Stars Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro at the Universal Comic-Con panel for THE WOLFMAN(2008).
© Robert Trate
SDCC: Highlights of Universal's WOLFMAN Panel
By: Robert T. TrateDate: Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Academy Award winner Rick Baker entered Hall H to thunderous applause. These are, after all, his people. They know that Rick Baker is not only a master of his craft (monster movie makeup for those of you that don’t know) but Baker working on any film elevates it to a another level, especially when that film is Universal’s new Wolf Man. Baker is no stranger to turning someone into a werewolf. He admitted to doing it to himself since he was ten years old. However, Baker already has received an Academy Award for turning David Naughton into a werewolf back in John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London (1981). Adding Benicio Del Toro, a self proclaimed Universal Horror fan and fellow Academy Award Winner (Traffic, 2001), makes this a film that is worth getting excited about.
The clips that were shown, along with the trailer, got this particular Universal Horror fan excited (a lot more than The Spirit, truth be told). It is a period piece that places it somewhere in the late 1800’s. This is great news and a sigh of relief that this will not be another Wolf (1994) or An American Werewolf in Paris. Both Baker and Del Toro assured the panel numerous times that this is an homage to the 1941 classic, Jack Pierce’s original makeup and Lon Chaney Jr.’s performance.
Baker did state that at the present time Lawrence Talbot’s (Del Toro) transformation will be done with computer generated effects. It is his hope that the studio will change their mind and let him do what he does best.
The Wolf Man is directed by Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer) and the original script was written by Andrew Kevin Walker (Sleepy Hollow). However, a re-write has been done by David Self (Road to Perdition). The cast will consist of Benicio Del Toro (Lawrence Talbot), Emily Blunt (Gwen Conliffe), Hugo Weaving (Det. Aberline) and Anthony Hopkins (Sir John Talbot). The film’s current release date is April 3, 2009.
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