Cinefantastique Online

MTV.Com’s Movieblogs has a tiny tidbit from Benicio Del Toro about his proposed starring role in a remake of THE WOLF MAN:

Del Toro seems psyched for the project to be directed by Mark Romanek. “We’re trying to go back to the original. There’s something very nostalgic about it for me. I loved all those monsters when I was a kid,” he said.

Asked if, as rumored, Anthony Hopkins is on board as well Del Toro said, “I think so,” before adding that the final deals haven’t been closed nor has a starting date been determined. Excitedly Del Toro said, “I have never done a horror film.” He quickly added with a laugh, “maybe a lot of my films already are horror films.”

Set in Britain, the original 1941 version of THE WOLF MAN starred Lon Chaney, Jr. as the son of a prestigious family who returns home after a stay in America. He is bitten by a wolf – which turns out to have been a werewolf – and suffers the curse of lycanthropy, which dooms him to transform whenever the moon is full.

Although commonly regarded as a classic alongside FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA (both 1931), THE WOLF MAN is a bit over-rated, being filled with repetitive dialogue and strange inconsistencies (the werewolf the bites our hero is clearly a real wolf that runs on all fours, but Chaney turns into some kind of man-wolf hybrid that walks upright). Still, the character has joined the pantheon of horror icons, and it will be interested to see how a modern version would turn out.