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Wolf Man (2025 film)

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Upcoming film by Leigh Whannell

Wolf Man
Teaser poster
Directed byLeigh Whannell
Written by
  • Leigh Whannell
  • Corbett Tuck
Based onThe Wolf Man
by Curt Siodmak
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyStefan Duscio
Edited byAndy Canny
Music byBenjamin Wallfisch
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • January 17, 2025 (2025-01-17)
Running time102 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Wolf Man is an upcoming American horror film directed and co-written by Leigh Whannell. A reboot of The Wolf Man (1941), it stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner. Jason Blum and Ryan Gosling serve as producers, the former through his Blumhouse Productions banner.

The film was announced in 2014 and was to be part of a shared cinematic universe centered on the Universal Monsters; Aaron Guzikowski and David Callaham were attached to pen the script. After the failure of The Mummy (2017), Universal shifted its focus to standalone films. The success of Whannell's The Invisible Man (2020) rekindled Universal's interest in the Monsters franchise. They accepted a pitch by Gosling, who was also set to star, for a new Wolf Man film with Derek Cianfrance to direct. However, Gosling dropped out of the role and Cianfrance left the project in 2023, while Whannell took over as director. Filming took place in New Zealand in early 2024.

Wolf Man is set to be released by Universal Pictures on January 17, 2025.

Premise

Family man Blake relocates from San Francisco to Oregon with his workaholic wife Charlotte and daughter Ginger after inheriting his childhood home, left vacant following his estranged father's mysterious disappearance and presumed death. At the farmhouse at night during a full moon, the family is attacked by a werewolf that claws Blake's arm. They barricade themselves inside the home, but soon Blake begins to transform into something horrifying, jeopardizing the safety of his wife and daughter.

— Universal Pictures

Cast

Production

In July 2014, Universal Pictures announced its plan for a shared cinematic franchise, later dubbed Dark Universe, centered on their Universal Monsters library — which was to include The Wolf Man. In November 2014, Aaron Guzikowski was confirmed to be writing the reboot of Universal's The Wolf Man. In June 2016, Deadline Hollywood reported on rumors that Dwayne Johnson was considered for the titular role. In October, David Callaham was hired to rewrite the script. In 2017, The Mummy was released as the first film in the Dark Universe; its launch was both a critical and commercial failure and resulted in Universal deciding to shift its focus on individual storytelling and move away from the shared universe concept with the cancelation of The Wolf Man and other films in development.

The success of Whannell's previous monster film inspired Universal to make Wolf Man.

Reporter Justin Kroll said the critical and commercial success of Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man for Universal "scrap the universe concept" and loosened restrictions for the talent in front and behind the camera, allowing them to decide how they wanted to execute their films in terms of budget and MPAA rating and invite "big name talent" to pitch their ideas. By early 2020, Universal had been hearing project ideas for a year and a half from filmmakers seeking to develop other characters in the franchise. These meetings included Ryan Gosling's pitch to remake The Wolf Man and star in it, with Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo writing a screenplay described as tonally similar to Nightcrawler (2014). Around this time, make-up artist Mike Marino molded an early version of the werewolf. Several filmmakers were considered to direct, including Cory Finley, whose film Thoroughbreds (2017) was reportedly well liked by Universal, and Whannell, who was advised by Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions (producer of several of his projects, including The Invisible Man) to reconsider after initially declining. (In February 2020, Whanell had mentioned his interest in making a werewolf film during a press interview for The Invisible Man.) Whannell entered negotiations to write a film treatment and direct.

After Whannell left the project due to scheduling conflicts, Derek Cianfrance entered negotiations to write and direct in October 2021, having directed Gosling in Blue Valentine (2010) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012). The film was officially green lit around the conclusion of the 2023 Hollywood strikes. In December, Cianfrance and Gosling were reported to have exited the project due to scheduling conflicts, with Whannell returning to take over directing in addition to writing the screenplay with his wife, Corbett Tuck, while Cianfrance received off-screen additional literary material credit. Gosling, who retained an executive producer credit, was replaced by Christopher Abbott in the lead role. During pre-production, Whannell hosted weekly film screenings for his crew, with selections such as Amour (2012); he noted that the film's first draft was written in 2020, pulling from the feeling of confinement and isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to touch on the inevitability of illness and death, and making the drama "intimate" by setting it primarily in one location. In 2024, Julia Garner, Sam Jaeger, and Matilda Firth joined the cast. Principal photography began in New Zealand on March 17, 2024, with cinematographer Stefan Duscio. Arjen Tuiten was the film's prosthetics designer and makeup artist. Whannell compiled a list of werewolf designs, such as those portrayed by Lon Chaney in the original The Wolf Man (1941) and David Naughton in An American Werewolf in London (1981), along with those included in The Howling (1981) and Dog Soldiers (2002), before settling on one; he was inspired by Heath Ledger's take on the Joker in forming an original design for an established character. Whannell went with Tuiten's first design of the werewolf, which Tuiten first showed him by making a life-sized model.

Marketing

In August 2024, during Universal's Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, a booth revealed the film's logo and teaser image, and on September 4, an actor took the stage for a photo-op performing as the film's werewolf. The werewolf design—a creature with a "balding head", "long white hair on the back of his head and as facial hair", "long, bony fingers", and "sharp teeth"—drew divisive reactions from online users and journalists. On September 6, Universal released a teaser trailer, poster, and synopsis. Hannah Shaw-Williams of /Film suggested that the timing of the teaser's release was "damage control" over the poorly-received werewolf design, noting the absence of the titular creature in the teaser. Whannell described the design reveal as a "debacle", as Universal did it without discussing it with him or contacting the film's make-up artist, Arjen Tuiten; he unsuccessfully tried stopping it by calling Jason Blum and later retorted that it was "like judging the Freddy Krueger makeup by a costume at Spirit Halloween."

Release

Wolf Man is scheduled to be released in the United States on January 17, 2025. It was previously scheduled to be released on October 25, 2024.

Notes

  1. Attributed to multiple sources.

References

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External links

The Wolf Man
Larry Talbot
Original series
Other films
Films by Leigh Whannell
Directed and written
Written
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