Darabont, Mangold, Johnston, Condon & Ratner fighting for THE WOLF MAN

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

All is not lost with the remake of THE WOLF MAN if The Hollywood Reporter are to be believed. The trade say that not only Brett Ratner has met with Universal over the revival of the classic 50's monster, but a whole host of other experienced directors have either held talks, or will hold talks over the next few days in regards to the movie which has now been officially pushed back to a March start date.

A decision is expected to be announced early next week. Brett Ratner is still said to be favourite because of his track record of coming on board projects late and delivering a financially successful movie, and for the simple fact of how fast and problem free he can work. As a studio you can see their point but for the sake of the film's quality, please choose from the guys below (or my picks David Cronenberg and John Landis). Those names are: Frank Darabont (THE MIST, THE GREEN MILE, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) He's certainly a director that's great with period movies and characters with his three Stephen King adaptations. He's a really great director, I've yet to see his latest film but on his previous two I would love to see him work on this. He would take us deep into the character that Benicio del Toro will create, I like this choice. James Mangold (3:10 TO YUMA, WALK THE LINE, COP LAND) Really accomplished director and I never thought he would be interested in a horror movie. His slate is clean right now so he could move straight into it if called upon. Really love his work, so I would be happy to see him direct this too. Joe Johnston (HIDALGO, JURASSIC PARK III, JUMANJI) Yeah I don't mind Johnston's works. He's always reminded me of a lesser talented brother to Steven Spielberg. I don't think he can make films as accomplished as the two guys above him in this list but his films are always full of life and energy and they usually hit the genre mark that is set out. He doesn't always succeed in making a great movie but I think if he found the right script he could do a great job. And then the trades say that Universal are interested in but have not met with Bill Condon, the director of DREAMGIRLS and that late 90's movie about Universal's FRANKENSTEIN director James Whale titled GODS AND MONSTERS. I know he's a fan of the Universal horror movies and although I didn't like DREAMGIRLS, I think Condon did a very good job in delivering exactly what the studio wanted. That movies wasn't easy to make. I would take him in a heartbeat over Ratner. Martin Campbell (CASINO ROYALE, THE MASK OF ZORRO) was also said to be keen on the position but the studio said he wasn't in contention. Whether that's because Campbell's schedule is full right now or because Universal didn't want him I do not know. Apparently a big problem the studio are having is convincing directors to come on board, even though the script is strike locked and can't be changed to suit the director's vision. They literally have to go out and shoot the story that Romanek and Andrew Kevin Walker had set out and with so many writer/director's out there... this is certainly a turn off from there. I certainly think it would rule out Cronenberg (though remember he's just my pick, no-one elses). It's this kind of thing that can see a movie get scraped, or worse... given to the hands of Brett Ratner. Guess we will find out what's going on next week.