The Wolfman (2010 film)
The Wolfman is a 2010 American horror film directed by Joe Johnston. A remake of the 1941 film of the same name, it stars Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving. In the film, an American actor is bitten and cursed by a werewolf after returning to his ancestral homeland.
The Wolfman was released in the United States on February 12, 2010 by Universal Pictures to negative reviews. The film was a box office bomb, grossing $142.7 million against a production budget of $150 million. Rick Baker and make-up effects supervisor Dave Elsey won the Academy Award for Best Makeup at the 83rd Academy Awards for their work.
Plot
In 1891, Ben Talbot is attacked by a wolf-like creature. Shakespearean actor Lawrence Talbot returns home after receiving a letter from Ben's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, informing him of Ben's disappearance. Lawrence reunites with his estranged father, Sir John, who informs him that Ben's body had already been found, mutilated. At a local pub, Lawrence overhears the locals believing it to be a wild animal, but many blame Gypsies who are camped outside the town, while another claims there was a similar murder 25 years earlier, and a werewolf was the suspected killer. Lawrence has flashbacks as he tours his family's home where his mother, Solana, committed suicide when he was a boy. Lawrence saw his father standing over her dead body; afterwards he was sent to Lambeth Hospital in London for a year, having suffered from delusions connected to the event.Lawrence visits the Gypsies during a full moon. The local townspeople raid the camp to confiscate a dancing bear they believe is the killer, but a werewolf attacks the camp and bites Lawrence before being chased away. A Gypsy woman named Maleva sutures his neck wounds, but another gypsy insists the now-cursed Lawrence should be killed before he kills others. Maleva refuses, saying he is still a man and that only a loved one can release him.
Lawrence recovers unnaturally quickly, and develops heightened vitality and senses. His father's Sikh servant Singh shows Lawrence a set of silver bullets and implies that something monstrous is loose in Blackmoor. Inspector Francis Aberline arrives to investigate the recent killings, and suspects Lawrence is responsible based on his mental history. Fearing for Gwen, Lawrence sends her away. He follows his father to his mother's crypt, where Sir John locks himself in a room alone and gives Lawrence a cryptic warning. Lawrence undergoes a painful transformation into the Wolfman before running off into the woods and killing the hunters stationed there.
The next morning, Aberline and the police arrest Lawrence. Taken back to Lambeth, Lawrence is subjected to torturous, more advanced treatments overseen by Dr. Hoenneger. Sir John visits Lawrence and explains that 25 years ago, in India, he was bitten by a feral boy infected with lycanthropy. Lawrence realizes his father, as a werewolf, killed his mother and brother. Sir John informs him that the moon will be full that night and leaves a razor in case Lawrence contemplates suicide.
By nightfall, Dr. Hoenneger conducts an evening lecture with Lawrence as a case study. Lawrence transforms into the Wolfman and goes on a rampage throughout London, with Aberline in pursuit. The next day, Lawrence visits Gwen's antique shop for help. They realize they are falling in love and share a passionate kiss. Aberline arrives and searches the shop, but Lawrence has already escaped to Blackmoor. The Inspector arrives there ahead of him and waits outside Talbot Hall, arming himself and accompanying policemen with silver bullets. As she travels back, Gwen searches for Maleva in the hopes of finding a way to cure Lawrence, but all she receives is the gypsy's blessing.
Lawrence arrives at Talbot Hall and finds the dead bodies of Singh and Constable Carter. He loads a gun with Singh's silver bullets and attempts to shoot his father, but learns that Sir John had removed the powder from the cartridges years ago. The Talbots transform into werewolves and set Talbot Hall on fire as they battle, with the Lawrence Wolfman emerging victorious. Gwen and Aberline arrive; Aberline attempts to shoot the Wolfman, but Gwen stops him, resulting in Aberline being bitten.
The Wolfman pursues Gwen and corners her above a gorge. She pleads with Lawrence, whose consciousness recognizes her. The police and hunters approach, distracting the Wolfman long enough for Gwen to shoot him. Lawrence reverts to human form, thanks Gwen for setting him free and dies in her arms. As Talbot Hall burns, a howl is heard in the distance.
Cast
- Benicio del Toro as Lawrence Talbot/The Wolfman
- Anthony Hopkins as Sir John Talbot/Wolfman
- Emily Blunt as Gwen Conliffe
- Hugo Weaving as Inspector Francis Aberline
- Geraldine Chaplin as Maleva
- Art Malik as Singh
- Antony Sher as Dr. Hoenneger
- David Schofield as Constable Nye
- David Sterne as Kirk
- Simon Merrells as Ben Talbot
- Cristina Contes as Solona Talbot
- Michael Cronin as Dr. Lloyd
- Nicholas Day as Colonel Montford
- Clive Russell as MacQueen
- Roger Frost as Reverend Fisk
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. 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 re-shooting 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 re-shoots 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
created the make-up 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 make-up 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 make-up 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 make-up 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. Director Joe Johnston explained that joining the film three weeks before photography placed limitations on his ability to film without using CG 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 ; it gave me so much more flexibility." In February 2009, ZBrush art of the transformation by Baker leaked online. In addition to the film, at the 2009 , Universal Studios Florida added The Wolfman to the event.
Music
was reported to have written a dark, melodic, and moody score for The Wolfman, which was rejected by the studio after the film was cut down half an hour in length and the music became too "wall-to-wall", creating what Johnston called too much repetition. Due to his not being able to come back and re-score, the producers decided that, rather than expand on his ideas with a new composer – a path that they would eventually take –, they would instead attempt a completely different approach with a different composer, which would include extensive re-shooting of scenes.The idea was to quicken the pace and strike a similar tone to the successful Underworld film series, turning a slow-paced story into a much faster one. Paul Haslinger subsequently wrote an electronic contemporary incarnation of The Wolfman score, which the studio quickly realised was not appropriate for the late 19th-century Gothic setting. Elfman's previously recorded original score is, as a result, the one that is used in the final film. Although Elfman's original recording was used in the final film, several additional composers were brought in to shape Elfman's score to fit the final cut of the film, as well as compose new material.
A similar situation developed regarding Elfman's score for Spider-Man 2, where the music in the final film stood mostly separate from the original work on the CD release, which reflected the first incarnation of the score.
Danny Elfman's version of The Wolfman score was officially released on 23 February, 11 days after the film's release. This is actually the original score Elfman made for the earlier cut of The Wolfman before it was temporarily rejected. A believed-to-be sample of Haslinger's rejected score was released around the same time, but was ultimately confirmed as false by record producer Ford A. Thaxton and Haslinger himself.
Dark ambient musician Lustmord mentions on his personal website that he made "some sounds for the score".
Release
During the course of its production, The Wolfman saw its release date postponed several times. Originally scheduled for a November 14, 2008, release, it was first pushed back to February 13, 2009. Then, in April 2008, it got moved to April 3, 2009. In December 2008, Universal moved the release to November 6, 2009. Finally, the film was moved yet again in late July 2009 to February 12, 2010. The first trailer for The Wolfman was attached to Inglourious Basterds, which was released to cinemas on August 21, 2009. In most European countries the film was released on February 10 and 11, 2010.Reception
Box office
The film grossed $9.9 million on its first day, and $31.5 million in its opening weekend, coming in second at the box office after the film Valentine's Day. The Wolfman grossed $62.2 million domestically and $80.5 million internationally, grossing $142.7 million worldwide. In 2014, the LA Times listed the film as one of the most expensive box office flops of all-time.Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval percentage of 34% based on 218 critics and an average rating of 4.81/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Suitably grand and special effects-laden, The Wolfman suffers from a suspense-deficient script and a surprising lack of genuine chills." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100 based on 36 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four, praising the atmospheric locations and melodramatic scope but lamenting CGI effects that he regarded as detrimental. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone assigned the film one and a half stars out of four, concluding that "The Wolfman bites, but not — I think — in the way the filmmakers intended." Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly praised Del Toro's performance as Lawrence Talbot, comparing it favourably to Lon Chaney Jr.'s, in the 1941 film.
Ronald Meyer, then-president of Universal Studios at the time of the film’s release, regarded the film as "crappy" and considered it to be "One of the worst movies we ever made."
Awards
In 2010, The Wolfman won at the 37th Saturn Awards for best make-up. In 2011, make-up effects creator Rick Baker and supervisor Dave Elsey, received an Academy Award for Best Makeup at the 83rd Academy Awards.Home media
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the US on June 1, 2010. Both editions include the theatrical version and an extended director's cut, which incorporates 17 minutes of footage back into the film. The Blu-ray Disc's special features include featurettes on the making of the film, including two alternate endings. The only special features included on the standard DVD are deleted and extended scenes. Best Buy released an exclusive 2-Disc DVD set that includes a bonus disc featuring most of the BD special features. Upon the Blu-ray's release, viewers had the opportunity to stream the original 1941 film. The DVD and Blu-ray releases earned a total of $27 million in domestic sales.Extended cut
The DVD/Blu-ray releases include an "unrated director's cut", featuring an additional 17 minutes of footage and the inclusion of the classic 40's era Universal logo at the beginning of the film.Johnston said the reason for deleting the 17 minutes from the theatrical cut was "to push the story along so that audiences would get to the first Wolfman transformation sooner."
The extra footage contains the origin of the silver cane-sword and also the uncredited and completely removed part played by Max von Sydow who was the original owner of the cane. The character indicates that he obtained it in Gévaudan, a French province where in the 18th century villagers were attacked by an unknown beast known as the Beast of Gévaudan. Though Max von Sydow's credit is absent from the theatrical cut, there is still a credit for "Assistant to Mr. von Sydow".
Merchandising
Several companies were involved in the merchandising of the film. Rubies Costumes produced both child and adult costumes. Because such costumes are sold to retailers months in advance, the Halloween costumes came out in 2009 since the film being pushed back to 2010 happened after the costumes had been shipped to retailers.Mezco Toyz produced 7 inch and 12 inch tall Wolfman action figures. They also produced replicas of the medallion from the film.
In early January 2010, Mezco Toyz donated the prototypes of the toys to the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.
Jonathan Maberry wrote a novelization to the film, the paperback of which was released on 2 February 2010, the same day the original The Wolf Man film was re-released on DVD through Universal's Legacy Series. It includes a scene early in the story which explains how Lawrence obtained the cane with a silver wolf's head, with Lawrence exchanging his ordinary wooden cane with an elderly Frenchman for the silver wolf's head cane on his initial trip to Blackmoor. It also has Gwen and her father owning an apothecary rather than an antiques shop, suggesting this was changed during the remake's development to be closer to the original film.