Movies
‘The Wolfman’ Producer Barks on Delays and CG Make-Up
Horror fans keeping a close eye on Universal Pictures’ The Wolfman know that the remake, starring Benicio Del Toro, has been delayed so many times it’s becoming uncomfortable. Typical delays of such length are the result of problems behind-the-scenes, or just a cluttered release schedule. According to a new interview with producer Scott Stuber, it’s neither. Beyond the break you can read about the difficulties in keeping the film practical and how the FX have taken a toll on post-production.
“The visual effects work was so complex that some of the stuff wasn’t ready,” Stuber told Total Film Magazine in response to the delays. “There were so many textures we had to create, like landscapes of London and all the elements within the London sequence; they just weren’t where they needed to be.”
Early reports indicate that the film is CG-heavy, Stuber explains.
“It was never our intention for this to be a CGI-fest. Our whole thing was to honor Lon Chaney Jr and the spirit of the original. It’s an authentic, make-up-driven film, but there are transitional pieces that we needed to do in CG, so you didn’t have to cut away during the change in the monster. Integrating the make-up and the effects to make them feel like one cohesive whole was always going to be a challenge and it’s something we’ve had to work through.”
As for the reshoots, Stuber explains that they needed some new exposition between Del Toro and Emily Blunt.
“We needed one more piece between Benicio (Del Toro) and Emily (Blunt). We added a new scene during the post-bite, pre-transformation sequence when he’s starting to realize something’s wrong. It’s a big quality piece of entertainment. It’s beautiful, rich, gothic, tragic – it’s everything you hope it would be.”
THE WOLFMAN arrives in theaters finally — and I do mean finally — on February 12th, 2010.
Two things that have proven to be pretty dependable at the box office in recent years are horror movies and Christopher Nolan movies. With Nolan’s The Odyssey absolutely dominating the box office this past weekend, many fans of Nolan’s work have been left hungry for a Nolan-directed horror movie. After all, The Odyssey does whet the appetite for Nolan nightmare fuel.
Christopher Nolan has brushed up against the horror genre in the past with 2002 thriller Insomnia, but does he have any interest in someday making a full-on horror movie?
Nolan tells the Empire Podcast in a new chat, “I’ve always been interested in doing a horror film.”
“But horror is most successful when the conceptual framework of whatever the story is is just so undeniable. I think there are very few really great horror movies,” Nolan continues.
So why hasn’t Christopher Nolan directed a horror movie yet?
He explains to Empire, “I’ve never clicked with a particular idea or concept that worked for me. I love the genre. Of all genres, it’s the most visceral. Where the direct response to the audience is the most important. That is to say, you’re trying to make people literally feel something in their bones about what’s going on on-screen.”
Nolan calls horror “a genre in which experimentation is demanded.” He explains, “I go to see a lot of horror films with my kids these days, and you’ll see things in the first half an hour, 45 minutes of any horror film that you’d never see in another genre. Risks that are taken. Dangerous approaches to things. Admittedly, a lot of movies can’t sustain that to the end. But in the horror genre, that kind of innovation is not just respected – it’s really demanded.”
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
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