In 1941, Universal Pictures released one of the greatest horror films of the ages, “The Wolf Man”. The film was shot on what was considered a B-grade budget, but it was certainly not B-grade in its quality. The cast was full of Oscar winners and nominees while the cinematography and score are both some of the finest in any of the Universal monster movies. In addition, the script was so rich and well written that some of the concepts have taken root in many of our minds as real, old-world werewolf folklore. Of the three major Universal Studios monster movies, “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” and “Wolf Man,” only “The Wolf Man” that didn’t spring from a notable novel. While many legends of werewolves abound in print, the film really took the skill of screenwriter Curt Siodmak, the talent of makeup artist Jack Pierce, and the acting of Lon Chaney Jr. to tell the story of a man doomed by an eternal curse to kill the ones he loves by the light of the full moon. However, The film is the second Universal Pictures werewolf movie, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful “Werewolf of London.” This year, Universal will release their classic which launched a legacy of horror in a new update film with the same name, but with a story that now takes place in Victorian England era.

The remake is directed by Joe Johnston (Jumanji, Jurassic Park III) who has a good resume of not only directing credits, but also visual effects, production designer, and art department credits. In fact, Johnston won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for his work on “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” As a result, Johnston is sure enough to bring some amazing designs and visuals to The Wolfman film with his talent and background. “Seven” and “Sleepy Hollow” scribe Andrew Kevin Walker laid the foundation by supplying the script, which later also has rewritten by David Self (Road to Perdition). Created the make-up for “The Wolfman” is the famous Rick Baker who when heard Universal was remaking the film, eagerly pursued it, as both the original film and “Frankenstein” had inspired him to become a make-up artist as a child. Academy Award winning actor Benicio Del Toro takes on the role made famous by Lon Chaney Jr. as he portrays an actor who finds himself heading home to England in order to discover the whereabouts of his missing brother. While there, he gets bitten by a werewolf and endures the agonizing transformation every time the moon is full. Meanwhile, Sir Anthony Hopkins has been cast to play the role of Sir John Talbot, the father of Del Toro’s character, British actress Emily Blunt taken over the job of Evelyn Ankers, leading actress in original film, as Lawrence’s love interest Gwen Conliffe, and Hugo Weaving played the new added character, Detective Aberline the monster hunter.

Set in the late 1880s, the film keeps the plotline of the original, Lawrence Talbot (del Toro) is a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father (Hopkins), Talbot sets out to find his brother...and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.
Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Weaving) has come to investigate.
As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself...one he never imagined existed.

Beware, the animal is out:

# “The Wolfman” was originally scheduled for February 13, 2009 (a Friday the 13th), and was then moved to April 3, 2009. In December 2008, Universal moved the release to November 6, 2009 to give them more time to market the film

# Director Mark Romanek was initially going to direct but left the project over budget disagreements. Brett Ratner emerged as a frontrunner to replace Romanek, but the studio also met with Frank Darabont, James Mangold and Joe Johnston.

# The film shot at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, Chatsworth, Derbyshire, and Castle Combe in Wiltshire. Chatsworth House has been transformed 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.

# Actor Benicio del Toro is a fan of the original film and collector of Wolf Man memorabilia. But for this film, he also looked towards “Werewolf of London” and “The Curse of the Werewolf” for inspiration.

# This is Del Toro's second time playing a "wolfman". His very first feature film role was that of a "dog-faced boy" in Pee Wee Herman's “Big Top Pee-wee” (1988).

# About her character, Emily Blunt said she liked the "mythological", "Gothic and majestic" story and signed on despite her fear of horror films. Blunt also said Gwen was probably the first "innately good" character she ever played.

# Rick Baker acknowledged transforming del Toro was 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."

# The make-up took three hours to apply, and one hour to remove. New pieces of latex prosthetic makeup and loose hair were applied to del Toro's face each day, while several dentures and wigs were created in case some were damaged.

# While the werewolf itself will be a man in makeup, the transformation will most likely be all CG. This comes from Rick Baker himself, who apparently wasn’t too happy with the decision, remarking that he hopes the filmmakers will change their mind and let it be practical, the way it should be.

# The cast and crew were back on location re-shooting the movie in the grounds of Greenwich Royal naval college and park 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 second-unit director Vic Armstrong.

# UPDATE: Universal Pictures has unveiled their theatrical release calendar, showing that "The Wolfman" has been pushed back again, this time all the way till next year. The release date now set to Feb. 12, 2010 and Universal prefers opening the film during the first quarter of 2010 because they think it will be a bigger potential to score at the box office.

Budget: About $85 million
Opening prediction: $25 million
Domestic gross prediction: $80 million

Sources: IMDB, Wikipedia – Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures