The Wolfman is a 2010 American gothic horror film directed by Joe Johnston, from a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self.

A remake of the 1941 film of the same name, it stars Benicio del Toro (who also produced), Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving.

The film’s story follows Lawrence who, after his brother's brutal murder, returns from the United States to his ancestral homeland in England, where he gets bitten by a werewolf and is cursed to become one.

Johnston was hired four weeks before principal photography, under the impression he could shoot the film in 80 days as Universal intended.

The Wolfman was theatrically released on February 12, 2010, by Universal Pictures to mixed reviews although the makeup received praise.

Ben's brother, actor Lawrence Talbot, returns home after learning of what happened and reunites with his estranged father Sir John.

Lawrence saw Sir John standing over her dead body and was sent to Lambeth Hospital in London for a year, having suffered from delusions connected to the event.

The townspeople, led by Constable Nye, raid the camp to confiscate a dancing bear they believe is the killer.

After a night of feverish dreams, Lawrence recovers with unnatural speed and develops great vitality and heightened senses.

Sir John visits Lawrence; explaining that twenty-five years before, during a hunting expedition in the Hindukush in India, he was bitten by a boy infected with lycanthropy.

[3] Make-up effects creator Rick Baker makes a cameo appearance as the Romani man who is the first killed.

[7][8] Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker was attached to the screenplay, developing the original film's story to include additional characters as well as plot points that would take advantage of modern visual effects.

[9] Romanek's original vision was to "infuse a balance of cinema in a popcorn movie scenario", stating, "When there’s a certain amount of money involved, these things make studios and producers a little nervous.

Ultimately it made more sense for them to find a director that was gonna fulfill their idea of the film that they wanted, and we just sort of parted ways.

[12] Brett Ratner emerged as a frontrunner to replace Romanek, but the studio also met with Frank Darabont, James Mangold and Joe Johnston.

Universal donated £5,000 to the village, in return for filming in the tithe barn for a scene involving frozen corpses.

[20] The cast and crew were back on location re-shooting the film in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College and park in Greenwich over the weekends of 22-25 and 30–31 May 2009.

When he heard Universal was remaking the film, he eagerly pursued it, as both The Wolf Man and Frankenstein inspired him to become a make-up artist as a child.

"[22] Baker and del Toro were adamant about the design resembling the make-up created by Jack Pierce for the 1941 film, but Romanek went through thousands of concept art renderings.

New pieces of latex prosthetic makeup and loose hair was applied to del Toro's face each day, while several dentures and wigs were created in case some were damaged.

[22] Baker said the transformation would likely be computer-generated, which disappointed him as he would not be involved and felt it would look unrealistic (as the animators did not have his knowledge of the design).

[26] In addition to the film, at the 2009 Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Studios Florida added The Wolfman to the event.

[27] Danny Elfman was initially reported to have written a dark, melodic, and moody score for The Wolfman, which was rejected by the studio as it did not fit the film well after being edited over half-an-hour in length.

[33] In early January 2010, Mezco Toyz donated the prototypes of the toys to the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.

[2] The DVD/Blu-ray releases include an "unrated director's cut", featuring an additional 17 minutes of footage and the inclusion of the classic '40s era Universal logo at the beginning of the film.

[42] Johnston said the reason for deleting the 17 minutes from the theatrical cut was "to push the story along so that audiences would get to the first Wolfman transformation sooner".

The site's critics consensus reads: "Suitably grand and special effects-laden, The Wolfman suffers from a suspense-deficient script and a surprising lack of genuine chills.

[50] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone assigned the film one and a half stars out of four, concluding that "The Wolfman bites, but not — I think — in the way the filmmakers intended.

"[51] Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly praised Del Toro's performance as Lawrence Talbot, comparing it favourably to Lon Chaney Jr.'s, in the 1941 film.

[62] On December 12, 2023, it was confirmed that Leigh Whannell was back as a director, taking Cianfrance's place, and that Christopher Abbott was cast as the main character, replacing Gosling who will remain as the executive producer.