Saturday, September 08, 2007

Wolfman In Action

AintItCool have run a picture of Rick Baker and Benicio Del Toro playing werewolves and, frankly, I found it very exciting. Even more brilliant is Mark Romanek's statement about the image:

This was taken about three months ago -- Our first meeting with the three of us.

This pose was a jokey homage to the classic Universal Wolfman/Famous Monsters Magazine-era style, but seeing Benicio getting "wolfy" for the first time, even in jest, gave us chills. It was our first glimpse of what we could expect from this amazingly original and gifted actor.

It was very exciting to see these guys in the same room. Rick could tell immediately that Benicio was a sincere fan of the Lon Chaney Jr. original. Rick is such a Wolfman fan, he admitted that he's only campaigned for two films in his entire career. One was Ed Wood and the other is this project.

Seeing them together in the same room made me feel the project was finally becoming a reality.

Rick's assistant Kazu took extensive hi-rez digital photos (on this incredible 30 megapixel Hasselblad digital camera) of Benny making various facial expressions. we were all so stunned to see just how expressive Benicio's snarls and grimaces were, even without make-up.

Rick joked, "so, whattaya need ME for?!"

That said, the designs that Rick has created for Benicio are astonishing -- subtle, detailed, (sexy), terrifying.

I've said it before, and I'll no doubt say it again: when Romanek has no more than four or five films under his belt I think the world will look back on his record and recognise it as the work of a true giant in film history. There's more filmmaking expertise on display in Static, One Hour Photo and a small handful of Romanek's music video and commercial work than almost any other filmmaker has ever acheived in even a lifetime career. Romanek is not only one of the greatest craftsmen in cinema he's one of it's most thrilling visionaries.

Officially, then, The Wolfman is the one film coming in the next couple of years that film ick is most excited about... so, if you know anything about it at all, please, please, send the info over.

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