Trailer and Pictures for Universal's "The Wolfman"

Universal has released the trailer for their upcoming remake The Wolfman to Yahoo! Movies. Well, they call it a trailer. I call it a plot summary. While it's exhilarating to see so much of the original 1941 The Wolf Man in place (Larry Talbot having an American accent, the gypsy woman, the Welsh setting), it also feels like all of the elements that are new to this version have been spelled out. I won't divulge what these new elements are, in deference to those who avoid the trailer to remain unspoiled.

It's as if Universal didn't trust audiences to understand that a remake separated from its source by nearly 70 years would have to make some changes in plot to remain relevant. We get that, thank you. You didn't have to tell us about all the changes. You could've alluded to them. Frankly, if the trailer had ended with Anthony Hopkins (in the Claude Rains role as Sir John Talbot) telling a disheveled Larry (Benicio del Toro), "You've done terrible things," we would've been able to extrapolate that something new and interesting was about to happen -- and maybe we'd be more interested in finding out what it was.

The official plot synopsis of the film follows:

Lawrence Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died.  After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget.  But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search.  He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate.

My general level of interest in the project is at a plateau. I'll be in the theater on February 12, 2010, in hopes that Joe Johnston's The Wolfman remains faithful to the spirit of George Waggner's seminal lycanthropy film, even as I'm aware that the plot and execution must be changed for modern audiences.

We also have over 25 images from The Wolfman available for your perusal. Be forewarned that many of these are just as spoilery as the trailer. They're all in our Wolfman gallery.