Del Toro with his agent

In 2008, Universal replaced director Mark Romanek with Joe Johnston a few months before shooting began on Wolfman, and had David Self do a rewrite.  The film came out in 2010 and was a critical and commercial failure (budget: $150 million, worldwide gross: $139 million). Then Marvel hired Johnston to direct Captain America so no one can say Hollywood doesn’t learn from its mistakes.  But Universal had planned Wolfman as the first of a lucrative franchise, and stupid ideas die hard (possible title for next Die Hard sequel?).  So now, instead of the sequel they had planned, they’re “rebooting” the Wolfman.  Which, again, came out last year. They’re considering calling it “Werewolf.”

Universal were considering doing a sequel to the recent – god awful – ”The Wolfman”, which featured Benicio del Toro as the sharp-clawed Talbot – that’s no longer the case. Michael Tabb’s script is being rewritten and reworked to be an original film – almost a reboot of the classic Universal monster movie series.
If anything, this new film – they’ve yet to decide on a title though I hear “Werewolf” is popular -will share a link to the original George Waggner film (from 1941) rather than Joe Johnston’s ill-fated 2009 remake.
As I said, the Universal project is currently undergoing a rewrite; it is likely headed before the cameras in the Fall. The studio is said to be talking to prospective directors over the next couple of weeks. Casting will begin shortly thereafter. |Moviehole|

Maybe get Joe Johnston to direct?  I hear he has a lot of juice right now.  And instead of “Werewolf,” maybe call it “Taylor Lautner.”

The last we heard from Peter and Bobby Farrelly, they were very excited to begin production on their new version of The Three Stooges, as they were completing their recent “meh”-fort, Hall Pass. Bobby was raving to the Boston Herald that Sean Penn was still interested in playing Larry and Benicio Del Toro was still down to play the lead Stooge, Moe. And despite media reports of Jim Carrey’s involvement, Curly was still open.

Fast forward to today and things are looking a wee bit different. According to Variety, the Farrellys apparently plan to go younger with their Stooges and the role of Moe is now being linked to Jackass star Johnny Knoxville. So much for the desires of Hollywood’s A-list, eh fellas? Nyuck nyuck nyuck.

*slaps Starbucks barista across the face, pokes hipster on Mac Book in the eyes*

The Farrelly brothers have been looking to cast the part of Moe in order to zero in on Larry Fine and Curly Howard. While Fox had no comment, sources close to the project saythe Farrellys are waiting for Knoxville to officially accept, as negotiations have not formally begun.

The plan is to divide the PG-rated film into three, 27-minute segments driven by physical comedy, which Knoxville is known for.

I guess he is known for that, sure. But the Three Stooges weren’t really known for attaching lobsters to their genitalia or launching each other into the air in a Port-o-Potty slingshot. Then again, there might be 5 people in Hollywood who have actually watched an episode of the Three Stooges and they’re probably too old to even matter anymore. Their grandkids are calling the shots now, so look forward to Knoxville and his co-stars, Kenan Thompson and Dane Cook, in 2012.

I was the first to confirm the rumor that Sean Penn would be playing Larry in the Farrelly Brothers’ Three Stooges movie back in February.  Benicio Del Toro and possibly Jim Carrey later signed on to play Curly and Moe, until Penn announced his “hiatus from acting” and threw the whole project into limbo.  But now, Penn is back, and the Farrellys want to shoot Three Stooges after they finish an awful-sounding Owen Wilson comedy called Hall Pass.

Penn took a Tinseltown time-out back in June when he announced he was forgoing future film projects to focus on his family as his marriage to Robin Wright Penn went down the tubes.  [Editor's Note: why does every gossip columnist think alliteration is so clever?]
“We got him back,” Bobby Farrelly told the Track. “He always said he wanted to do it after, you know, taking care of his family.”
Now that they have their Larry back and Benicio Del Toro is still interested in playing Moe, Curly still needs to be cast. There was word, way back when, that Jim Carrey was interested. But Bobby claims otherwise. [BostonHerald]

The Farrelly Brothers haven’t made a good movie in a really long time, but if they want this to work, I’d suggest working aspects of their actors’ lives into the plot.  Larry’s cheats on his wife and is gettin divorced, Curly’s wife has some cockamamie theory about vaccines causing autism, Moe is turning into the Wolfman — it’d be like a Tyler Perry movie for white people, but awesome.

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.

[Shocktillyoudrop]

(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.

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