Corona | Coming Attractions

Leave it to Universal Pictures to make an announcement on Halloween about a new werewolf movie they've got cooking. While the company known for giving us Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman and The Creature From the Black Lagoon, amongst many other monster movies, has a new lycanthrope film in development, it doesn't have an official title just yet.

Untitled Werewolf Thriller is the working description for the movie. It will also bypass theatrical release and instead head directly for home video, arriving in time for watching during the Halloween season of 2012. Shooting has already started in and around Bucharest, Hungary.

The movie stars Stephen Rea (V For Vendetta, The Crying Game), Steven Bauer (Scarface), Ed Quinn (True Blood, Eureka), Nia Peeples (Pretty Little Liars), Guy Wilson (Almost Kings), Adam Croasdell (Supernatural) and Rachel DiPillo (Law & Order). The Untitled Werewolf Thriller movie is being directed by Louis Morneau (Joy Ride II) from a screenplay by Michael Tabb.

So will Untitled Werewolf Thriller have any connection to the Benicio Del Toro movie The Wolfman that Universal released two years ago? Judging from the studio supplied synopsis, it doesn't appear so:

"A monstrous creature terrorizes a 19th Century European village by moonlight and a young man struggles to protect his loved ones from an unspeakable scourge in Untitled Werewolf Thriller, Universal Studios’ all-new addition to its time-honored legacy of supernatural thrillers. During his studies with the local doctor (Stephen Rea), Daniel (Guy Wilson) witnesses the horrific consequences of werewolf attacks. Watching as the beast’s fearsome reputation draws bounty hunters, thrill seekers and charlatans to the tiny town, Daniel dreams of destroying the ruthless predator. So when a mysterious stranger (Ed Quinn) and his team of skilled werewolf hunters (Stephen Bauer, Adam Croasdell) arrive to pursue the monster, he offers to join them, despite his mother’s (Nia Peeples) protests. But it soon becomes clear that this creature is stronger, smarter and more dangerous than anything they have faced before. As casualties mount and villagers see their neighbors transformed into ravening monsters, the townsfolk take up arms against each other to find the true identity of the werewolf. Amid the hysteria, Daniel begins to suspect he’s closer to his target than he ever dreamed."

I'm all for more werewolf movies. Universal has seen great success with several properties that began as theatrical franchises and then became financial goldmines for direct-to-video sequels (American Pie, for example). With their base of monsters, Universal could be sitting pretty on a new revenue stream timed for the Halloween holiday.