werewolves Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Think what you will about the Twilight franchise -- they know how to give, young, hormone-ridden girls sexy boys to yearn for -- even the werewolves. In fact, this is just plain unfair. I don't have a werewolf fetish by any means, but I think it's a bit jerky that children of the '80s got Michael Jackson, Michael J. Fox, and Jason Bateman looking either scary or ridiculously hairy (in both the amount and look of the hair), while girls these days get washboard-abbed, shirtless hotties.

USA Today has nabbed a look at the wolf pack set to terrorize in New Moon, which you can see above (and over there with more leg). The chesty mens in question: Alex Meraz (Paul), Chaske Spencer (Sam), Bronson Pelletier (Jared), and Kiowa Gordon (Embry) ... plus, of course, Taylor Lautner who isn't pictured. (I wonder -- does Jacob Black dig Harry Potter and think of Sirius Black as a doggy idol?)

It might seem a bit silly to show all of their chesticles, but it's a big part of the job description: "It's not pleasant for the actors," says director Chris Weitz. "But they have all been good-natured. They show up on location in drenching, cold rain, and I say, 'OK, off with the robes.' "

Ooooh, boy. Over on Stephenie Meyer's website today, they posted a link to some new behind-the-scenes Twilight video over on MTV, and what I saw on the video looks very promising. They have footage on there of the filming of the fight scene between James and Edward, and some chats with a few of the stars of the film, and I have to say, it seems like director Catherine Hardwicke and her cast seem to really "get" both what Twilight is about, and their responsibility to fans of the series to get it right.

The more I see of how Hardwicke is putting the film together, the better I feel about the possibility that this might actually end up being a case where the film adaptation comes close to being as good as the book, and it's looking like hardcore Twilighters might end up loving this film. And of course, Hardwicke knows that if they're going to make this a series of films, it's imperative that she not screw up this first installment; most Twilight fans I know would rather not see a movie made at all than see it done poorly.

Oh, those Twilight Moms. How great are they? Only a truly obsessed fan would brave a rainy, dreary Pacific Northwest day to go watch part of the shoot for Twilight -- and have the presence of mind to get some great pics as well. Although, as a mom myself, I can attest that if you've been through childbirth, staying home with kids building block towers all day, and picking up formerly wet Cheerios that have crusted dry onto pile carpeting, a day spent in the rain watching a movie you can't wait to see be filmed is the best mom field trip ever. And if I was still in Seattle, you can bet that my daughter and I would be having some bonding time driving down to Oregon to catch the film being shot, too.

Here are my thoughts of what I've seen of the shoot and behind-the-scenes stuff so far. The setting in the pics from this shoot is absolutely gorgeous and really captures the beauty and essence of the Pacific Northwest. As for the potential of the film to not suck, the casting of Bella and Edward in particular was crucial to the book series' ardent fans accepting the film, and I'm digging the casting at this point. Having just seen Kristen Stewart in What Just Happened?, I think she has exactly the right look and attitude to play Bella; she does the brooding teen thing well, but also has the softness and intelligence that's such a part of who Bella is. She kind of reminds me of early Christina Ricci, minus the edge and acerbity that Ricci tended toward.

My daughter and I are huge fans of the Twilight series. We've both read all three existing books -- Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse -- and are marking the days off on a mental calendar until the August 2 release date of the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, and my daughter and I could discuss the books endlessly.

We've had countless conversations about whether Bella should become a vampire, or if Stephenie Meyer will ever stop teasing us with that and let Edward turn her, already. And whether Bella will have a vampire "superpower" once she does turn, and what that power might be. And which characters we like the most. And so on, and so on, as I'm sure the rest of you hardcore Twilight fans do.

I'll just come right out and say it: I think werewolves are dumb. They could be interesting, and I'm sure they once were, but for me they're typically a let down, whether they be the lame werewolves in Wes Craven's Cursed or the badly generated werewolf transformation in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or even the blood-splattering werewolves of a well-written horror film like Dog Soldiers. Maybe it's because the first werewolves I was familiar with growing up were Michael Jackson in the "Thriller" video and Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf, but whatever the reason, the fact remains that I don't think they're scary and I don't think they're cool.

So, you can imagine how disappointed I was to see JoBlo's new spy shots from the set of "X-Files: Done One" (aka X-Files 2), which feature what looks to be a werewolf mask. I guess there's a chance that thing in the photos could simply be a wolf -- not of the 'were' variety -- and that would be OK. But seeing as this is the paranormal world of X-Files, I'm betting on my first thought being correct.

For other fans of the show, these photos are probably pretty exciting. They're certainly a lot more interesting than that first pic we saw last month, and more intriguing than these simple photos and video of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson from FlynetOnline or these more official shots from ComingSoon.net. Also, with all the secrecy surrounding the plot of the sequel, these photos allow us to speculate a great many things while we wait to hear about the actual plot synopsis. Perhaps one of those new cast members, say Xzibit or Billy Connolly or Amanda Peet turns into a werewolf. Wouldn't that be super neat? Yeah, well you already know I think it would be boring, but I'm trying to be excited for the rest of you.

Usually, if some eerie force is going to take over the world (in the realms of horror, not politics), it's zombies. They multiply; they eat the flesh; they moan and groan. The other fantastical baddies like vampires, werewolves, and ghosts mostly get small hordes to hang with, and never get the honor of a worldwide epidemic. That being said, things are going to change when Benighted gets adapted for the big screen.

Well over a year ago, Warner Brothers bought the rights to Kit Whitfield's first novel, Benighted. Finally, The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Patrick Smith Kelly, the pen behind Don't Say a Word and A Perfect Murder, has been tapped to adapt the thriller, under producers Graham King and Andrew Adamson. Dealing with "core themes of racism and alienation," the book focuses on a world where werewolves make up 90% of the world's population.

"Barebacks," the few who remain human when the moon changes, have to keep the peace when most of the world goes wolfy. Specifically, there's a young non-wolf named Lola, whose moon duties include "dogcatching" and chasing stray "lunes." When the moon isn't full, she's a lawyer for the "Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity." Her friend gets attacked by a werewolf and is shot dead a few days later, and Lola has to defend the murder suspect. This leads her to the secrets behind her strange society. Considering the amount of time it took to get a screenwriter, I don't imagine that we'll hear more about this for a while. But I wonder: will Michael Douglas be involved, like he was in Kelly's other two films?

Try to fit this title on a marquee: Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men. It's the name of a book by Nick Redfern that Universal has just bought the rights to. Now get this: the book is non-fiction. Redfern is a Ufologist and his book tells of his adventure with two buddies as the trio visited legendary mysterious places around Great Britain, including Loch Ness. The best part is that Redfern is a punk, one of his friends is a goth herpetologist (a reptile and amphibian expert) and his other friend is 6'6" and 400 pounds. Basically, this is the book I was craving as a subculture-centered, Fortean-minded, mysteries-of-the-unknown-obsessed teenager.

Fortunately, I never knew about this book (actually it came out many years after I'd stopped reading about UFOs and such), because if I was a fan and had looked forward to it being adapted into a movie, I would have been very disappointed to learn that Jon Heder is set to star. The one-note Napoleon Dynamite actor, who is surprisingly not yet a has-been despite not yet starring in another hit since his cult-fave introduction, will be producing with his brothers, Doug and Dan (his twin! there's two of them!), and he is expected to play the author (who is bald). I'm not sure who he could get to play the big guy, but for the goth herpetologist let me suggest Heder's School for Scoundrels co-star Todd Louiso, who has at least played a snake expert amusingly before, and who I can totally imagine dressing up to play Vampire: The Masquerade.

Katja von Garnier's Blood and Chocolate is a werewolf movie for people who like teen romances, and a teen romance for people who like werewolf movies. It's no great shakes in either direction, but the crossover attempt is mildly interesting. At least it's not yet another remake filled with the same old tricks. Instead, the film opens with plenty of picturesque shots of Bucharest, Romania, with trees, buildings, fountains, sculptures, and especially the lithe form of Vivian Gandillon (Agnes Bruckner), jogging. If there was any doubt that she's a werewolf, we get an immediate shot of a dog whimpering and backing away under her gaze -- not to mention that her brand of jogging includes bounding off the sides of buildings.

Vivian lives, vaguely dissatisfied, in a community of werewolves that keeps mostly to itself. The pack's leader, Gabriel (Oliver Martinez) worries that an attack could lead bands of marauding humans into their lair, massacring the lot of them. Occasionally, Gabriel waylays a drug dealer or some other scum of society and lets his furry brethren loose on a merry chase. Some of the wolfmen, such as Vivian's cousin Rafe (Bryan Dick), complain that life is too boring, but Vivian has other worries. Every seven years Gabriel takes a new bride, discarding the old ones, and Vivan dreads that she could be next. Worse, she fears that there's nothing she can do about it.