How To Resurrect Universal's Monsters

The Wolfman

Now we come to the Wonder Woman of monsters, or the €˜Wonder Wolf€™ if you will (that€™s it, no more!) The Wolfman is a tricky one, because anyone can do a werewolf movie. Now, the Joe Johnston-directed film was not a bad starting-off point. You can go literally anywhere with a wolfman story so maybe something where Lawrence Talbot (the character is the closest the whole werewolf legend on screen has to an actual identifiable ambassador, bar *shudder* Taylor Lautner) is in hiding and has accepted what he is. A good inspiration is Russell Tovey in €˜Being Human€™, or €˜An American Werewolf inLondon€™. I think to set it in Victorian times, but not inEngland, another city like ParisorPrague, somewhere familiar but different. Say he comes up against other Werewolves, a pregnant woman with one inside of her, adding romance that we know will end tragically. It gives Talbot something to do besides moping and tearing people€™s throats out. A director with a background in good, solid horror that has a human element to it- someone like Christopher Smith of €˜Severance€™ and €˜triangle€™ fame. Someone who understands the material, but can bring something different yet familiar to it. The complexity of The Wolfman is you can take more risks than with something as established as Dracula or Frankenstein, but at the same time you can€™t because you don€™t want to alienate audiences. The score here should be quite muscular, but with dread at the same time- someone like David Arnold who can do tender and relentless equally well. The Wolman himself should be someone who can do emotional, but you can also imagine being a rather rabid, desperate wolfman- the wolf itself should possess some sort of intelligence, so both alter-egos are threatened by the other wolfs and the society they may form as a pack or something. Someone like David Tennant would do.