Universal is stepping up the presence of The Wolf Man. They opened that new Universal Monsters Legacy site, which rules, and then last week they sent me a DVD of the original Lon Chaney film (which I of course already owned, but hey, it’s cool for the rest of the websters who aren’t up on the classics. Now let’s see if these Baby Bloggers give a black and white movie a chance). Now they’re crowing about the film’s newest achievement: getting an R rating.
And not just any R. This R is for ‘bloody horror, violence and gore,’ so this version of The Wolf Man won’t be pulling any punches. Or any claws or fangs, for that matter. I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten a blast email from a publicist telling me the rating of a movie before, but this is a film that needs to be buzzed up in a big way.
Side interesting note: The rating means Universal has decided on a cut of the film. It tested last month with two cuts of different lengths. I’m assuming the longer one was the R rated one, but it’s hard to say for sure. But they’ve made their decision, and all the rehires, reshoots, re-edits and whatnot are behind them. They have a movie and they have a rating and now they have to start convincing you to come see it. And judging from the reaction to this news on Twitter, people are ready to see The Wolf Man.