Entertainment Weekly has just unveiled the first two photos (second pic after the jump) of Benicio Del Toro as The Wolfman, along with a pretty sweet interview with famed makeup artist Rick Baker on how he went about updating the look 67 years after the first big-screen Wolfman hit theaters. Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park 3) directs this latest version, which also stars Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving. The makeup looks absolutely insane; especially in the second photo which creeps the living hell out of me. Do we even need to tell you the story? Dude becomes a wolfman and craziness ensues. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait all the way until February 13, 2009 to watch this sucker come to life in theaters.

Head over to EW to check out larger versions of each pic, as well as to read that Rick Baker interview.

I was pretty bummed when I posted that Mark Romanek had backed out of the upcoming horror thriller The Wolf Man, starring the wonderful Benicio Del Toro. Then, I tried to wrap my head around the new director, Joe Johnston. Right now, I'm not caring because Bauer-Griffin has some great photos from the set of the upcoming film.

Yes, that's Benicio above -- all bloody, but not looking particularly beaten, so I'm thinking that's what happens to his clothes after he wolfs out and rips a bunch of unlucky buggers apart. And of course, that's a bearded Anthony Hopkins to the right. This is just one of a bunch of stills the site has, all from the same shoot -- you should really check them out if you're at all interested in this film.

Unfortunately, we've got almost a year to wait to see if the film is half as good as these pics. The Wolf Man is scheduled to hit theaters February 13, 2009 -- just in time for Valentine's Day!

[via Shock Till You Drop]

Australian-born Roger Donaldson, 62, may be the perfect example of a journeyman filmmaker, or a craftsman, the exact opposite of an auteur. You could watch back-to-back, for example, Cocktail (1988), Species (1995) and Thirteen Days (2000) and never guess that the same man made all three. His filmography is a perfect cross-section of Hollywood films, good and bad. He may be the only director nominated for both the Palme d'Or (for The Bounty in 1984) and a Razzie (for Cocktail).

The best thing about these types of filmmakers is that they're level-headed and tend to learn from their mistakes, picking up new skills and bringing fresh ideas to each new film. Likewise, he has worked with an impressive roster of actors and actresses, including many future stars and Oscar winners. He began as a still photographer and a documentary filmmaker before helping to organize the New Zealand Film Commission. His first films, Sleeping Dogs (1977) and Smash Palace (1981) helped put him on the map and brought him to Hollywood, where he has worked steadily for three decades. His previous film, The World's Fastest Indian (2005), was something of a personal film for him. He revisited a subject from a documentary he made in the 1970s, wrote the script and raised the money, shot partly in New Zealand where his roots are, and even reunited with Anthony Hopkins, the co-star of The Bounty.

My indie pick of the week is Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited; which our own Monika Bartyzel has already reviewed elsewhere. My next pick is a film that Cinematical's Scott Weinberg recommended: Death at a Funeral. The title may be misleading: it's a comedy directed by Frank Oz (Little Shop of Horrors, What About Bob?) and Scott described it as "a very broad, very British and very funny farce ... that will definitely appeal to people over the age of 30." MGM's DVD includes an audio commentary by Mr. Oz, another by screenwriter Dean Craig and actors Alan Tudyk and Andy Nyman, and a gag reel.

New Oscar winner Javier Bardem also starred in last year's Goya's Ghosts, a bio-pic directed by Milos Forman; Ryan Stewart wrote: "It just comes across as odd and indicative of a serious lack of directorial focus." He further stated: "If it were not the work of a major director, it's hard to imagine why anyone would suffer the mental agitation of trying to figure out how its various pieces fit together ..." Ryan explained his disappointment very well, but if you're a glutton for punishment -- or a huge, huge fan of Bardem and co-star Natalie Portman -- you might decide to rent the DVD from Samuel Goldwyn, which includes a behind-the-scenes featurette.

There are casting announcements that make you howl with despair (I'm looking at you, Wolverine) and there are ones that restore your faith in the magic of movies. This is one of those.

Variety has announced that Hugo Weaving will be bringing his deep and scary voice to Universal's upcoming remake of The Wolfman, and taking on the role of Detective Aberline. (Cue all the Matrix, "Evening, Mr. Talbot" jokes as Aberline hunts Talbot across the moors.)

Weaving rounds out an already impressive cast of Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, and Anthony Hopkins. I know for many, the thought of touching those classic monster movies is complete sacrilege, but if you are going to do a remake, it doesn't get any better than this. Hopefully, Mark Romanek's departure is the only calamity to befall this production and it make a painless transformation (ha ha) to the big screen.

The only flaw remaining is that February release date. I'm glad studios are now realizing people like to see good films in all the months of the year, but The Wolfman really ought to command an October or November release. The atmosphere is just ripe for some Gothic horror. And some of us don't want to see the 25th Saw installment.

John Landis may or may not belong in "director jail," as Ryan Stewart wrote about yesterday, but he won't be directing the upcoming big-budget remake The Wolf Man. Instead, Variety is reporting that Joe Johnston has been signed by Universal Pictures to fill the director's chair recently vacated by Mark Romanek due to "creative differences."

Johnston's directorial career began nearly 20 years ago with the earnestly entertaining Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and The Rocketeer. He got bogged down with The Pagemaster and Jumanji before delivering the appealing drama October Sky, my fave of his films. He returned to big budget studio projects with Jurassic Park III and Hidalgo.

Is he the right director for The Wolf Man? Based on a script by Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven), the new film is set to star Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt. Reportedly, Romanek worked for about a year on the film, and del Toro has long been attached to star, but the two producers that Variety says were "integral in keeping the project on track" -- Scott Stuber and Mary Parent -- have a mixed record.

Hearing that Mark Romanek was going to direct a new stab at The Wolf Man a year ago, with Benicio Del Toro starring, was music to my fangirl ears. It was the sort of project that sliced through remake apprehension, and sounded like tasty, cinematic candy. Well, if Nikki Finke's sources are correct, we can forget that possibility. Over at Deadline Hollywood Daily, she has posted word from her sources, who say that Romanek has just quit the project. And Variety has followed up with confirmation of his departure. What?! Is he nuts!?

The source says: "He just blew the opportunity of a lifetime, which is mind-boggling." Indeed! It seems that the $100 million budget wasn't enough for him: "He's a purist, an artiste, an exquisite craftsman, but he just had a budget schedule he couldn't accommodate." Okay... Sure, budgets can make for headaches, but lots of amazing films have been made with small budgets, and we're talking about Del flipping Toro as the Wolf Man, and Anthony Hopkins as Sir John. I might not sell my blood for it, Rodriguez-style, but I'd somehow make it work.

The studio thinks it will fill his shoes pronto, but there's no word about whether they'll stick to their February 18 start date. With Romanek out -- who could fill in his shoes and do the project justice?

I know I bitch and moan about horror remakes all the time, but every once in a while there comes a project that melts my cynicism and gets me all geeky. Universal's impending rendition of The Wolf Man is one such project, and I'm basing my early opinions on a few cool factors:

1. Benicio del Toro is going to star, and that's what I call good casting. OK, and this Anthony Hopkins guy is pretty solid, too.
2. Mark Romanek is directing, and if you've ever seen One Hour Photo (or, better yet, this DVD) then you know that's a good thing.
3. The screenplay comes from Andrew Kevin Walker, also known as the man who wrote the blisteringly awesome Seven and one very cool version of Sleepy Hollow.

And now, courtesy of CHUD.com, I have a fourth reason to get excited for this new version of The Wolf Man: The mega-hot and seriously talented Emily Blunt has been (almost) cast as the female lead. (Probably best known for a great supporting turn in The Devil Wear Prada, Ms. Blunt appeared in no less than four films this year: Wind Chill, The Jane Austen Book Club, Dan in Real Life and Charlie Wilson's War.) Plus, like I said, she's really pretty with a powerfully sexy accent.

Unfortunately the new Wolf Man isn't scheduled to make his big-screen appearance until February of '09 -- which will give us plenty of time to bring you all the newest developments.

Do you know who that is playing Yoda up top?

Okay, this is pretty hysterical. A website called Worth1000 is currently hosting a contest in which they ask you to re-imagine a Star Wars character -- any character -- using a celebrity. Of course, a ton of folks have entered photo-shopped images (that are very well done, if you ask me) of Star Wars characters ranging from Shrek as Darth Maul to Anthony Hopkins as Yoda (pictured above). There's even a freaky pic of Marilyn Manson as Padme. The international folks representing Mexico doctored up a photo to show what it would look like if Gael Garcia Bernal and Salma Hayek played Luke and Leia, and even George Lucas himself shows up as Darth Maul.

The celebs who pop up the most include Dick Cheney (as a number of slimy Star Wars creatures) and, believe it or not, the Pope. Yoda and Darth Maul seem to be the most popular re-invented characters. There's a bunch of contest rules to read through, and I'm not sure if you win anything for the best picture ($1000 maybe, since the site is called Worth1000?), but it sure is fun to surf through them all. Head on over to Worth1000 to check out all the images, and I've included my favorite up top (though the Bernal/Hayek pic is pretty damn awesome as well). Oh, and if you enter, definitely let us know so we can run over there to check out your creation. (Note: President Bush is nowhere to be found, though I believe he's one of their "cliches" -- meaning he's a personality that's too easy to rip on, and therefore isn't allowed.)

[via Hollywood Wiretap]

Earlier this month a bunch of us came up with a list of the movie characters we'd love to have thanksgiving with. Now, here's the opposite. The title is pretty self-explanatory, so I don't need to set it up much. But as usual, we invite you to tell us of your own picks for worst Thanksgiving dinner guest. Please try to make it a movie character, though, because none of us know your annoying aunt, and plus this is a movie site.


Hannibal Lecter from Manhunter, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon and Hannibal Rising

If you were to have Dr. Lecter (Brian Cox; Anthony Hopkins; Gaspard Ulliel) to your Thanksgiving feast, you'd want to prepare and cook all the food yourself. Otherwise, you might end up eating human flesh instead of turkey (or turducken, or whatever non-people-based meal you prefer). Then again, you might actually end up the meal, which is certainly much worse than unknowingly tasting Ray Liotta's brains. So, the best thing is to not even invite the guy.


Graham Young from Young Poisoner's Handbook

Another character who might be an interesting guest, but like with Lecter, you'll need to keep an eye on the food, or at least on the tea. Graham (Hugh O'Conor), aka "the teacup murderer" likes to play with poison, and there's a good chance he's going to spike the dinner or drinks with thallium.

What in the name of...? Anthony Hopkins goes way, way, way off the deep end with Slipstream, a straight-outta-crazyland film written and directed by the actor in some sort of feverish attempt to mimic the work of former The Elephant Man collaborator David Lynch. It's Hopkins' very own Inland Empire, minus the inspiration and double the stylistic wackiness, with so many flash cuts, insert shots, freeze frames, rewinds, fast-forwards, color changes, perspective switches, discordant soundtrack noises and repeated scenes (featuring cast members in various roles) that it takes only a few short minutes for one's brain to start hurting from madness overload. And that isn't even a full list of all the tricks and gimmicks employed throughout this awe-inspiringly loony evisceration of Hollywood, the filmmaking process and - given its own awfulness - maybe art-house cinema as well. Who knows? To say Hopkins is going for something a tad more avant-garde than the standard fare in which he usually participates is to say that black is slighter darker than white. Slipstream is straight-up bonkers, a deliberately unintelligible and aesthetically insane head-trip into the fractured mind of its protagonist, screenwriter Felix Bonhoeffer (Hopkins).

"Good eeevening." The last we heard about writer/director Ryan Murphy's Alfred Hitchcock biopic was back in February. At the time it was just speculation, but today MTV Movies Blog has confirmation -- Anthony Hopkins will play Hitch. They've even got a clip of him doing the voice over there. I think it's pretty solid casting, but Hopkins better start eating! The February report mentioned Helen Mirren possibly stepping into the role of Hitchcock's wife and lifelong creative collaborator, Alma Reville, but that casting is not confirmed yet. The film is expected to be called Alfred Hitchcock Presents and will detail Hitchcock's experiences making the 1960 classic Psycho. At the time, the screenplay was seen as far too dark for mass audiences, and Hitch faced quite a few hurdles to bring the project to the big screen.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents will be written and directed by Ryan Murphy. I am a fan of Murphy's FX series Nip/Tuck, particularly the first few seasons. But any faith I had in his filmmaking went out the window with the absolutely dreadful Running with Scissors, one of my least favorite movies of 2006. Hopefully, he can redeem himself here. I can't say for certain when we'll see Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as Murphy is currently very busy in both the television and film worlds. On TV, he's overseeing Nip/Tuck and an upcoming F/X drama about a transsexual father called 4 oz. On the big screen, he's working on the Tricky Dick flick Dirty Tricks, starring Brad Pitt and Meryl Streep, with Jim Broadbent as Nixon, and Need with Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts. So it's conceivable that we won't get to see AFP for a few years. Hey, now that the wheels are in motion on the story of how Hitchcock's Psycho came to be, is it too much to ask to get a making-of biopic for Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed remake? I kid, I kid.

Sure, it's easy enough to find the up-side of the handsome hunks of horror film. Hunks are easy. They're (mostly) hot, with their nicely whitened teeth and their hair product-styled to perfection, their six-pack abs, their ... sorry, where was I? Oh, right. Hunks versus Slashers. Jeff and Monika have already brought you the hottest hunks and chicks of horror; guess who drew the short straw and had to pick the slashers? (Actually, I volunteered for this one, so I guess that says something freaky about me ... ) My mission: to determine the hottest horror slashers (at least, according to me). These are the bad boys of horror you just can't stop thinking about, the ones who keep popping up in your dreams ... or nightmares. Whether they slash with blades on their fingers, roque mallets, or your basic kitchen knife, these are the boys you don't want to bring home to introduce to the folks over Sunday dinner ... unless you want your family to be the main course.

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates (Psycho) My mother always told me: Never date a mama's boy. Little Normie's devotion to his mother was sweet, sure, but his methods of showing it left a little to be desired. But you have to admit, there's something about a guy who might stab you through the shower curtain if the mood strikes that guarantees that you'll never be bored while getting ready for your big date night. Anthony Perkins' striking performance as Norman Bates set the bar for horror slashers for decades -- even after all these years, watching Psycho still sends shivers up your spine. (View the trailer for Psycho or go straight to the gallery!)

Doug Bradley as Pinhead (Hellraiser) Sure, all those nails stuck into his skull give new meaning to the word "hammered" -- not to mention making it a little tricksy to coordinate outfits for those hot dates to movie premieres -- but at least, in his own bizarrely twisted way, Pinhead had a sense of fair play. Of course, if you make the wrong choice, your evening is gonna go downhill in a hurry. There's nothing like giant fishhooks pulling your flesh 14 different ways to put a damper on date night. On the plus side, though, you're probably pretty safe being walked home after dinner by a guy who looks like he had a close encounter with a nail gun, on purpose. (View the trailer for Hellraiser ... or go straight to the gallery!)

No, not Guillermo Del Toro! That guy's busy enough! I'm talking about the Oscar-winning bad-ass actor known as Benicio Del Toro. A while back we informed you that the guy would be starring in a new version of The Wolf Man for Universal. and director Mark Romanek. Well, the flick is still on the way (fortunately), but Benny has some other projects to get through first -- including two Soderbergh films in which he'll play Che Guevara!

But back to the wolfy stuff. Del Toro will play Lawrence Talbot in Romanek's new rendition, and the behind-the-scenes info just keeps getting better and better. Not only does the adaptation come from the man who wrote Seven and Sleepy Hollow -- but according to the actor (and the MTV Movies Blog) the legendary Anthony Hopkins has just joined the cast. It's been a rumor up till now, but the actor semi-confirms it: "I think so," he says. Universal seems to have May 2009 penciled in for the return of The Wolf Man, but why not bump it a few months? A big-budget Wolf Man re-do ... that's got the Halloween season written all over it.

After Polar Express, you've got to gore things up a bit. Robert Zemeckis is soon to return with Beowulf, and now we've got another trailer to feast on at the official website -- one safely housed behind one of those age verification pages. This time around, we've got lots of Beowulf ranting, merged with lots of blood and death. Well, what looks like animated blood that is. With this trailer, we get to see some of Grendel's victims, plus some slow-mo, blood-filled action during a Grendel attack. At the very least, you can expect this to be completely over the top.

Stylistically, I think I prefer it's predecessor, Sturla Gunnarsson's Beowulf & Grendel, which came out last year. It's far from flashy, but it's got the fighting and the drama -- just in a less-sensational package. That being said, it's pretty hard to resist the names attached to this sucker. Beyond Zemeckis, there's Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary responsible for the screenplay, and then there's the cast. Angelina Jolie has seemed to make the biggest splash so far seeing that she's pretty nude as Grendel's Mother, but there's also Beowulf -- Ray Winstone from my loved Proposition, Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, Robin Wright Penn as Queen Wealtheow, Alison Lohman as Ursula, John Malkovich as Unferth, and of course, Crispin Glover as Grendel. We'll finally get to see the whole package on November 16, but if you want some epic adaptations before then, check out Gunnarsson's version.