Report: Panicked Universal Turns To Brett Ratner To Save 'The Wolf Man'
It seems that when we briefly mused about a scenario in which curiously hacky hired-gun Brett Ratner might be called upon to take over The Hobbit franchise by a panicked New Line, we regrettably attached the director to the wrong combination of pants-soiling studio and destabilized hairy-protagonist project. Following Mark Romanek's recently announced departure from The Wolf Man, a desperate Universal, perhaps seeking a collaborator with whom "creative differences" will never be a problem as long as a large enough paycheck is signed, will ask Ratner to step in and render his predecessor's original vision unrecognizable, according to Ain't It Cool News:
Well word has reached me, from an incredibly reliable source - that you've settled on Brett Ratner as the director. With the work that Romanek, Baker and Benicio have done - I have no doubt that Brett will capture enough magic to assemble a trailer campaign that will sell the film. But you really need much more than a trailer. [...]
Brett Ratner makes watchable films. Movies that go through your system as if consumed off a soapy plate. They're empty - hollow works. He's a terrible ACTOR's director. His basement is a disco, and the Wolfman has no disco in his soul. This is a PERIOD film - to make a convincing period film you need a director for an eye for details... Someone that knows this world and period. X3 was a financial success - but that was based on an incredibly successful franchise by Singer. Ratner killed it. Made the WORST FILM OF THE SERIES - and Fox sold it brilliantly. Dare to make the great film. STOP. Find a different director... please.
With the production reportedly scheduled to begin in March, Universal's options must have been tragically limited, necessitating the choice of a director who's previously proven that even with precious little lead time, he can show up on set minutes before cameras are ready to roll and collect enough footage to produce one of his signature, incomprehensible masterworks that will go on to simultaneously break box office records and bring to an end any hopes of sustaining a franchise. And AICN shouldn't fret too much about this misconception that Ratner's not an "actor's director"; we're sure that after a last-minute pre-production party at Hillhaven Lodge's legendary disco, both Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins will be more than willing to buy into their new helmer's program, impressed at the filmmaker's openness to the surprisingly insightful notes offered by the "script coordinators" providing their story-meeting lap-dances.
