legs, but now, it stands on four. Also, an action scene was added between "the Wolf Man and the Werewolf" according to second unit director Vic Armstrong.
Visual effects
Rick Baker created the makeup 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 makeup 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 makeup created by Jack Pierce for the 1941 film, but Romanek went through thousands of concept art renderings. When Johnston signed on, Baker returned to his second design, which is the finished result. The makeup 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 film three weeks before photography placed limitations on his ability to film without using CGI effects. He has stated, “I recognised 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 CGI; it gave me so much more flexibility."30 Ninjas Interview Wolfman Director Joe Johnston on Make-up VS CGI 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.
Music