Leigh Whannell, director of the upcoming remake Wolf Man, recently spoke out about the controversial design of the titular creature in his film. In an interview with SFX Magazine, he said that “I think you have to bring a new approach. Maybe there are some people that won’t like it because they love the traditional wolf too much, but that was the approach I wanted. [The Wolf Man is] 100% practical, all make-up – there are no CGI elements.” Whannell is quite insistent that the creature is created completely practically, hopefully making it all the scarier.
A major point of contention for the film came when Universal unveiled a brand new Wolf Man design in the form of a costume for the 2024 Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights event in Orlando. This led many to believe that this was the official design for the monster in the upcoming film. However, Whannell dismissed this rumor saying, “Things slipped through the cracks, and it was like, ‘Oh, they’re doing this promotion for Wolf Man at a theme park, but it doesn’t look right. We shouldn’t be putting that out in the world, because people are going to think that’s what our wolf looks like.’ My only response is to say, ‘Look, that doesn’t represent what we’re doing.’ All I can do is wait for the movie to come out. Then hopefully people will be like, ‘Oh, I see what they were doing.'” So, if you think you’ve seen the Wolf Man… you haven’t.”
Whannell is no stranger to adapting classic Universal monsters, since he directed the highly successful The Invisible Man back in 2020, with that itself being a reimagining of the 1933 classic. That film was a wildly different take on the character, but it ended up working out quite well for what he was trying to do with the film. Whannell is clearly aware that changing aspects of the original may anger some people, but he has proven before that it can work. He says, “I think you have to bring a new approach. Maybe there are some people that won’t like it because they love the traditional wolf too much, but that was the approach I wanted.”
Wolf Man tells the story of a family who gets into a dangerous car crash and is attacked by a mysterious beast. After holing up in an old cabin, they start to notice some alarming and frightening changes occurring in one of their family members. The film stars Julia Garner (Ozark, The Assistant) and Christopher Abbott (It Comes at Night, Poor Things). The film hits theaters on January 17.
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