questions about The Wolfman...

In the poll I posted here I asked "What is your favorite Classic Universal Monster?" Among the readers who voted, The Wolf Man came out the winner, slightly ahead of Frankenstein. I thought this was interesting, as I’ve always been more of a Frankenstein guy myself. But I DO love the Wolf Man, and that original 41 film is one of my favorite Universal movies. I don’t know if maybe folks had Wolfie on the mind when they voted, with the new movie in theaters and all, but regardless the furball came out on top!

Speaking of which, I was discussing the Wolfman movie with a coworker back and forth through email last week, and she asked me a couple of questions regarding the new film. There are going to be some spoilers here in the next bit, so if you don’t want to see them you might skip the rest of this post.

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Spoiler Alert

Both questions were regarding Anthony Hopkins character, Sir John Talbot. I told her I would sort of pass them along here and see what you guys thought.

First, she asked:  Do you think the father killed his eldest son to get Lawrence Talbot to come back home so he could pass on the “curse” to him and they could rule the countryside together?

Her second question was: Did he kill the eldest son because he was told his father was a werewolf by the gypsies?

Both are interesting theories. I hadn’t really considered either – if we take Sir John Talbot strictly by what he says, then he simply slipped out one night and accidently killed his son. But perhaps there was more to it. John knew of his affliction and had his manservant lock him up in the room on evenings of the full moon. Perhaps he escaped his bonds that night on purpose, knowing his son would be out and about. He was pretty much obviously in the throes of madness. Perhaps the shame of murdering his wife caused him to snap, and he intended to snuff the Talbot line completely.

All interesting theories – so what do you ghouls think? Anything more to it or was it simply as Sir John said, an accident?

The Wolfman one howling good time!

I finally saw The Wolfman yesterday afternoon and really enjoyed it. My 12 year old son Luke and I headed out to a 1pm matinee - we got a couple of cokes and big buckets of popcorn and settled in for an afternoon with Lawrence Talbot.

OK - on to the movie... I'm going to try and do this without giving away any spoilers.

I thought the movie worked really well. Setting it in the 1800s was perfect - it gave it that classic feeling the best Universal movies have. That time period is such a great, fertile period to set movies in anyway - the Industrial age was such of a period of discovery. Science was booming, but everything wasn't figured out yet. It almost seemed more like sorcery than science. And the days of superstition weren't that far removed... Having a band of roving gypsys in the movie is still a feasible plot device. The new Sherlock Holmes movie is set in this same time period and it worked really well there too.

But getting back to the Wolfman, the most impressive thing of all was the werewolf makeup. It really looked terrific. Rick Baker designed the look of the wolf on the Jack Pierce design then made it more ferocious. It was really, really well done. I have read that some people were put off by the computer graphics in the movie. really? Did you think you'd go see a werewolf movie in 2010 and not see computer graphics in it? That is the technology we work with today. Is it any more fake looking than the time-lapse dissolve between Jack Pierce makeups in the 1941 version? Of course not.

Anthony Hopkins is his usual brilliant self in this. The sets are fabulous. The tone of the film is very dark and the is a lot of gore in it. Overall, I was pretty pleased with it. Couple of things I'd have changed but then that's true of almost any movie. Definitely well worth the price of admission. Go see it in the theater on the big screen - you won't regret it!

The Wolfman vs. The Wolf Man

The new upcoming Wolfman movie got me thinking about the casting for the new film. I put together a few pics comparing the actors playing the main roles.

Lawrence Talbot:
In the role of the tortured soul Lawrence we have Benecio Del Toro playing the part made famous by Lon Chaney Jr. I'm really happy about this choice, as Del Toro has a bit of that rugged athletic quality that Lon shared.

The Wolfman vs. the Wolf Man - note the movies spell the title creature differently. Wonder if they did that just to differentiate them more easily? It is a remake, after all - the one word change doesn't really matter all that much, just is interesting. At any rate the new test shots of the makeup for the wolfman certainly look amazing. They enlisted Rick Baker to do this design, and wow - it totally knocked my socks off. Hopefully the computer effects will be minimal, and they'll rely on makeup more - and the wolfman won't change clothes this time around when he transforms!

 

Gwen Conliffe - in the role of Lawrence's love interest we have Emily Blunt playing the Evelyn Ankers role. Emily is gorgeous and sexy, but doesn't really resemble Evelyn too much. But that isn't really necessary for this part, and I think she'll do great in the role.

In the role of John Talbot, Lawrence's father, we have Anthony Hopkins in the Claude Rains role. You need an actor of considerable range to fill these shoes, and you don't get much better than Anthony Hopkins.

 

 Maleva the Gypsy, originally played by Maria Ouspenskaya, is played this time around by Geraldine Chaplin. I don't know too much about her, but according to IMDB she's been in over a hundred movies, mostly foreign. She most likely has the accent that the role requires, and certainly looks the part.

And lastly, in the role of the Inspector Abberline we have Hugo Weaving. Now, this isn't a straight replay of a former character. Best I can tell the new film takes the role of  Colonel Montford, played by Ralph Bellamy (Twiddle, take a note!), and splits it into two characters - Colonel Montford and Inspector Abberline. Montford was the one investigating these murders before, if I'm not mistaken, but this time around we have an inspector to do the investigation. I really like Hugo as an actor, and he'll lend a quirky air to the role.

All in all an amazing bit of casting. I am very much looking forward to this movie, as well as the new dvd release of The Wolf Man! Here's hoping they both live up to expectations!