Australian director Leigh Whannell has taken two of Universal’s classic monsters and put his own spin on them. First, he updated the tale of The Invisible Man in 2020, and this year he takes on the lycanthrope, the Wolfman in Wolf Man (2025).
The tagline for Wolf Man starring Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, and Matilda Firth provided by Universal Pictures is as follows:
Family man Blake relocates from San Francisco to Oregon with his workaholic wife Charlotte and daughter Ginger after inheriting his childhood home, left vacant following his estranged father's mysterious disappearance and presumed death. At the farmhouse at night during a full moon, the family is attacked by a werewolf that claws Blake's arm. They barricade themselves inside the home, but soon Blake begins to transform into something horrifying, jeopardising the safety of his wife and daughter.
Leigh Whannell attended the Melbourne, Australia premiere of his new film where he introduced the film. Melbourne is Leigh’s hometown and where he first met James Wan. His other home is Los Angeles and Leigh sent his deepest condolences to his many friends who have been impacted by the wildfires there.
Introduced by fantasy author, filmmaker, and cinema programmer and writer, Maria Lewis – Leigh broke down certain elements in his version of Wolf Man and discussed his influences.
Due to the wildfires in Los Angeles making it impossible to safely screen a film, and movie premieres not being the focus of the devastated community, the Melbourne premiere became Leigh’s low-key “World Premiere.” Leigh brought to the stage his life partner and co-writer Corbett Tucker, cinematographer Stefan Duscio, and production designer Ruby Mathers. There were some Australian actors who appeared in the film who he decided to ‘embarrass’ by making them stand up and be applauded. Leigh also brought on stage the iconic Australian musician and songwriter Adalita from Magic Dirt and bandmate and song writer Raúl Sánchez who composed the original song for the film.
I wanted to approach the transformational aspect from a different angle because we've seen this werewolf transformation done before and done really well. Rick Baker kind of dropped the mic on practical effects with An American Werewolf in London so I didn't want to imitate that or compete with it.
I was influenced by films that use body horror as tragedy. Movies such as David Cronenberg’s The Fly and Julia Ducournau’s Raw.
We decided to slow everything down and I wanted to make it about illness. The first draft was written during Covid and that was a really unsettling time as we all know. My wife, Corbett Tuck and I co-wrote the film while we were in lockdown, and we had young kids in the house and so we were just pouring all the anxiety from that time into the script. I also had a close friend who was suffering from a debilitating illness that eventually took her life. Writing Wolf Man ended up being very cathartic and healthy for us.
Having young kids you become very vulnerable as a parent. You want to protect your child, but you know you can't. Eventually your child is going to go out into the world isn’t necessarily going to love them the way you do. They're probably going to get hurt.
I never realised that would come with fatherhood, so I was putting that anxiety in the film. It was such an unsettling time in the world that it seemed like this particular story, not other wolfman stories, but this version of the wolfman was fertile ground for exploring what happens when you lose communication with your loved ones. Wrapping that around the father and daughter relationship.
Writing the script with Corbett meant she ended up writing Charlotte (Julia Garner) a little more. I unconsciously did the same with Blake (Christopher Abbott).
We had an excellent crew in New Zealand, including my long-time cinematographer Stefan Duscio who I went to university with at RMIT in Melbourne. We collaborated on Upgrade and The Invisible Man. We also had an incredibly talented production designer, Ruby Mathers who is a rising name in the business and I was lucky to get her on the way up while I can still afford her!
Adalita seemed like the perfect fit for the original song over the closing credits. I sent her the script and she returned a demo co-written by Raúl Sánchez. She apologised for it being rough, but it was exactly what I wanted!
Without my wife Corbett, Wolf Man simply wouldn’t exist. Not only did she co-write the film she collaborated at every stage of production.
Wolf Man is released by Blumhouse/Universal Pictures on Thursday 16, 2025.
Personal note from Nadine Whitney who remembers Leigh Whannell before he was ‘horror auteur’ Leigh Whannell.
It’s been a long time since a young and vivacious Leigh Whannell appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s youth-oriented weekly show Recovery as the resident film critic. From 1996 he along with Angus Sampson entertained hung over people who had stayed up watching music clip show Rage after a night out. Some of the home and studio audience were probably sober! As an Australian watching Recovery during this time, I can attest to the power of youth programming for bringing to light new talent. They were halcyon days before streaming and the influx of Reality Television made up the quota of Australian programming. Recovery, like SBS’ Eat Carpet (a showcase for experimental shorts), Rock Arena and other shows were where local and international talent that existed outside of the mainstream were given a platform and industry leads to go further.
Very few Australian actors and filmmaking creatives didn’t get a leg up via publicly funded broadcasting or the dominant soap operas of the period Neighbours and Home and Away. Without Neighbours Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Natalie Imbruglia, Margot Robbie, Jesse Spence, and Liam Hemsworth wouldn’t have as easily become household names in Australia and the UK. Home and Away gave the world Chris Hemsworth, Naomi Watts, Isla Fisher, Ryan Kwanten, Melissa George, Brenton Thwaites, Julian McMahon, Luke Bracey, Simon Baker (also known for E Street), Isabel Lucas, Bella Heathcote, and Samara Weaving. Spending time on Ramsey Street or in Summer Bay is almost a rite of passage. Heath Ledger, Ben Mendelsohn, and even Russell Crowe passed through. Joel Edgerton gained notice for the St Kilda, set primetime soap The Secret Life of Us.
Although SBS and the ABC still create and fund local dramas that don’t require a paid subscription to gain access to, there is a noticeable dearth of youth-oriented programming. Viceland on SBS and Channel Nine’s Pedestrian TV are mostly curated shows. Spicks and Specks has limited appeal to young audiences as the hosts are two generations prior to the current teen and young adult demographic. Young creatives have migrated to social media platforms which will soon be unavailable to people under the age of sixteen because of a governmental ban. Paid subscription services are not available to everyone leaving a gaping hole for emerging voices to connect with their intended audience.