Combining a good dose of old school make-up artistry with the newest visual tricks and starring the unsettlingly seductive Puerto Rican Benicio del Toro, The Wolfman is the latest take on the classic tale of a cursed man who turns into a wild predator when the moon is full.

The Wolfman is Universal Pictures’ revisit of the studio’s classic film from the 1940s that started the half-man half-wolf horror legacy.

Directed by Joe Johnson (Jurassic Park III) and based on the screenplay of 1941’s The Wolf Man, the film tells the story of Lawrence Talbot (del Toro), a nobleman who returns to his family estate when he learns of his brother’s mysterious disappearance. There, he is reunited with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins) and meets his brother’s fiancé, played by Emily Blunt. The awkwardness of the forced family reunion will, however, be the least of Talbot’s problems – as he is bitten by a beast and transformed into a werewolf, with deadly consequences.

Victorian London vs 1940s Wales

The original film, The Wolf Man, tells the story of an ordinary man – horror legend Lon Chaney Jr. – turned werewolf and takes in what was at the time modern day UK, in the form of 1940s Wales. However, a decision was made from the beginning to take the new film all the way back to Victorian London in the year 1890. The choice gave the producers the opportunity to make the most of “dirty, suspenseful, smoggy London lit by gas lamps” and give the production the unmistakable feel of a classic horror film.

Using the traces of 19th Century London still in existence after the devastation of WWII, Oscar®-winning production designer Rick Heinrichs targeted some of the preserved areas of the capital to gain inspiration and give him a foundation to build upon, through practical sets or with the help of visual effects.

In the story, after Talbot is sent to the asylum, the Wolfman goes on a rampage throughout the capital’s streets. The spectacular sequence was originally planned to be part of the promotional trailer, released well in advance of the film. With no time to use a green screen and add visual effects afterwards, a quicker shoot on location was required. The challenge was finding a big enough space that would host the large team and necessary equipment. Following the scouting work by the location manager, Emma Pill, the production decided to use the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. “We needed somewhere big and controlled, where we could shoot the chase sequence – which required lots of stunts, wiring and multiple cranes – and where we could work for four weeks between preparation time and actual filming”, explains Pill.

Although it was finally never used in the trailer, the result is a heart-pounding chase and a key action sequence in the film - which also features the Wolfman jumping spectacularly from the top of the College’s famous Painted Hall.

Other London locations for The Wolfman include: Richmond Theatre; a solicitors’ bureau in Lincoln’s Inn used in a scene that required an ambitious road closure; and Syon Park, which hosts a glamorous masquerade ball, a scene that was left out of the final cut.

The extensive location shooting, together with the make-up and prosthetics created by Oscar®-winner Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, Men in Black), went a long way to add realism to the final product. They also gave the film the handcrafted quality and feel the film-makers were after, in a way to pay homage to the classic.

As producer Scott Stuber puts it: “We have put in a few twists, but we wanted to honor the original. The 'Wolfman' is so iconic because, on some level, he is within us. Every person feels a sense of rage. Each of us feels a sense of that time when we went too far, got too angry, did something we shouldn’t have done. Something primal exists within all of us, and we must control it or we are doomed.”

The Wolfman is now on general release in cinemas across the UK.