Werewolf: The Beast Among Us Started Life As A Wolfman 2010 Sequel – Screen Rant

Werewolf: The Beast Among Us started life as a sequel to Universal's 2010 remake of The Wolfmanbefore becoming its own movie. Universal is a studio with a proud tradition of classic monster movies, including Bela Lugosi's Dracula and The Bride Of Frankenstein. Outside of the success of the Brendan Fraser Mummy trilogy, Universal has tried multiple times to resurrect their classic monsters to little success. Van Helsing from 2004 was an epic monster mash from The Mummy director Stephen Sommers that combined Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and The Wolfman, but it suffered from a terrible script and rushed CGI.

They tried again with Dracula Untold, a 2014 origin story that hoped to launch a new franchise. The film famously underwent reshoots before release that would tie it into the studio's plans for the Dark Universe, a planned series of blockbusters based on their stable of monsters. Dracula Untold was later banished from these plans, with 2017's The Mummy starring Tom Cruise placed as the first official entry. Sadly, The Mummy was a sloppy, ill-convinced mess that performed below expectations and led to other Dark Universe movies like The Bride Of Frankenstein being canned. Leigh Whannell later directed Elisabeth Moss in a well-received remake of The Invisible Man, which was produced in collaboration with Blumhouse, while director Karyn Kusama is attached to a Dracula reboot.

Related: Why Did The Mummy Fail At The Box Office?

Another notable failed relaunch for Universal's monsters was the 2010 take on The Wolfman. This Benicio del Toro led remake suffered a messy production, with the original director leaving shortly before filming with Joe Johnston (Captain America: The First Avenger) taking over. The movie also had incredible, practical makeup effects by Rick Baker, which were largely replaced by CG in the final product. The film had been a dream project for Baker, who was so disheartened by the changes he later quit the movie business completely. Former president of Universal Ronald Meyer even stated The Wolfmanwas one of the worst movies the studio put out during his tenure.

In truth, the final version of The Wolfman 2010 isn't that bad. It's got a great cast, rich gothic production design and surprisingly juicy gore for a studio release, but the story is muddled and del Toro's hero is too emotionally distant to really connect with. The movie underperformed but it almost received a spinoff with Werewolf: The Beast Among Us. This movie comes from Universal 1440 Entertainment, who focus on STV releases like Doom: Annihilation, and follows a team of hunters seeking a werewolf with almost human levels of intelligence and the ability to transform at will.

Werewolf: The Beast Among Us was once linked to The Wolfman - likely as a means by the studio to milk a little extra revenue from their failed 2010 movie - but the final version ultimately has no ties to it. It's a spirited little b-movie with some fun performances and setpieces but it's ultimately forgettable. A twist reveals the main werewolf is actually the good guy, which could have set up a series of heroic Wolfman movies had Universal decided to keep it linked.

Next: Does The Invisible Man Have An After-Credits Scene?

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Its pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now thats out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if hed like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU - where Hawkeye is clearly the best character - to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.He's super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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Werewolf: The Beast Among Us Started Life As A Wolfman 2010 Sequel - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero