Werewolf movie news: now with added werewolves

Rip Van Winkle-itis alert! Indiemovies dozed off in a Hollywood fixated with vampires and zombies, only to awaken to a strange new movie industry where growing hair where there was no hair and silver bullets reign supreme. Accordingly today brings forth a wolf-tastic update on The Wolfman, as well as news of a wolf-errific remake of The Howling.

The saga of Benicio Del Toro/Emily Blunt-starrer The Wolfman has been rumbling away like the stomach of a ravenous lycanthrope for some time now, with that movie having variously shed its director (wolf-bearded Mark Romanek out, neat 'n' tidy Joe Johnston in), composer (no wolfing tunes from Danny Elfman, Tangerine Dream's Paul Haslinger fills the wolfie breach), and numerous release dates (originally scheduled to come out on St. Swithin's Day, 1856, the film is now due to hit cinemas 12 February 2010). And now HitFix reports that not one, but two crack editors have been brought in to whip the whole wolf-travaganza into hairy shape. The cutters charged with saving the day are Mark Goldblatt (who actually worked on the original version of The Howling) and long-time Coppola cohort Walter Murch, and initial reports suggest their efforts have met with at least some success. The two new cuts of The Wolfman have supposedly both tested positively, with audiences actually expressing a preference for the longer of the presentations. Surely this is no surprise? Any movie-goer worth their wolfing salt will always want the motherwolfing maximum wolf-tacular action for their wolfing money.

And speaking of which, what could be more wolf-citing than an eighth Howling movie? A toilet that comes to you when you need it? A multilateral agreement on reducing carbon emissions? The complete end of global poverty? Nonsense! None of those things have anything to do with werewolves, and are therefore completely rubbish and sad. Variety has confirmed details of the new Howling movie, The Howling: Reborn, which – as the title none-too-subtly suggests– is not a sequel, but rather a remake of the Joe Dante-directed/John Sayles-scripted 1981 original. Due to shoot in February, ahead of a proposed Halloween 2010 release, The Howling: Reborn will be the movie writing-directing debut of Joe Nimziki, a former marketing executive for New Line, Sony and MGM (which presumably means he has plenty of experience in tearing still-beating hearts from the chests of nameless associates under the cold light of a full moon). Slash Film recently highlighted Arrow in the Head's unofficial summary of the project, which in turn yielded these ultra-promising pearls of micro-genius:

The Howling: Reborn is essentially going to be the Twilight of werewolf movies

The grittiness of the original, and the zaniness of the sequels that followed, will be replaced by a tween friendly plot about young wolves on the prowl in a big city

My source essentially pegged it as a Twilight/Gossip Girl wannabe, with some Lost Boys thrown in for good measure

All that left me tingling with anticipation. Either that or I'm turning into a werewolf. Not really sure which it is.