For the past year, vampires have been all the rage. "Twilight," of course, set it off last November when it became a surprise sensation. On HBO, "True Blood" is pulling in record ratings for its second season. And next month another series of books about bloodsuckers, "The Vampire Diaries," is becoming a show on the CW.
But the sun may be setting -- or rising, as the case may be -- on vamps as a cultural phenomenon because another beast is on the prowl. Werewolves are coming back in a big way this year. First, they took center stage in the latest trailer for "New Moon," the second installment of the "Twilight" series. And now we're getting a first look at Benicio Del Toro as the title character in the new version of "The Wolfman."
The preview for "New Moon" that was released earlier this week focused mainly on Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), who comes into his own both as a character and a werewolf in the second movie. In the "Twilight" universe, were- wolves change in a flash, and their new forms are entirely animal-like. For them, being a shape-shifter is a genetic mutation, not something that passes by a werewolf bite. And they can change at any time, not just during a full moon.
The trailer for "The Wolfman" shows a more traditional sort of werewolf tale, and not just in its Victorian England setting. Like in the original, expatriate Lawrence Talbot returns to his family's manor and is bitten by a creature in the night. At the next full moon, he changes into a hulking monster, and he has no control over his bloodthirsty impulses.
What distinguishes this new "Wolfman" from most of the other werewolf movies of the past decade is that the creature is actually the actor in makeup, not a digital creation. Rick Baker, the makeup maestro who won an Oscar for "An American Werewolf in London," designed the Wolfman's look. At their first meeting, Del Toro so impressed Baker with his wolfish expressions without any makeup that he asked, "What do you need me for?" The transformation scenes in the movie are enhanced by computer effects, but the werewolf himself really is Del Toro under all that fur.
These two films are just the start of a flood of werewolf movies already in production or in the planning stages. October's "Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" features a wolfman as part of a traveling show of monsters. In "Jack and Diane," Olivia Thirlby and Alison Pill will put a romantic twist on the werewolf archetype. There has been talk that Kate Beckinsale might return to battle Lycans again in a fourth "Underworld" movie. And a remake of "An American Werewolf in London" is in the works as well.
Of course, don't count vampires out yet. Even though "New Moon" hasn't come out yet, filming has already begun on the third "Twilight" movie, "Eclipse." Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton are set to revive the '60s cult vampire soap opera "Dark Shadows" as a film next year. Recently, a rumor has also surfaced that Robert Downey Jr. may put on the fangs of the immortal LeStat from Anne Rice's long-running series of books.
To see Benicio Del Toro unleash the animal within, watch the exclusive trailer below. "The Wolfman" opens February 12, 2010.
August 20, 2009
