Trivia / The Wolfman (2010)

• Actor-Inspired Element: The way Sir John Talbot plays the harmonica while walking through the halls of the asylum was Anthony Hopkins' idea.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Benicio del Toro and Rick Baker jumped at the chance to work on the film because both men are huge fans of the original.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $150 million. Box office, $139,789,765.
• Creative Differences: Mark Romanek was going to direct, but left the project over budget disagreements.
• Creator Backlash: Of a sort. The President of Universal Studios said the movie was "crappy" and regarded it as "One of the worst movies we ever made."
• Deleted Role: Max von Sydow plays the character that gives his silver-pointed cane to Lawrence Talbot, but his one scene was cut from the theatrical release. It survives in the director's cut of the DVD.
• Deleted Scene: There's 20 minutes of footage left out of the final cut of the movie that is featured on the DVD. For example, there's a scene where Wolfman!Lawrence bursts into a masquerade ball during his London rampage and then proceeds to kill and splatter blood on the guests. It was in the trailers, but didn't make it into the theatrical release.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Benicio del Toro dyed his hair for the movie.
• Executive Meddling: The reason the prologue is so short and why a good chunk of character development and establishment are left out is because the execs thought the audience would want more Wolfman and less storytelling. The Director's Cut reinserts many of the removed scenes.
• Fake American: Puerto Rican-Spanish actor Benicio del Toro plays English-American Larry Talbot.
• Fake Mixed Race: The fully Latino Benicio Del Toro plays the son of a white, British father and a mother who is implied to be of Spanish or Latina descent.
• Promoted Fanboy: Benicio del Toro himself had been a long-time fan of Lon Chaney Jr., especially of his performance as Lawrence Talbot. He reveals in an interview that he always wanted to portray him, and wouldn't you know it, he got his wish.
• Reality Subtext: Lawrence Talbot is haunted by memories of his mother's death when he was young. Benicio del Toro's own mother died when he was nine.
• Release Date Change: The film was at first slated to hit theaters in 2007, but difficulties to find a director made this release date impossible. Then a new release date was set for February 2009, then November 2009, and then finally February 2010.
• Saved from Development Hell: The movie was planned out and was to be directed by Mark Romanek (of One Hour Photo fame), but he left due to not being able to make changes during the writer's strike at the time. Joe Johnston took over and shot the film in spring/summer of 2008 for a fall 2008 release, but was held back until 2010 due to re-shoots by demand of the studio.
• Stillborn Franchise: Universal had planned a werewolf direct-to-video franchise spawning from this film, with their 2012 film Werewolf: The Beast Among Us slated to be the first installment. Ultimately, the franchise was scrapped, and The Beast Among Us ended up with barely any connections with The Wolfman.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Brett Ratner was the frontrunner to replace Mark Romanek as director. The studio also met with James Mangold, while Martin Campbell and Bill Condon were interested.
  • Andrew Kevin Walker's original script was different in several ways from the film:
    • Lawrence's brother remains missing until near the end of the third act, and it is this mystery that propels the plot. There's even a red herring in the form of Victor, the gypsy suspected of killing the brother.
    • A version of Literature/Carmilla was going to appear.
    • Lawrence doesn't transform for the first time until the London scenes.
    • Sir John is portrayed in a much more human fashion, and less over the top.
    • Inspector Abberline isn't present at all. In fact, the script is set concurrently with the Ripper killings, and the killer has a run in with the Wolfman during the London rampage.
    • The ending is different as well, with Lawrence throwing himself off a cliff so he won't kill Gwen. Of course, this wouldn't really kill a werewolf...

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