It’s been over a year since the initial reports surfaced that an American Werewolf in London remake was on the way with the original film’s director’s son, Max Landis, stepping in to helm the film. While appearing on the R.A.: The Rugged Man podcast, Landis gave an update on the film’s progress while also shedding some insight on how he’ll approach the film’s effects.
“We’ll see if I can do it. We’ll see if I can pull it off. We’ll see if they even make it,” the filmmaker revealed. “My goal is…I feel like all of the best remakes focus on one thing in the original movie, take a lot of the images of the original, and then remix that really tightly. With American Werewolf I’m doing that, but I’m also just gonna try and do American Werewolf as best I can. We’ll see. I can’t make no promises.”
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Landis is still confirmed to be writing the script for the film, and although he was previously reported to direct, it sounds as though those negotiations are still being made.
The Walking Dead‘s David Alpert and Robert Kirkman will be producing the project with the original film’s director, John Landis, serving as executive producer.
American Werewolf in London is often lauded for being one of the best horror-comedies of all time, carefully blending a ridiculous premise with genuinely horrifying sequences of violence.
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Another one of the most memorable things about the original film was its use of practical special effects, giving audiences some of the most incredible werewolf transformation sequences ever seen on film.
When the topic of special effects came up, Landis confessed, “The thing I would do with CGI, were I directing this film, would be leg movement, and I would have the entire wolf’s face, back, and body be practical, and then I would fully CGI the legs for organic movements. If you remake American Werewolf and the transformation scene isn’t practical, you have f**ked up.”
The original film came out in 1981 at a pivotal time in horror history. Advances in technology allowed filmmakers to explore effects that had never been seen before, as makeup teams had grown up with films that pushed the boundaries of what makeup could accomplish, ushering in groundbreaking accomplishments for the genre.
The ’00s began to embrace CGI to pull off effects that had never even been possible with practical makeup, but recent years have seen films like The Void taking full advantage of how much more entertaining practical effects can be.
