Ryan Gosling Is The ‘Wolfman’ For Universal’s Latest Monster Movie

The Dark Universe may be long dead, but Universal has found a way to revive their collection of movie monsters. Following on the box office success of The Invisible Man, Variety reports they’re now moving forward on Wolfman, and the iconic monster is going to look a lot like a really hairy Ryan Gosling.

Ryan Gosling is going to star in Universal’s Wolfman remake. The character goes back to 1935, but is probably best remembered for the 1941 movie The Wolf Man in which he’s played by the great Lon Chaney Jr. An attempted reboot in 2010 starred Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt, but didn’t do well enough to warrant a franchise.

This latest version will be set in the present, much like The Invisible Man, as Universal looks to modernize their classic movie monsters. Jake Gyllenhaal’s moody thriller Nightcrawler is the tone they’re going for, which is interesting. The script is by Orange is the New Black writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo.

As far as a director goes, the hunt is on but definitely in the mix is Cory Finley, who was at the helm of Thoroughbreds and Bad Education.

A start date hasn’t been set. Gosling is currently attached to an astronaut movie from Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and the author of The Martian. Universal’s upcoming slate of horrors includes Elizabeth Banks’ Invisible Woman, Paul Feig’s Dark Army, and a new Dracula movie by Karyn Kusama.

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.