The Wolf Man (2009)

[Rob Clack]

If your wondering why I started a thread about a remake of the 1941 Lon Chaney jnr classic it's because apparently the films setting has been changed to the 1880s and there is a character from Scotland Yard called Inspector Aberline (that's right one 'b'). Whether there is a Ripper connection or even if this is to be the Abberline is unknown at the moment. The film stars Benicio del Toro and Hugo Weaving as Aberline.

Benicio del Toro


Hugo Weaving


Rob

[Mike Covell]

Two things,

Considering its set in the 1880's Weaving looks rather....modern, is this just a publicity shot or a film still?

The second observation is that if I was the Wolfman, i would go after my dentist, he needs a lotta work doing!!!

Here is the imdb site for the movie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780653/

as always the message boards are full of guff about its links to the Ripper case!!

I have emailed the studio and told them to make aberline a drug and drink fuelled ladies man.....just kiddin!!

[Bailey]

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810007466/video/15143214

There is now a trailer. Weaving's character introduces himself as "Francis Abberline of Scotland Yard" and there are no other obvious Ripper links in the trailer. However, Jack aside, it's a damn good trailer, and looks to be a pretty decent update of the genre. I'm keen...

B.

[JTRSickert]

If anything, the movie should add another "legend" to Abberline's character. Think about it, not only was he the main detective tracking Jack the Ripper and investigating the Cleveland Street Scandal, not only did he have psychic abilities that could be induced by taking opium, but now he also was in charge of hunting a werewolf! What's next? Assisting Van Helsing track down Dracula?

[Christine1932]

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810007466/video/15143214

There is now a trailer. Weaving's character introduces himself as "Francis Abberline of Scotland Yard" and there are no other obvious Ripper links in the trailer. However, Jack aside, it's a damn good trailer, and looks to be a pretty decent update of the genre. I'm keen...

B.

Yes, the trailer looks nice. I am big fan of old monster classics.

[John Bennett]

How ironic - it has a 'Francis Abberline' of Scotland Yard. A presumably fictional Abberline who looks more like the real man than any previous cinema Abberlines! I think I said that right.

[JennyL]

How ironic - it has a 'Francis Abberline' of Scotland Yard. A presumably fictional Abberline who looks more like the real man than any previous cinema Abberlines! I think I said that right.

Indeed! And he's played by an excellent actor, Hugo Weaving.

Wouldn't it be great to have new JtR film, done right? The (apparently) 1880s detail in the Wolf Man trailer looks wonderful, but be aware that "Wolf Man" was originally scheduled for release in Feb of '09, and since then has been rescheduled/postponed no less than 3 times, usually not a good sign. It's now due to be released in Feb 2010. But here's hoping it's good fun nonetheless.

[Tom_Wescott]

I can't wait to see this film, being a huge fan of the Universal classics. I first read about the plans for this film in 2003 or 2004. Benicio will only be the second actor to EVER play the Wolfman. Lon Chaney Jr. owned it. I heard that Gene Simmons of KISS will be doing the howls for the film. Not sure why since I've never known him to howl. Probably just cuz he's so damn cool.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

P.S. There's a remake of The Monster Squad in the works, for anyone who's familiar with the 1987 nostalgia monster film.

[kensei]

I'm really looking forward to it too. Werewolves are one of my favorite monsters from the movies and also from folklore. There were several movies in the old days that featured the bipedal Wolfman-type, but you're right, only Lon Chaney Jr. has played a werewolf under that exact name. When I first heard about Del Toro taking the part I flashed back to how Chaney was also a big burley guy and I thought it was a great choice. Dracula and Frankenstein both had good remakes in the 1990s- Wolfman was long overdue. I remember when watching the original Wolfman- it was a different time of course but I always thought how cheesy it was that he had fangs and claws yet he would simply strangle his victims. Odds are, this new movie will not go quite that way.

[Mike Covell]

P.S. There's a remake of The Monster Squad in the works, for anyone who's familiar with the 1987 nostalgia monster film.

One of my fave films as a kid. I still have the VHS version gathering dust upstairs. The movie was never granted a DVD release in the UK, so I had to order a region 1 just to view it again!

As for the Wolfman. The original Director left the project due to "Budgetry matters" which left the film behind schedule. I like Del Toro and have done since I saw him in The Usual Suspects. He has a dark brooding intensity and can be quite menacing.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Mike, you mean to say the Universal classics have not received proper DVD treatment in the UK? I can't imagine why not. I have their 'Legacy' collection series which is fantastic.

Carla Laemmle is still alive and just put out a couple of books. She spoke the first line in the film 'Dracula' (The first line in the first Horror talkie ever!), and was also the daughter of Universal's president and her brother produced most of the classic Universal films. She was one of the chorus girls in Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera, if that tells you how old she is. It's amazing to me that there are still people alive from that era.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

P.S. I saw Halloween II yesterday (which sucked unforgivably) and caught the long preview for The Wolfman. It looks like it will either be great or piss poor.

[Sam Flynn]

A presumably fictional Abberline who looks more like the real man than any previous cinema Abberlines!

I thought the same, John, and I agree with you about the irony

[Mike Covell]

Hi Mike, you mean to say the Universal classics have not received proper DVD treatment in the UK? I can't imagine why not. I have their 'Legacy' collection series which is fantastic.


P.S. I saw Halloween II yesterday (which sucked unforgivably) and caught the long preview for The Wolfman. It looks like it will either be great or piss poor.

The Universal stuff came about about 8 years ago and was available as
a boxset, with three small busts of the popular monsters,
a single vanilla disk,
a single disk with bust of monster,

That said, a lot of the stuff never came out, or came out as massive collections which were really expensive.

Halloween 2 doesn't even have a UK distributor, so no idea when it's out over here, although The Final Destination, and SAW6 have, and are due for release shortly.

I heard late last night that Bob Weinstein has already greenlighted Halloween 3D, even though no director is attached, Rob Zombie doesn't want to do it, and the box office returns for part two have been poor!

[kensei]

I can't imagine why anyone would greenlight a new Halloween 3- I'd like to reverse time and keep the original from being made. Haven't seen the new Part 2 yet, but when it comes to Part 1 I have to say that though I have great affection for the original I also really liked Rob Zombie's take on it. It was so raw, as if it had actually happened in real life and someone was there with a camera. The greatly expanded look into Michael Meyers' childhood was both fascinating and profoundly disturbing.

To steer things back to the original point of this thread though- that of the character of Abberline being injected into the Wolfman story- here's a hypothetical question: If a new round of savage mutilation murders had struck London, or some rural community near London, and there was talk of the killer being something not quite human and not quite animal, would Abberline have been the man assigned to investigate? Reminds me of "Hound of the Baskervilles," in which the world's most famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is called away from London to investigate supposedly supernatural goings-on.

[Tom_Wescott]

Mike,

The box office for Halloween II has been great. It made over 16 million in two days and it's budget was only 15 million. Inglorious Basterds made 19 million but cost 70 million. Final Destination tore it up with a weekend box office of over 27 million.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott