How Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ Paved the Way for Leigh Whannell’s ‘Wolf Man’
When Leigh Whannell took on the assignment of directing a new “Wolf Man” movie, he knew that creating a werewolf that could stand apart from the creatures of films past was paramount — yet he also knew he had to satisfy genre enthusiasts who might be coming to “Wolf Man” as fans of everything from Lon Chaney Jr.’s original to John Landis‘ “An American Werewolf in London.”
“I guess I approached it first from the standpoint of, ‘What haven’t I seen yet?'” Whannell told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “When you’re adding this face to the whole hallway of portraits, you want it to have a distinctive look that is yours.” In figuring out how to thread the needle, Whannell looked to what Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger did with the character of the Joker in “The Dark Knight.”
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“That’s a character that’s so iconic,” Whannell said. “Everyone has an idea of what it is. When that first image of Heath Ledger was released, it struck me, the simplicity of it. It still felt iconic, but it was its own distinct silhouette. If you looked at a row of portraits of all the Jokers, it would stand apart. And so I used that as a base inspiration for what I was going to do.”
Whannell knew that he wanted his werewolf to be more grounded than in most cinematic versions of the “Wolf Man” story, but he noted that “the trick is you also want to keep the ‘Wolf Man’ fans happy. And again, that’s something I think ‘The Dark Knight’ did well. Fans of the Joker were satisfied, but you can’t call it reminiscent of anything. It was its own thing.”
With Nolan and Ledger as his inspiration, Whannell began drawing sketches drawn from reality. “I looked online at photos of facial disfigurements and skin diseases and leprosy and all these things and started to build a picture of a more organic, biological version of [the Wolf Man],” he said. Once he teamed up with special effects make-up artist Arjen Tuiten, who began his career studying under “An American Werewolf in London” creature creator Rick Baker, Whannell locked down a design for his title character.
That grounded approach Whannell took to the werewolf design extended to all aspects of “Wolf Man,” a movie that skillfully balances old-school practical effects and prosthetics with digital effects used judiciously for enhancement. “I let the story guide it,” Whannell says of the choice between going practical or digital. “There are certain things that only visual effects can really achieve — if I’m writing a scene where an alien craft is hovering over Sydney, I’m going to be using visual effects.”
That said, as a self-described “child of the VHS era,” Whannell has a deep affection for the craft of practical effects and loves making things as tactile as possible. “When I’m looking at a frame that I know is entirely CGI, there’s a detachment that happens,” he said. “What I love is when a filmmaker artfully combines the practical and CGI, which [Denis] Villeneuve does in ‘Dune.'”
One of the most suspenseful set pieces in “Wolf Man” is a crash in which a truck carrying the film’s protagonists is left dangling from a tree, something that Whannell largely shot practically. “The execution of that was difficult,” Whannell said. “It was fun to write, but not to make. We had a truck hanging off a ridge in New Zealand at three in the morning, it’s freezing, and the actors are in harnesses and uncomfortable.” For Whannell, however, the struggles are worth it to give audiences something special.
“Movies need those moments,” Whannell said. “You’re looking for the unexpected. I almost look at horror films like an EKG chart, with spikes and dips where you’re always looking to catch the audience off guard.” Calibrating those moments in the editing room proved challenging, though Whannell says that simply watching audiences in test screenings is a quick way of determining what’s working and what’s not. “There is a danger when you get so close to something, you can’t see it anymore. Watching people watch a film, it’s incredible what you learn just from people’s body language.”
The trick, according to Whannell, is knowing when to incorporate others’ suggestions and when to stick to your guns. “I’m pretty choosy about what I listen to and what I don’t,” Whannell says. “It’s all on you. It’s all subjective, and I’m using myself as a barometer. When you’re making a film it’s your obsession. This is the version of ‘Wolf Man’ I wanted to make, it’s the version I would want to see. So you have to use yourself as a guide and be a bit stubborn.”
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