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Live from Hall H: Benecio Del Toro’s Wolfman Shows Up on Screen

Con attendees certainly didn’t pack Hall H for a Universal panel about the little horror remake known as The Wolf Man. They must have thought that Benicio Del Toro wasn’t going to show up and show off footage. They were obviously wrong.
By  · Published on July 25th, 2008

More reports, direct from Hall H at Comic-Con International, that’s how I know you want it. After recovering from the epic main event that was Watchmen earlier this afternoon, I headed out to the show floor to retrieve my one size fits no actual Con attendee Watchmen t-shirt, only to return to Hall H and be surprised by a panel for a little Universal remake called The Wolf Man.

After wondering for a bit why the hall was less than full, I remembered that no one was really scheduled to appear. We learned not to trust that the hard way yesterday when Disney showed up randomly with a trailer for Tron 2 during the Race to Witch Mountain panel. Thankfully I stayed for The Wolf Man, as stars Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt showed up on stage with makeup effects legend Rick Backer.

Along with taking questions from fans, they also unloaded the first footage from the film that has been scene anywhere. The footage starts with a random chap (I say that because the film is set in ye olde England) walking through the woods when he encounters something — something big, something scary and something that apparently tears him in half. It is an incredibly gory scene, which might be a bit shocking at first, but by the end of the clip it was clear that this is going to be an R-rated monster movie that takes the eerie nature of the original and enhances it with a little bit of Rick Baker magic.

The footage also showed some of the period sets and costumes, which all appeared to keep with the very dark tone of the film. Especially creepy were both Benecio Del Toro as Lawrence Talbot and Anthony Hopkins as his father.

Overall, the footage from The Wolf Man was a pleasant surprise — this film looks pretty cool, especially for anyone who is a fan of great practical effects and the wonders of make-up — and anyone who loves a film that is outright gory. It is certainly worth me recommending that you keep an eye out for a trailer, which I would imagine should be online in the near future. The full film version of The Wolf Man is set for a theatrical run on April 3, 2009.

Stay tuned all this week as we bring you coverage from Comic-Con International. Not only will we be roaming the floor in search of love, but we will have the latest news Live from Hall H, great interviews with some of Hollywood’s hottest stars and random convention shenanigans, courtesy of our Comic-Con Attack Squad! To keep tabs on all of the happenings, just head over to our Comic-Con 2008 Homepage.

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Neil Miller is the persistently-bearded Publisher of Film School Rejects, Nonfics, and One Perfect Shot. He's also the Executive Producer of the One Perfect Shot TV show (currently streaming on HBO Max) and the co-host of Trial By Content on The Ringer Podcast Network. He can be found on Twitter here: @rejects (He/Him)