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This will go into a few spoilers, so if you haven’t seen The Wolfman, watch the Extended Cut.

During the last decade there have been a few notable films where the werewolf has made an appearance, such as Dog Soldiers, Cursed, Underworld and Universal’s own Van Helsing. Ginger Snaps is probably the best example of reinventing the werewolf mythology. The Wolfman is a plain and simple remake of a certain 1941 Lon Chaney Jr. movie. There was, however, nothing plain and simple about its production, with the film going through two directors, reshoots and release date changes.

The Wolfman had everything going for it, with an excellent cast that included Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and even Hugo Weaving and Art Malik in supporting roles. There’s Danny Elfman’s musical score, gorgeous production values, decent special effects and makeup courtesy of Rick Baker. An action packed cut trailer released four months before the film’s eventual release suggested that this was definitely going to be worth watching.

Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) is a well-respected actor of the stage who receives the unfortunate news that his brother Ben (Simon Merrells) has gone missing. He heads back home to Blackmoor, where he is reunited with his estranged father, John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins), who offers even more bad news. Turns out that Lawrence’s brother is dead. Lawrence later overhears that many of the villagers have suffered savage deaths. His brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) wants to get to the truth behind what happened to Ben. As Lawrence pieces the clues together, he hears of the curse of the werewolf, which causes those afflicted to turn into a ferocious beast when the moon is full. One just so happens to be shopping for victims around Blackmoor. While tracking down the creature, Lawrence is bitten, but survives. Shouldn’t have to second-guess what ends up happening to him.

Benicio Del Toro is a fan of the original film, and apparently has a collection of memorabilia related to The Wolf Man. This caught the attention of producer, and Del Toro’s manager, Rick Yorn, who put forward the suggestion of remaking the film. Soon, Del Toro and Yorn were knocking on Universal’s door with their idea. In March 2006, Universal made an announcement that a remake of The Wolfman was in the works, with the script to be written by Andrew Kevin Walker and Del Toro to star (it was his first blockbuster as a lead). Shooting was to take place in the UK. Relativity Media and producer Scott Stuber’s Stuber Productions also financed the film. Around a year later in February 2007, Mark Romanek was attached to direct, with Universal aiming for a November 2008 release. A few months later, it was pushed back to February 2009.

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