Wolf man Director Leigh Whannell offers a candid look at the difficulties of filming, addressing how setbacks led to Ryan Gosling having to step away from the Universal Monsters reimagining. The Saw co-creator set to modernize another classic monster’s tale following his 2020 reimagining of The invisible manWith Christopher Abbott taking on the lead role. in channel Wolf manA small family moves to rural Oregon where he inherits his childhood home, but suddenly Late night home invasion leaves father and husband Blake (Abbott) cursed to become a monster.
Recently, Whannell opened up to Screen Rant During New York Comic-Con About the movie’s journey to the screen and the departure of one potential lead. After some reluctance, Whannell and his wife Corbett Tuck, who also co-wrote the movie, had initially developed the feature with Gosling attachedBut a prolonged development lengthened by the COVID-19 pandemic and Hollywood strike actions of 2024 leave the actor unable to join the production Before the movie was greenlit by Universal.
Yes, it was an interesting project. It came to me right after The Invisible Man. They said: “Do you want to make a wolf man?” And at first I was like, “I’m not sure, I just did Invisible Man.” And then I came up with an idea that I thought, “Oh, the version of the wolf man I would like.” And then I asked Corbett, my wife, we co-wrote it – she was there on her phone. I was like, “Let’s co-write something together.” It went through this long gestation period where I was working on it for a while with Ryan Gosling, and then he had to step away. And this was during COVID, so everything was crazy. And then, just when we started to work again, the strikes happened. I felt like there was a constant barrage of problems. Finally, when the strikes are over, we get the green light from Universal.
Comparing the length of production to the fast cycle of Saw 2s development, Whanell stated that finally he felt That a prolonged production ultimately worked in the movie’s favorHow many elements required more time to figure things out before the cameras started rolling.
So, it was a long time coming, but some movies just seem to happen. Some movies get forced into existence. As I remember, God, after finishing the first SO movie, the producers were like, the Monday after it was released – it came out on Friday and then on Monday – they called and they said, “We want a movie out next October, Start writing.” And it was the opposite problem. I went, “So when do you need the script by?” I can tell you it’s fine About rolling downhill at 100 miles an hour, “We just have to hang on.” Because all that momentum has its own excitement, where it seems to take forever, it can kill your creative spirit I’m glad I had time to think about it for a long time before I shot it, because when we shot it, I found out that there are so many moving parts, with make-up and a child, and we’re shooting at night, and We are in a forest in New Zealand. If I hadn’t thought about it for so long, I might have lost my mind. I’ve always had that to fall back on, like, “Okay, I know what I’m doing here.”
Elements of Gosling’s vision may remain in the script
For those familiar with the development of Wolf man And previous attempts to bring a modern reimagining of the character, Gosling’s departure is the end of a long journey. Gosling was attached to the project before Whannell was brought on as director since approximately 2020, Even being involved in pitching his own ideas to Universal. As such, especially after the excitement surrounding the actor’s personal success in 2023, many audiences may not feel like seeing him as part of Wolf manIt’s cast as a missed opportunity.
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However, with Gosling retaining an executive producer credit, his frequent collaborator Derek Cianfrance receiving a material credit, and Whannell opening up about refining the script, Elements of Wolf mans earlier drafts have likely been retained in the final movie And only continued to build on. As such, it is relieving that some elements of the actor’s involvement could be retained in a project that he was clearly passionate about.
Our thoughts on Gosling Wolf man Exit
Even without Gosling, Whannell’s project is still fueled by filmmaking passion
Between his show-stopping performance as Ken in BarbieHis action-packed role in The autumn guyand anticipation for his space-faring adventure in Project Hail Mary, Gosling is one of Hollywood’s most discussed performers in recent years. Additionally, with his relative inexperience with horror outside of a selection of roles in children’s horror anthology television series in the 1990s, many were looking forward to seeing him expand his range with a horror feature, especially one featuring an iconic creature. .
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Nevertheless, Whannell’s openness about Wolf man‘s journey demonstrates that even though Gosling may no longer be involved, there is still an incredible amount of passion behind the production. As such, with the director’s previous success in reimagining a classic universal monster, there is still sure to be excitement to see the creature return to the big screen.