The Wolf Man is a lost cause. I’ve been saying it for over two years now and today’s news that emergency editors Mark Goldblatt and Walter Murch have been brought on board to fix the meandering mess of a movie is the final nail in the coffin for Universal’s tentpole.
Actually, the final nail was when the project was delayed for a third time. This latest news, which has happened after several expensive re-shoots, re-cut trailers and the letting go of a high-wage composer who had provided a whole complete score and paying for a completely new one from another guy, well it feels like it’s an afterthought at the wake.
The Wolf Man was buried long ago and it’s incredible to me how many millions Universal have wasted on trying to fix it. Goldblatt (Terminator 2) and Murch (Apoclaypse Now) are fine, fine editors, two of the best in the business and won’t have been cheap.
Benicio Del Toro's dream of playing The Wolf Man, his favourite movie as a child, has been ruined by Universal's complete mis-handling of the project.
They should have given up on this ghost a long time ago, and maybe it shows just how much they have riding on this picture to be successful. The Wolf Man was initially set to be the first of the classic Universal horror movies to be resurrected and it was always looked upon as being the banker for the studio, the one that was easy to get off the ground and be successful.
After The Wolf Man was to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Keanu Reeves, David Goyer’s re-imagining of The Invisible Man, followed by Neil Burger and his Bride of Frankenstein and then Creature From the Black Lagoon, not to mention the sequels, spin-off’s and cross-over potentials.
And that would just be a first wave. Universal would be likely to also make another Dracula, Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and probably they would look deeper and deeper into the lost archvies for other projects they could make.
But once The Wolf Man belly flops the way it looks like it will on Valentine’s Day, well it will basically it will be 2004 all over again. The year Van Helsing suffered the same fate disastrous fate and kept back the above mentioned movies for years.
11 Comments
what a shame…but i’ll still go check it out
Fucking hell man, what’s going on there? I thought this film was going to be great.
The trailer looks amazing.
What is it you know Matt that we don’t?
Wow, this article is ridiculous. I mean, honestly, since when do you know what the studio’s doing or what the filmmakers are doing? “Del Toro’s dream ruined.” Are you retarded? You haven’t even seen the movie. Save silly little articles for people who know what they are talking about.
Shane,
Just read the article at your site regarding my “dumb opinions”.
I’m not entirely sure I follow what you’re attacking me about. You presume in your article that the cut Universal saw was a mess, which is basically exactly the same as what I said.
You say….
“You dumbasses haven’t even seen the film! So how do you know it sucks?”
but then earlier you said…
“I guess the final cut just wasn’t enough for studios. Supposedly, when the studio screened the film for themselves, they admitted that it was a mess”.
Del Toro’s boyhood dream was to play a Lon Chaney role but it’s turned out a nightmare so far. Re-shoots, re-cuttings, people fired (the original director who attracted him… Rick Baker the special effects guy who Del Toro so wanted to work with but whose work has mostly been dropped… composer Danny Elfman… the editor), a movie released nearly two years after it was originally set to open?
And to top it all off, what was originally going to be a huge blockbuster at Universal has been buried in the February Valentines Day death slot. A date only rom-com’s usually survive.
If they had any confidence in this picture they wouldn’t be scrambling so much by changing talent, and by giving it such a bad release. Why not the summer?
They brought out Van Helsing in May 2004… can this movie really be worse than that?
If you ask me, Del Toro has long forgotten this nightmare project and has got on with his life. It’ll be interesting to see how much press he does for this one.
Shane… I’m not retarded. I give people plenty of opportunities for people to attack me with my writings on this site but unless you have an argument better that the one you provided, please don’t waste your breath.
“Del Toro’s boyhood dream was to play a Lon Chaney role but it’s turned out a nightmare so far.”
He is playing a Lon Chaney role you dolt. He’s playing Lawrence Talbot. How is it nightmarish for him? Every test screening review has called his performance brilliant.
“Re-shoots, re-cuttings, people fired (the original director who attracted him… Rick Baker the special effects guy who Del Toro so wanted to work with but whose work has mostly been dropped… composer Danny Elfman… the editor)”
They reshot scenes with The Wolfman in it because they had to redo the legs of the creature make up. They looked ridiculous when he ran, so instead they changed it so when he gets to full speed, he runs on all fours. The original legs looked like a dogs leg, now it’s a solid man/wolf hybrid. They’re re-cutting because the original editor, like you, was a dolt. The pacing of the film was the only part that tested negative at the screenings, so they hired these two new editors to pace the film much better. The original director, Mark Romanek, wasn’t fired. he left because he wanted more budget money to use more CGI. The Wolfman itself is all Baker’s make up! The transformation, while CGI, is still under his design. Elfman dropped out because he didn’t have time to compose/re-compose certain parts because of Alice in Wonderland.
“a movie released nearly two years after it was originally set to open? And to top it all off, what was originally going to be a huge blockbuster at Universal has been buried in the February Valentines Day death slot. A date only rom-com’s usually survive.”
The producer and a Universal executive said they moved the film there because they felt like they could take advantage of a 3 day Valentine’s Day weekend with a horror film. It’s a change of pace from romantic comedies, and people will go and see it. The release dates are because of the reshoots.
“If they had any confidence in this picture they wouldn’t be scrambling so much by changing talent, and by giving it such a bad release. Why not the summer?”
Obviously they do have confidence because they are marketing the film to hell. It has one of the best casts for a horror film assembled EVER.
“They brought out Van Helsing in May 2004… can this movie really be worse than that?”
Van Helsing was a shitty action movie that lacked a script or any decent performance.
“If you ask me, Del Toro has long forgotten this nightmare project and has got on with his life. It’ll be interesting to see how much press he does for this one.”
What are you, del Toro’s best friend? He’s already slated for multiple interviews on the film, and it’s still 3 months away, which leaves more than enough time for press.
Stop being an idiotic assumption blogger.
More cheap tabloid journalism from obsessedwithfilm. This site just goes from bad to worse – it’s almost as if they have a violent aversion to professionalism and quality.
I’m actually with Matt on this. Even though he may not get all of the stuff right the movie is having some serious trouble when there are so many changes done to it. Seriously how many of you have seen a movie that had recuts/reshoots/other last minute changes that didn’t suck (mostly because the changes)
All three Lord of the Rings films had extensive reshoots.
Yeah, but LOTR didn’t bring in outside editors just to “fix” the movie did they? I’m actually asking that as a serious question because I really don’t know. Also, X-Men Origins:Wolverine had extensive reshoots and editing done and it turned out like complete garbage. Not that I really thought that movie had much of a chance of being great anyway, but still the similarities between the two are kind of there in that respect.
I’m on the fence about the whole thing though to be honest. I’m worried because of all the changes and stuff with the film, but at the same time, its Benicio Del Toro and I’m a big fan of his so I’ll still probably be going to see it.
Naaaah you didn’t feel the reshots were out of place with the 99 endings of the trilogy? Also your idea of a good movie suprises me. LOTR had good effects but was a mediecore adaptation of a quite good book (the first part showed most promice).