Rating:B+
Really Really Good
View Film Preview The Wolf Man
Starring: Benicio Del Toro
Screenplay: Andrew Kevin Walker
Director(s): MPAA Rating: Unavailable
Reviewed by: El Mayimbe - 08.04.06
Yo! Jeff Robinov's good buddy EL MAYIMBE here with the weekend read.
Now this goes out to all you BAT-FOLKS. You see
one of the first rules of
screenwriting is to never be on the nose. Now I did the 1st script review of Batman Begins and I announced the casting of Heath Ledger as the Joker. A big thanks to the WB for confirming my scoop and to all you haters out there who doubted me - eat them bananas mother****ers! Now wouldn't it be too soon or be too on the nose to come out and do the script review for
THE DARK KNIGHT?! Isn't it like expected?
Well, have patience my friends, all in due time. Me announcing Heath was a commonly used old-fashioned screenwriting technique known as SETUP.
What's the PAYOFF? Stay tuned to Latinoreview my friends. He He He
Speaking of SETUP/PAYOFF, this week we have a look at a master screenwriter who uses such techniques. From the writer of some creepy
movies like SEVEN, 8MM, and SLEEPY HOLLOW, we have Andrew Kevin Walker's THE WOLF MAN! There are at least 2 setup/payoff techniques well executed in his script. AKW is widely known for writing dark material and he executes dark and atmospheric like no one else in Hollywood. It is why he gets the big bucks. A master craftsman at mood, he also spins plot and structure, which are rarely predictable. There is a twist in THE WOLF MAN that caught me totally off guard, which I thought I saw coming. Once the twist is revealed and you go back in retrospect you could see it was laid out before you if you were paying attention but would never get.
I read his
BATMAN VS SUPERMAN (dated 6/21/02), which I enjoyed that Wolfgang Petersen was supposed to direct but was ultimately scrapped. Maybe one day I will review it for the site under the woulda, shoulda coulda been a contender.
Now kudos goes out to Universal for finally having the balls to go all out with this installment of their monster franchise. You see THE WOLF MAN isn't a PG-13
THE MUMMY or even VAN HELSING. THE WOLF MAN is a ballsy hard assed R. THE WOLF MAN is American Werewolf in London gory and violent. Throats get torn out, heads get decapitated, bodies get torn in two, dismembered limbs go flying everywhere, entrails get spilled all over the place, the poor victims of The Wolf Man get absolutely gored to death. Hannibal Lecter would get thanksgiving hungry reading this script. There is a scene late in the 2nd act when The Wolfman is fully realized, he breaks out of an insane asylum (won't spoil and tell ya how he got there) and goes on a bloody carnivorous rampage in London.
The last couple of werewolf pictures got soft and way too CGI heavy. A CGI werewolf just doesn't scare me at all like the way they used to do it in The Howling or An American Werewolf in London or even in Silver Bullet. CGI werewolves are just too damn fake. Was anyone scared at the wolf in the recent Lady in the Water? THE WOLF MAN will hopefully breath life back into the Werewolf genre. They need to stay the hell away from CGI as much as possible. The script went out to director's last week and Benecio Del Toro is attached to star as LAWRENCE TALBOT.
So what is THE WOLF MAN about?
What is the SETUP?
I'll keep the spoilers to a minimum. Here is a condensed rundown of the 1st act.
The story takes place in Victorian London, 1888. Lawrence Talbot is an actor in his 30s-performing HAMLET in a traveling theater whose current stop is London. To be or not to be. That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Shakespeare's famous passage plays a central part to the theme of THE WOLF MAN.
THE CALL TO ADVENTURE/REFUSAL scene: After his performance, Lawrence gets a visit from GWEN CONLIFFE, his brother BENJAMIN'S fiancée. Apparently, Ben has going missing from Blackmoor, where Lawrence and his brother Benjamin are from. Ben has disappeared for more than a month now, without a trace. A killing has happened in Blackmoor, an unspeakable murder. Supposedly, a gypsy woman is involved too CARMILLA. Carmilla cheated on her gypsy husband VICTOR who was in prison. Victor returns to the gypsy camp to find his adulterer wife pregnant and Ben is supposedly the father. Victor wants justice but where is Ben? Lawrence refuses Gwen and for his own reasons won't return to Blakmoor.
After a horrible dream sequence, Lawrence ACCEPTS THE CALL.
Lawrence returns to Talbot Hall in Blackmoor and reunites with his father SIR JOHN TALBOT, a widower and hunter. Something tragic happened to Lawrence's mother in the opening scene when Lawrence was 10. Soon Lawrence faces old demons, joins his father in trying to piece together the mystery of his brother Ben's disappearance and the unspeakable murders happening at every full moon in Blackmoor - a supposed gypsy curse.
What's PAYOFF?
You have to check out the film in 2008.
Other than that, the script was well crafted; AKW is at the top of his
game. The structure is tight, the plot is tight, the characterizations are tight, the reveals come unexpectedly and the tone of the script is extremely dark. The Wolf Man action is really hot too. We even have beast on beast action here. There is a scene where The Wolf Man goes to take a breather at a zoo and accidentally goes drink water from a pond with a crocodile lurking nearby. I will say the thing to keep in mind when you see this is that nothing is ever as it seems, especially in this movie. AKW did his job.
So there ya have it...
