It’s classic movie monster time! I was going to wait until Christmas to talk about this, but now seemed like a more appropriate time. We are going to compare the original black and white movie monsters (and the actors who brought them to life), against more modern versions and actors to see who comes out on top.

I know there are dozens of classic monsters, including the Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Fly, giant robots, aliens, and over-sized insects/animals, but I’m going to focus on the more famous literary monsters : Frankenstein’s monster, The Wolf Man, Dracula and The Mummy.

Let’s start with my favorite character, Frankenstein’s monster. Most people incorrectly refer to the monster AS Frankenstein – but actually, author Mary Shelley never gave the creature a name. In the 1818 novel, Shelley writes about mad scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein and how he learns to create life. Even two hundred years ago, people were apparently concerned about man trying to play God, because her novel has some uncanny similarities to modern ethical questions about cloning. Difference is, the town’s folk aren’t storming the castle with pitch forks and torches nowadays, but rather storming the politician offices with blogs and protests (Zing!).

Frankenstein 1931 (Boris Karloff) vs. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 1994 (Robert De Niro)

The Frankenstein monster has been in dozens of films, even getting a bride, a son and a ghost – but none were as good as director James Whale’s original 1931 Frankenstein. The classic image of Frankenstein’s monster that we are all most familiar with comes directly from the make-up genius of Jack Pierce, while the monster himself was brilliantly portrayed by Boris Karloff.  Close your eyes and think of the Frankenstein monster – see what I mean? The film focused its story more on the creature and the town’s reaction to it and left behind the gothic romance of the novel.

In 1994, director Kenneth Branagh (Thor) changed that cinematic trend by focusing on the complicated relationship of what amounts to a father (Dr. Frankenstein) a son (The Monster) and a step-mom (Elizabeth), in his adaptation Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Branagh chose to remain faithful to the novel in his adaptation and after Dr. Frankenstein rejects his creation for the woman he loves, the monster focuses his rage and revenge in hurting Dr. Frankenstein by killing that woman. This version is by far the deepest and most emotional of all Frankenstein movies and Robert De Niro gives an incredible performance as the monster.

As time progressed, so too did the visual interpretation of Frankenstein’s monster (I particularly enjoyed Stephen Sommers’ version in Van Helsing), but they all got their inspiration from the godfather of monster movies – Boris Karloff.  For that reason alone, 1931 Frankenstein wins hands down.

The Wolf Man 1941 (Lon Chaney Jr.) vs. Wolf 1994 (Jack Nicholson)

Just like Frankenstein, the Wolf Man has been in dozens of films, either as the titular icon or its many, many, cinematic progeny like An American Werewolf in London. However, make-up designer Jack Pierce proved once again that he is king of the monsters by giving us the classic image of the Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf Man.  In fact, because the original 1941 Wolf Man is based solely on old European folklore, rumor has it that many of the things we have come to know as true – changing during a full moon, vulnerable to silver and carrying the mark of the pentagram – were actually made up for the movie.

In original werewolf folklore, once an unfortunate soul was bitten, scratched or cursed, they would turn into a full-fledged wolf and not the two-legged human hybrid creature we call “Wolf Man.” It’s true that some films – such as The Howling, American Werewolf in London and Underworld – can “better” depict the full transformation from man to wolf because of modern-day advancements in SFX; however, all new wolf men take their cue from Lon Chaney Jr. and director George Waggner’s 1941 film.

Currently, there is a Wolf Man remake about to release in February 2010, The Wolfman (why they wouldn’t wait until Halloween is beyond me) and because I haven’t seen it yet, I can’t use it for a comparison. Instead, I’ll use Jack Nicholson’s 1994 interpretation, Wolf. The story is completely different: Nicholson is a writer who is bitten by a wolf and slowly turns into one himself. Chaney was a man attacked by a werewolf (Bela Lugosi) and turns into one as well. Although Nicholson was in better shape back then and looked great during the transformation scenes (at one point I thought he would make a great Wolverine based solely on his look in Wolf), the movie had too many flaws to ignore.

This is not really a great contest, because although I liked Wolf, it just doesn’t hold a candle to The Wolf Man in terms of its leading monster. This may change if next year’s Wolfman is as good as the SFX look (see above on the right), but for now, Lon Chaney Jr. and The Wolf Man are the clear winners.

Continue reading for our comparisons of Dracula and The Mummy…

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So The Dark Knight has finally been released and it’s kicking all sort of Box Office butt. It’s great news, the bad news (for me at least) is that I don’t get to see it until Friday!!

However, don’t worry – we’ll always have the Weekend Movie News Wrap Up!

This week:

We have more news on the new RoboCop movie, we take our Tom Cruise news with a pinch of Salt, Christian Bale does some Terminating, we look at another X-Files poster, and Rob Cohen remakes The Monster Squad.

1. Last week I brought you news that Darren Aronofsky was helming the RoboCop remake. Well it looks like the film isn’t a remake after all. The film appears to be more of a sequel to the original films. Bloody Disgusting report that the logline of the film (a logline is the plot – in a line or so) says:

Present day Los Angeles, 20 years after the termination of the RoboCop program, the city decides to reinstate the program.

It’s an interesting concept that appears to be more along the lines of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, where they acknowledge the previous films in the franchise (or they acknowledge the original and forget the crap sequels).

It’s interesting news, but I’m not sure if it’s good news. As ever I’ll keep you posted.

Source: Bloody Disgusting

2. It’s Sunday, and that can only mean one thing – I’m going to write about Tom Cruise!

News circulated at the start of the week that The Cruiser was off the spy thriller Edwin A. Salt. The reason – he was too old and not worth his $20 million asking price!

His replacement?

No, it’s not Christian Bale. However, it is rumored to be Will Smith.

“What ?” I hear you scream. “They can’t do that to little Tom!”

Well, I don’t think that they are.

Fox News “jackass” Roger Friedman wrote:

“Cruise is out, and I’m told it’s because of money. Apparently, Tom is unaware of the change in his status in the Hollywood community. Where once he was the top-paid star, Cruise now is in a position where a $20 million salary is not possible. I’m told an internal memo went around among the film’s producers and top creators in which the Cruise situation was discussed and names were gathered for a replacement.

The reasons for Cruise’s departure are not just his diminished popularity, negative public opinion and Scientology — although those would be good enough. It’s also just generational. Cruise is 45. His heyday as a box office star — if he ever had one — is over.”

The “writer” also went on to say :

“Like past huge leading action stars such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cruise must face the brutal facts of aging. Ironically, he’s been replaced by Will Smith, whom Cruise has courted for Scientology. Talk about rubbing “Salt” in a wound!

Of course, it doesn’t help that his last big feature, Mission: Impossible 3, was eons ago, in Hollywood terms — 2006. On top of that, even a film shot now and released next summer would have to erase in the audience’s mind Cruise’s upcoming release, Valkyrie, aka The Nazi movie, due next February.”

However, this all sounds a bit too much like kicking somebody when they are down.

The much more reliable folks over at Moviehole however have some insider information that sounds sooooo much more reliable that Friedman’s tabloid musings.

Moviehole state:

“A representative of the film tells us that Cruise is the only person that has been approached about the film – but he isn’t yet on board. ”Tom is not set for the film. Cruise has never been officially attached to the project, but will decide on his involvement once the new script is finished. He was previously concerned that the part was too close to his Mission Impossible character.”

Phillip Noyce is still attached as director.

If there’s anymore Tom Cruise news, you can be sure to find it here. Stay tuned!

Sources: Fox and Moviehole

3. The first official picture of Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation has been released and it shows Bale kicking some Terminator butt.

It would appear that the Terminator in the picture won’t be back!

Maybe Bale hadn’t heard the grosses for The Dark Knight yet!

Source: Aintitcool

4. A new UK poster for The X-Files: I Want to Believe has been released and it looks… very plain.

There’s a very low key marketing campaign on this film and nobody really knows what it’s about yet. Man – I hope that this movie makes some dough, I’d love to see the franchise continued.

It kind of looks like an X-Files poster photographed by Janusz Kaminski (War of The Worlds, Minority Report).

The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens July 25th in the US and August 1st in the UK

Source: Empire

5. Rob Cohen director of the forthcoming Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is set to produce a remake of cult kiddie-horror flick The Monster Squad.

The 1987 film directed by Fred Dekkar as co-written by Shane Black and features a group of you teenagers battling the Dracula, The Wolfman and The Mummy and the rest of the Universal horror gang.

Cohen said to Bloody Disgusting:

“I am talking withParamount about the ownership rights, we just found out that because of all the different companies being bought and sold, (it was so hard to do) but we believe all the rights are back at Paramount. I have been waiting to finish this (third Mummy) film, to really start the talks about remaking it. Maybe I would direct, maybe someone else withme producing. I really think highly of that that film…I mean, how great is it with The Mummy, the Wolfman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Frankenstein they all were in it! It would be a prime remake!”

I haven’t seen the film in years (although I did catch a few minutes on TV a year or two ago) but it was a fun flick, sort of like The Goonies Meet Dracula.

Something to watch out for. Maybe

Source: Bloody Disgusting

That’s it for another week. See you at the movies!

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• New Posters For ‘Terminator Salvation,’ ‘Knowing’ & ‘Dark Mirror’
• Bale’s Batman Terminated By Worthington? Yeah, Right
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• Tom Cruise Planning ‘Mission Impossible 4′
• Cool New Terminator Salvation Picture

Rob Cohen has announced on the official Mummy blog that shooting has now ended on the third instalment of The Mummy series.

This film hasn’t got much coverage on screenrant, I’m not sure if Vic and Heath have a particular axe to grind with the franchise or if they’re just more interested in bigger movies coming up. Maybe Iron Man, but I could be wrong

As Mr Cohen, says; “After 91 days of shooting and 2,021 shots, The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor has wrapped“.

The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor it just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?

I really like the first Mummy film, and I thought that the sequel, the imaginatively titled The Mummy Returns was pretty good. The first half was great fun, the second half was a bit lame, and don’t even get me started on The Scorpian King’s CGI.

This film has been under the radar, which is very strange considering the bucklet loads of money the first two films made.

I’m hoping that Cohen can resurrect this series, and the simple decision to get rid of the kid and place him in his early twenties is a great start.

New Mummy facts:

The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor takes place in Asia, and instead of Arnold Vosloo as The Mummy, this time we have have Jet Li.

Rachel Weisz won an Oscar, she won’t be back. Instead we have Maria Bello.

Brendan Fraser hasn’t had a hit in years, he will be.

The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor will be released on August 8, 2008.

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