WOLF MAN Director Leigh Whannell Says Monster Design Was Inspired by Heath Ledger’s Joker
The monster design in Universal Pictures’ upcoming horror film Wolf Man is very different than anything we’ve seen before in a werewolf movie.
Fans seem to be torn on the design, which was initially revealed at Halloween Horror Nights. director Leigh Whannell talked about that version of the monster, calling it the Spirit Halloween version of the Wolf Man design that was created.
During an interview with Screen Rant, the filmmaker shared that the unique werewolf creature design was inspired by Heath Ledger’s Joker.
He explained: “It was tough. It was weird, because it was exactly as you said, there’s been so many versions of this. I lined up all the different versions, I had a PDF of everyone from Lon Chaney to David Norton in American Werewolf, The Howling, Dog Soldiers.
“I had every look in front of me, and I’m kind of staring at it, and I’m like, ‘All right, so where do I fit in?’ You know what a big inspiration to me was, was Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker.
“Not so much in terms of look, but I had a photo of him on my desk as the Joker because I really love what they did there with the character.
“They stayed true to what the Joker is, but they just took it [to another level]. You hadn’t seen that version of the Joker before. Not at that time. People still love it.
“Do you remember when they first released that image of his face with that one sheet? Social media was not as crazy in 2008 as it is now, but I remember Twitter exploded. It was like, ‘Is that the Joker?’
“I find that so inspirational what they did with that character and how they approached it. And I was thinking [about] if I can take their approach to Wolf Man, and I think I did.
“So that document I had with all the different photos of all the different Wolf Men, when I put my version of it, it didn’t look like any of them. And I was like, ‘Ooh.’”
The Wolf Man design in the film was created by makeup artist Arjen Tuiten, and so far, the monster has only been teased briefly in the film. We still have yet to get a good look at it.
When talking about seeing the design for the first time, Whannell said: “And I was just staring at it for the first time, and I was like, ‘That’s it. It just looked perfect.’ Do you know what? I never had any notes. I was like, ‘That’s it, that’s what we should do.’
“It doesn’t [happen often]. Usually in L.A., in Hollywood, it’s like, ‘Can we change this?’ S–t, every screenplay I’ve written has just been absolutely inundated with notes. But when I saw the maquette, the model that Arian had made, I was like, ‘There’s no notes I can give you that would [improve this]’ – I just was like, ‘Just do this.’”
Christopher Abbott (Poor Things, It Comes at Night) stars as Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, “who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead.
“With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner; Ozark, Inventing Anna), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth; Hullraisers, Coma).
“But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter.
“As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.”
The movie comes from Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell and a script written by Whannell and Corbett Tuck as well as Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo, the latter duo previously wrote the comedic drama, Dumb Money.
The movie is set to be released in January 2025.