People haven’t been too hot on the Benicio Del Toro/Anthony Hopkins Wolfman movie, probably because it began by changing directors, later dropped Danny Elfman as composer and hired someone else, and most recently brought in two new editors to recut it. That much studio meddling is usually a bad sign. According to Benicio’s Playboy interview, the main difference between Mark Romanek’s vision and new director Joe Johnston’s was that in Romanek’s, the Wolfman was a conflicted character, whereas in Johnston’s he’s more of a good guy with a terrible curse like in the old Lon Chaney Jr. version.
Anyway, it opens in February and this is the latest international trailer and poster. It still looks good to me. I mean, not shirtless-ethnic-temptation-wolves-battle-the-sparkling-vampires-of-white-virtue good, but still, pretty decent.
(The cold-activated bottle means it’s ready to fire!)
After the jump, you can watch the second trailer for Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Hugo Weaving; directed by Joe Johnston, who replaced Mark Romanek early in production. Johnston (Hidalgo, Jumanji, The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III) is known as a guy who’s strong on visual effects and maybe not so strong on story. The trailer seems to take the same approach, and looks pretty badass, even if Benicio Del Toro looks less wolf-like in his Wolfman makeup than he does in regular life.
In their ongoing quest to market a promising film badly, Universal decided to release the new trailer for The Wolf Man exactly one hour after the Avatar trailer was scheduled to be released. The trailer is below (HQ copy here), and a whole slew of new images are available at LatinoReview.
The Wolf Man stars Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Hugo Weaving, the triumvirate known in some circles (read: nowhere) as Scowly, Scary, and Forehead. The first director (Mark Romanek) dropped out and was replaced by Joe Johnston (Hidalgo, Jumanji), known in most circles as “Who?”.
The Boston Globe is reporting that the role of Larry in the Farrelly Brothers’ Three Stooges movie, originally set to star Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Jim Carrey, until Sean Penn pulled the kind of selfish dick move that is his trademark, will be filled by Paul Giamatti.
In town this week to see Paul McCartney play at Fenway, Peter Farrelly told us that Paul Giamatti has signed on to replace Sean Penn as Larry. Playing Moe will be Benicio Del Toro, one Hollywood’s biggest “Three Stooges” fans. Still to be cast is Curly. There had been reports that Jim Carrey would utter Curly’s signature “n’yuk, n’yuk, n’yuk,” but it’s not so.
Jim Carrey dropping out makes sense, but it’s strange that Paul Giamatti would jump in as Larry. What basically happened was Penn dropped out, then a bunch of people said “Hey, what about Paul Giamatti? He’s weird looking and bald.” Then someone asked Giamatti about it and he said [via /Film]:
“They were always so dark and grim. And Moe was this ancient man with a little boy’s haircut. But Larry? I don’t get Larry. He’s strange. He’s sort of the blank guy in the middle.”
So maybe he had a change of heart. Or maybe Peter Farrelly was just drunk. Or maybe we’re all just figments of Tom Cruise’s coma fantasy, what am I, a wizard? Anyway, I don’t see this movie happening. I love the stooges, but the Farrellys haven’t made a good movie in a long time, and comedy doesn’t really age well (in fact, the latter may explain the former). If they want to get this made, they’re gonna have to change the source to a graphic novel and Larry and Curly to two warring factions of vampires.
Sean Penn, after filing for divorce then changing his mind twice in the last two years, says he’s taking a break from acting. In the process, he’s sort of screwing over the two projects he’s attached to, the Farrelly Brothers Three Stooges movie and Cartel.
It is understood that the two-time Oscar-winning actor-writer-director is taking a leave from his Hollywood career for personal reasons. It’s unclear how long the absence could last, though sources have said up to a year.
Peter and Bobby Farrelly have spent the better part of a decade trying to get “Stooges” off the ground, and in March they pulled off a major casting coup: Penn as Larry, with Jim Carrey as Curly and Benicio del Toro as Moe. Now MGM and the Farrellys, who wrote the script and are slated to direct, need to decide whether they will wait for Penn or seek to find a new actor. Time and availability are the issues: “Stooges” was eyeing a late August start date, and MGM has slotted it for a 2010 release. If the studio waits, it could risk losing Carrey and del Toro. On the other hand, half of Hollywood would poke their eyes out for the part. [THR]
That’s a shame. I know a lot of people were looking forward to the new, hellishly intense method-acting Larry who keeps slipping on banana peels on the way to identify the body of his murdered daughter.
