Movies
Dwayne Johnson Howling for ‘Wolf Man’ Role?!
On June 9th Universal’s Dark Universe launches with The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise as the universe’s “Van Helsing” character and Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll (and Mr. Hyde). Next up will be the Bill Condon-directed Bride of Frankenstein, to be released on February 14, 2019. The Invisible Man and Frankenstein’s Monster will be played by, respectively, blockbuster icon Johnny Depp and Academy Award winner Javier Bardem. That’s a pretty solid list, especially with rumors swirling for years that Universal is targeting Angelina Jolie as the Bride and Scarlett Johansson for The Creature From the Black Lagoon.
One other film in the works is The Wolf Man. While no director has been attached yet, Dave Callaham has been at work on the script for a new film based on the 1941 Universal movie for almost a year now. With no mention of the film or character in the Dark Universe announcement, it appears this is more of a Phase 2 title than one in the initial canon.
Hidden within an article on THR, they reveal that Universal is not only still developing Wolf Man, but they’ve set their sights on superstar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for a role. He starred in 2002’s Mummy spinoff The Scorpion King, which makes this an ironic casting choice. Obviously, Uni has been working on this mega-star universe for years now and it’s looking like they’re landing all the big fish. You don’t get much better than Johnson, who is also starring in New Line Cinema’s Rampage.
In regards to Wolf Man, Callaham penned all four Expendables films, the story for Godzilla, and the pilot for Amazon’s hilarious “Jean-Claude Van Johnson”. I think it’s safe to say that tonally they’re going for fun, and have picked an intriguing writer to tackle the hairy reboot.
Prisoners scribe Aaron Guzikowski wrote the first draft of The Wolf Man, which is being produced by Kurtzman and Morgan. The Wolf Man was a 1941 Universal film directed by George Waggner that starred Lon Chaney Jr. as a man who returns to his homeland where he is attacked and becomes a werewolf. Joe Johnston remade the film in 2010 with Benicio del Toro as the title character.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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