Making Of “The Wolfman” (Movie)

Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolfman brings the myth of a cursed man back to its legendary origins. Academy Award® winner BENICIO DEL TORO (Che, Traffic) stars as Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Academy Award® winner ANTHONY HOPKINS (The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal), Talbot sets out to find his brother…and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.
Lawrence Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (EMILY BLUNT of The Young Victoria, The Devil Wears Prada), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving, The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix trilogies) has come to investigate.
As Talbot pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance of ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But after he is bitten by the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side of himself…one he never imagined existed.

The Wolfman is directed by JOE JOHNSTON (Jurassic Park III, Hidalgo) and produced by SCOTT STUBER (Couples Retreat, Role Models), Del Toro, RICK YORN (The Aviator, Gangs of New York) and SEAN DANIEL (The Mummy franchise, Tombstone). The action-horror film is written by ANDREW KEVIN (Sleepy Hollow, Se7en) and DAVID SELF (Road to Perdition, Thirteen Days), and it is based on the motion picture screenplay by CURT SIODMAK (1941’s The Wolfman). Joining Johnston and the producers behind the camera is a distinguished team of filmmaking artists, including cinematographer SHELLY JOHNSON (Jurassic Park III, Hildago); Academy Award®-winning production designer RICK HEINRICHS (Sleepy Hollow, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest); editors DENNIS VIRKLER (The Fugitive, The Hunt for Red October) and three-time Oscar® winner WALTER MURCH (The English Patient, Cold Mountain); three-time Academy Award®-winning costume designer MILENA CANONERO (Marie Antoinette, Chariots of Fire); and composer DANNY ELFMAN (Wanted, upcoming Alice in Wonderland).

Unleashing the Hellhound: Creature Design and Effects

Notorious for his design and transformation of David Naughton in John Landis’ classic An American Werewolf in London, six-time Academy Award®-winning creature effects designer Rick Baker was asked to come aboard the production. He wanted to keep the look as close to the original Wolf Man as possible, while paying tribute to Jack Pierce’s creation from the ’40s. “Jack Pierce was my idol,” says Baker. “He was the guy I really admired, and I wanted to be true to what Jack did…but still modernize it. It’s still very much the Jack Pierce Wolf Man, but with a little Rick Baker thrown in. I wanted my Wolfman to be a little more savage and look like he could do a lot more damage than Lon Chaney, Jr.”
For producer Rick Yorn, the idea that Del Toro would be transformed by one of the greatest-living movie-makeup artists was simply a must. He notes: “Rick was our first choice; he’s a legend. You go to his shop and you see all the movies that he has worked on. It’s absolutely a museum. For us, he did such an amazing job.”

Academy Award® nominee DAVE ELSEY, who co-created the look of the Wolfman with Baker, remembers the early days of preproduction as he and Baker were paying homage to the look of the fearsome creature. “The design brief we were given for the werewolf was very open, so we could almost come up with anything,” recalls Elsey. “We were sitting in Rick’s workshop, and the more we talked, the more it seemed like the best thing would be to create a fresh version of what people would recognize as the Wolfman. Rick brings so many ideas to the table and so much enthusiasm for this type of film; it’s a dream come true for us to be working on this classic creature.”

The producers and director Johnston were well aware that the sequences audiences most would anticipate in the film would be the transformation of the human protagonist into the title character. The Wolfman takes a leap forward in that department…with extensive help from the visual effects division, an area with which Johnston is intimately familiar.
Explains the director of the synergy: “The makeup is in several different pieces. It’s applied individually. It’s not a mask, so that allows Benicio to move and to express himself. We didn’t want to rely completely on computer animation, because you can break this barrier of believability or break the laws of physics. What we’re trying to do with these transformations is to keep it as absolutely real as possible and use VFX as a tool to extend what is possible with makeup.”

When it came time for the Wolfman to run, director Johnston and DP Johnson had to be imaginative with how they would capture the shots. Johnston explains: “We wanted that dogleg foot on the Wolfman. The feet that the stuntmen’s feet fit into were almost like high heels. The guys had to be suspended from overhead cables to enable them to run, jump or attack.” When necessary, Del Toro’s legs were replaced with CG legs. Johnston concludes, “We use computer animation to allow the audience to see the Wolfman’s toes gripping the ground, pushing off the earth and flexing his legs…it really makes a difference in helping to believe the transformation is complete. The best visual effects are the ones that are invisible, that you don’t recognize as visual effects, or the ones that don’t draw attention to themselves.”

VFX supervisor STEVE BEGG’s team was charged with taking the effects of Rick Baker and expanding upon them as needed. When Johnston needed a jowl to unhinge or a brow to mutate, Begg brought Baker’s stunning practical effects to a whole new level. He explains: “One of the most overt effects in the film is the transformation into the werewolf. In our hybrid approach—with CG and prosthetics and makeup—we hope the audience won’t be able to figure out how each effect is achieved.”

Of the shoot, Heinrichs remembers: “It was a big challenge for the locations department to find areas of London that were pure enough for us to work with on a large scale. One of those places was Greenwich. Although it’s been used many times on various productions, we were able to adapt it to our purposes. Through some use of visual effects, we made it our own. We needed to have a wide open canvas in order to create a very large set piece for the action to occur.”

Greenwich not only provided the filmmakers access for the long preparation and shooting, but also allowed them two units that shot for eight nights—providing a controlled environment that was perfect for the nature of the stunt work. Expanding the environmental visuals were, once again, the VFX team, led by VFX supervisor Begg. He reflects: “As the film has developed and grown, we’ve done a lot of environment work…like big vista views of London. We haven’t just handled the werewolf, we’ve added to the atmospherics and the various locations in which much of the action takes place.”

Adds VFX producer KAREN MURPHY: “There’s a huge amount of atmospherics and matte painting in this film. Hopefully, because it’s a period film, you’ll see a period character walking down the street at night and not realize how much we’ve removed.”

Courtesy :  UNIVERSAL STUDIOS All Rights Reserved.

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