Universal moving forward with Wolfman reboot starring Ryan Gosling

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

While Universal's Dark Universe crashed and burned after a single film, the studio thankfully didn't abandon their iconic Universal Monsters as they began chartering a new course which would move away from an interconnected universe and instead focus on bringing in creative directors with distinctive visions for the classic monsters. This approach worked incredibly well with Leigh Whannell's THE INVISIBLE MAN, and Universal has been busy developing more projects focusing on the other monsters in their library.

Variety has now reported that one of the next Universal Monster movies will be WOLFMAN, which is being developed as a vehicle for Ryan Gosling. At the moment, no director is attached to WOLFMAN, but there had been talk of Ryan Gosling directing the film in addition to starring, but after some conversations, it was decided that Gosling would just star in the film. Variety's sources say that Universal executives have been meeting with other potential directors over the past month and could soon be making a decision. Cory Finley, who recently helmed HBO's BAD EDUCATION starring Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney, is said to be one of the names in the mix for the job. Much like THE INVISIBLE MAN, it's expected that WOLFMAN will be set in the present day. The project is also said to be in the vein of Jake Gyllenhaal's NIGHTCRAWLER, but obviously with a more supernatural twist.

The studio's last stab at bringing the infamous werewolf to life was Joe Johnson's 2010 film which starred Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving. While the film wound up becoming something of a critical and commercial failure, I've definitely got a soft spot for it, particularly the extended director's cut which gives the story a little more room to breath. What do you think of Ryan Gosling taking on the mantle of the Wolfman?