Director Mark Romanek, last seen helming One Hour Photo, has signed on to direct Benicio Del Toro as he plays Marv Wolfman, the mastermind behind Crisis on Infinite Earths and who…
Oh, wait.
Romanek is signing on to direct Del Toro as THE Wolfman. When did he lose the space? In 1941 he was The Wolf Man. Now he’s The Wolfman. It sounds like a movie about a Hispanic guy who turns into a Jew on the Sabbath.
Anyway, Romanek, a prolific and brilliant video director, made his feature debut with One Hour Photo, which was like pretty a’ight, but then he fell off the face of the Earth. Sharon Waxman actually included him in a recent New York Times list of talented young directors who don’t direct much. Maybe that’s what spurred him on to get working again.
Del Toro has been attached to this movie for years, and any look at his face shows that he’s been living the part. Last year it looked like it was all but certain that the two Del Toros would team up on it – Guillermo del Toro was moments from signing on, but that fell through.
They’re using the Kevin Andrew Walker script, which I am pretty sure I have laying around here somewhere but never got around to reading. It’s supposed to be quite faithful to the Lon Chaney original. The big question, though, is how will Romanek handle the transformation, especially since Blood and Chocolate upped the ante so vigorously with its shots of people turning into wolves in bursts of light. Gay light, to be specific (I saw it shining on the Gay Pride Parade last year).
Production on The Wolfman starts this fall. Next year look for Famous Monsters of Jerusalem: The Wolfman Meets Draculaberg Meets Frankenstein (he’s obviously of the Chosen People).