The Wolfman (2010) - Johnston's luxurious, effects-driven remake

♥♥♥♥

 

1 Film Excess win:

Best Makeup and Hair 

3 Film Excess nominations:

Best Supporting Actor: Anthony Hopkins (lost to John C. Reilly for The Extra Man)
Best Practical Effects (lost to Inception)
Best Makeup and Hair (won)

+ Best London Movie of the Year 
+ Best Werewolf Movie of the Year
+ Most Expensive Flop Movie of the Year 

 

The heads of the stars float around in varying sizes on this rather standard poster for Joe Johnston's The Wolfman

 

Blackmoor, England, 1891: Lawrence Talbot returns home from America, because his brother has been murdered. Against a background of violent attacks, the family secrets are forced to the fore.

The Wolfman is a remake of George Waggner's great Universal horror The Wolf Man (1941), written by Andrew Kevin Walker (8MM (1999)) and David Self (Road to Perdition (2002)) and directed by Joe Johnston (Jumanji (1995)). It is a super-cool, modern update of the classic with class actors Benicio Del Toro (Sicario (2015)), Hugo Weaving (V for Vendetta (2005)) and especially Anthony Hopkins (The Good Father (1985)) rising to the sound material. Only Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow (2014)) as a the brother's fiancée is fairly uninteresting.

The Wolfman is very much a special effects-driven film, and it is devilishly handsomely made and stylish, (cinematography by Shelly Johnson (Captain America: The First Avenger 2011))), with wicked, wicked attack scenes. Also the insane asylum scenes are terrific. The Wolfman is a bloody good, no-expense-spared studio horror.

 

Related posts:

 
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a short interview with Benicio Del Toro about the film here

Cost: 150 mil. $

Box office: 139.7 mil. $

= Huge flop

[The Wolfman premiered January 27 (Rome) and runs 103 minutes (with an extended version running 119 minutes.) Mark Romanek was hired to direct but left the project due to creative differences with the studio. Filming took place in England, including in Pinewood Studios, from March - June 2008, with reshoots in May 2009. Del Toro and the film's makeup effects wizard Rick Baker are huge fans of the original film, and Baker was disappointed that the transformation scene would be handled with CGI. The allotted budget of 85 mil. $ was heavily overrun during production, landing at the colossal 150 mil. $. Danny Elfman had his score modified for the film, as it was cut with 30 minutes, including a scene with Max Von Sydow. The release was postponed several times, from 2008 to 2009 to finally 2010. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Valentine's Day, to a 31.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent a total of 3 weeks in the top 5 and grossed 61. 9 mil. $ (44.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 11 .1 mil. $ (7.9 %) and the UK with 7.3 mil. $ (5.7 %). The film was nominated for the Best Makeup Oscar, which it won in front of Barney's Version and The Way Back. Roger Ebert gave the film 2½ stars, a notch harder than this review. Ronald Meyer, then President and CEO of Universal Studios, now Vice Chairman of NBCUniversal, has called the film "crappy" and "one of the worst movies we ever made." The film has made in excess of 27 mil. $ on home-video sales in North America, which, if added to the box office gross, would change its status to, simply, 'big flop'. The Wolfman is rotten at 34 % with a 4.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Wolfman?