Blumhouse’s next monster movie is coming together as Julia Garner (Ozark) has been cast in Wolf Man. The news comes to us via The Hollywood Reporter, with the outlet revealing that the actress will star alongside Christopher Abbott (Possessor, It Comes at Night) in the new take on the Universal Monsters classic.
The project has been in development for some time, but the puzzle pieces are all finally sliding nicely into place. At one point, Ryan Gosling was attached to the lead role before Abbott stepped in to replace him. Leigh Whannell is in the director’s chair for Wolf Man. That seems fitting as Whannell previously directed 2020’s The Invisible Man.
Aside from earning a great deal of critical acclaim, that film was a major commercial hit too, taking in $144 million worldwide against a mere $7 million budget. That’s made all the more impressive given that the pandemic cut the film’s theatrical run short. Undoubtedly, Blumhouse and Universal are hoping to mirror that success once again. Universal was, for a time, making expensive blockbusters based on its classic monsters, such as 2010’s The Wolfman. After 2017’s The Mummy failed to launch the planned Dark Universe, the studio pivoted to lower-budget, creator-driven takes. Thus far, that has served them well.
Plot details are largely being kept under wraps for the new take on the werewolf tale. Whannell co-wrote the screenplay alongside Corbett Tuck, Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo. Filming is expected to begin soon as the film is racing towards a release date that Universal has set for later this year. Release dates are, of course, not set in stone but one imagines the studio would like to make that date if at all possible.
As for Garner, she has largely enjoyed success on acclaimed TV shows up to this point in her career. Aside from Netflix’s drug drama Ozark, she also starred in Inventing Anna and The Americans. But she is not a complete stranger to horror either, having starred in 2013’s The Last Exorcism Part II. Garner is said to be playing “a mother whose family is being terrorized by a lethal predator.” Abbott will play the father. Garner and Abbott previously starred together in 2011’s Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene.
Wolf Man is currently set to hit theaters on October 25, 2024.
