February 25th, 2008Weaving a Wolfman
There are a lot of horror remakes in the pipelines: Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Piranhas. I don’t expect a lot from the majority and am even dreading some.
The Wolf Man, which defined Hollywood lycanthropes from 1941 on, was a notable exception. The remake, starring Benicio del Toro in the title role, is expected in 2009, but in the past few weeks, there has been quite a bit of bad news. (Bear with me: there’s some shiny good news to make me keep looking forward to it.)
Let’s get the bad news out of the way. Mark Romanek has left the production. Though he doesn’t have a lot of cinematic credits to his directorial name, some of the most beautiful 90s videos are his: Got ‘Til It’s Gone, Criminal, The Perfect Drug. Beautiful imagery may not always translate into beautiful film, but 2002’s One Hour Photo was pretty well received, and I had high hopes for his vision of the wolf.
Director Joe Johnston has taken over after Romanek’s sudden departure. He has more cinematic directorial experience (see The Rocketeer, Jumanji, Jurassic Park III), but some of his movies are considered pretty (in the special effects way) with little plot or substance to back them up (see The Rocketeer, Jumanji, Jurassic Park III). The director can’t be blamed for story problems, but here’s bad news 1.1: Johnston brought in David Self to rewrite the script. The three people who liked The Haunting can put this in the “good news” category.
My good news, though, is that Hugo Weaving has joined the cast. Though he’s looking rather wolfy himself, he will not be playing the Wolf Man, but Detective Aberline.
He is usually referred to as “Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, V for Vendetta)”. Those are both impressive credits, but I will always remember him as Mitzi Del Bra / “Tick” from The Adventrues of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Maybe out of context it seems dated or particular to a certain sub-culture (not to mention fairly racist), but I remember renting it (secretly) and watching it (secretly) in my room and just being happy that it existed. Go back with me, dear readers, to 1994:
[Via ComingSoon]
