The Weekly Planet - The Wolfman - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

In 2010 Universal took another step towards rebooting the Dark Universe with a straight shot at a remake of the 1941 classic The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr. This time starring Benecio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving and with the late addition direction of Joe Johnston it does manage to capture some of the magic of a classic monster movie. But also it's not that good even though Mason liked it. Thanks for watching our Caravan Of Garbage review!SUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNHelp support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies The Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore. FIS is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at FIS.ca. RBC has programs and resources to help you open the door to your career.

And this includes scholarships that support students as they pursue their education and build a clear pathway towards their future. They'll help you take your network to the next level and help you learn more about the people and places that interest you. Plus, you'll get the tools to build and upgrade your skill set to stay ready for the jobs of tomorrow. Check out rbc.com slash open doors to make your ideas happen. Welcome back everybody to another episode of Caravanna Garbage,

where we're on movie two of exploring dark universe universes that didn't happen. And I still sound like this. Sorry, everyone. Perhaps I'm transforming into some sort of dark and mysterious and sexy creature. Yeah? Nah. What would that look like, though, do you think? What kind of morph would that be?

Oh, would it be the horse morph again? I'd be the horse morph again. Because if we've paid for it. Yeah, I was going to say, if in fact that was made, we got that asset now, you know what I mean? We've got it forever. That can be the new thing. Yeah. Because me as a horse in every situation.

Oh, my goodness. This week, of course, we're talking about the Wolfman from 2010. That's right. Did you see this at the time? No, I mean, I saw it at the time, but I didn't see it at movies. You didn't see it at movies? No. You saw it at home movies?

At home movies? I didn't see it at all. Yeah. But I do remember at the time, this got mixed reviews. Yeah. And so I think I probably, that's why I didn't see it. But let me tell you this, I watched this, I thought it was great. Great.

Yes. Wow. Well, I had a great fun time. And I would say to those critics in 2010, what I would do, if I had access to a time machine, I'd bring them to the future, or I'd take, I guess you can't really take Disney Plus to the past. So I guess I'd take them to the future and I'd sit them down in front of my TV and I'd be like, look at some of this slop.

Look at some of this slop from now. Look at the most watched movie that's ever been watched, Red Notice. Look at these two men in an arena and they're fighting a bull, but clearly neither of them are there. They both filmed this separately. They're both holding different bottles of gin. They're just, they both came in on separate days and they stood in front of a green screen in a disused office building and they set some lines off a teleprompter.

This is what movies are now. You didn't know how good you had it in 2010 with The Wolfman, all right? You're being very generous, I feel, to this movie. Please leave a lie. You didn't like it? I thought it was fine. Interesting. And also, Ron Meyer is going to disagree with you.

He was the president and chief operating officer of Universal Studios. Where is he now? He died. Good. No, he's around. He's doing something else. Good. He probably works for Quibi or whatever.

I don't know. I was going to say good no matter what you said. I wish him well. He's having a great life. Hope he makes a million dollars a day. Good on him, I say. He said the movie was one of the two worst movies that Universal Pictures had ever made.

The other one he singled out was Babe Pig in the City. That's wrong. Yeah, I think he's wrong both times. Yeah, he is. Yeah. This is better than Van Helsing probably. 100% it's better than Van Helsing. I mean, it's playing it 100% straight.

Yeah. Like this isn't, was it Van Helsing? I don't know. That was too early, noughties, edgy, weird. This I like that they just played this straight. This is just... It's a direct homage to the original. The original, the 40s.

Yeah, Lon Cheney Jr. Probably. I only know that from Werewolves of London. Oh. This actually, this was announced in 2006. Benicio del Toro was always on board because he was a fan in the 1941 original. The first director was Mark Romineck, who did one-hour photo, but he left for creative differences. Then Frank Darabont was considered James Mangold, Bill Condon, Martin Campbell, and Joe Johnston signed on three weeks ahead of principal photography.

Three weeks. Yeah, I think you can tell. That's the Rocketeer. Captain America. Yeah. Didn't know it at the time. but I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. He likes period piece stuff.

He does. He'll make something look good. Yeah. You know what? It's a great looking movie, first of all. I think in parts, yeah. Given that it is... It seems mostly real locations.

I think, and there's an art to making a movie look great when it's mostly just grey and brown. You know? Yeah. It's the Gears of War colour scheme. But there's a thing called lighting, which I think a lot of Hollywood productions have forgotten about. Yeah, you might be right.

You can film a scene set in the dark and have people still be able to see what's going. Yes. I think also at the start of this, like Van Helsing, they try an old school logo. But this actually manages to capture the ambiance and the feel of the older stuff. Again, I think it's grim in a slow and boring way

and everyone's really low-key. I think it's some of the dullest performances. Interesting. I think they should... It is a good cast, certainly. It's an incredible cast. Yeah. I don't know

I think Benicio del Toro's weird American accent isn't really working He's got that bowl cut Like he's Ezra Miller in fucking Harry Potter prequel Don't think about Ezra Miller Think George Clooney in I don't know out of sight Does he have that haircut and out of sight?

Oh brother we're off now He looks like one of the fucking three stooges I don't think Everybody looked like the three stooges back in the day I think you know He was a fancy little lad And his mum got murdered under Mysterious circumstances. It was a werewolf.

What is this at the start of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air? He was a fancy little lad at his mom got murdered. He got bit by a whale wolf. It was Anthony Hopkins. Spoiler. So Anthony Hopkins said, I'm moving you to London. And you've got to be a great actor or whatever.

Now, we watch the extended version and in that it's quite funny because you see him doing Hamlet, but he's bad. And I think that's quite funny. Is that intentional? Because he's obviously a terrific actor. Benicio Del Toro could do Hamlet. So what is this? I think it's just, yeah,

Maybe that he's just kind of, you know, his dad's rich and he can try this out because he's got a trust fund to fall back on, I guess. Yeah. I haven't noted here, James, it just says, in a way, we're a couple of fellows of infinite jest. What are we doing? Because he says that, he says that. But what are we supposed to do with that? What am I supposed to do with that?

I'm I supposed to agree? Yeah. Am I supposed to go great reference to this movie? Yes. I don't know. I don't think there's enough here to bounce off, if I'm honest. Just agree with it. Just say we are a couple of fellows of infinite jest.

We are a couple of fellows of infinite jest. Thank you. That's all I want here. What I liked about this movie, you say it's slow, and it is kind of slow. No, not slow and like, oh God, I wish it would hurry up and get to the werewolf stuff because even the werewolf stuff is not that interesting.

But I was going to say they're not shy about showing the whale. Oh, straight up. Straight up. There's a guy there, he's alive, then bam, he's dead. Who did it? The werewolf. Or was it a, or maybe it was a goat stalking the moors. No, it was a werewolf.

You see the werewolf. There he is. It's not a wolf, is it? The Wolfman. Yeah, Wolfman. Straight up, there he is. I guess that's also interesting because everybody's talking about what did this. Yeah.

But as the audience, I mean, you know. You know. Yeah. But I guess, going into this, you would know what's going to be the Wolfman. It's called the Wolfman. I don't know. The mystery element, it's not really a mystery. It's going to be his dad, isn't it?

Of course it is. Because there's no one else in this movie, is there, really. I mean, I guess it could have been Hugh Goss weaving. Who's based on a real guy? Yes. He's based on the Jack the Ripper investigation at it, right? Jack the Ripper was going to be in this at one point, apparently. that we can talk about it.

So anyway, his brother gets murdered by a wolfman. Benet, Sheldon Torres, brother. Yeah, so he goes home. He's only in the movie, not in real life. No, no, I think his brother's okay in real life if he has one. Or he might not be. I don't know anything about him. So he goes back and he, because Emily Blunt's like,

your brother, who I love, got murdered by something. Come back, help out. And he's like, okay, I'll do that with acting, will I? I just use my incredible acting skills to solve a missing person's case. Lady, are you stupid? I'm stupid, so I'm coming with you. Yeah, I've agreed. is a good idea. And then in our version, because I don't think this is a theatrical version,

he meets Max von Seidow on the train who's like, you want this cool sword cane? He's like, I mean, that's the greatest offer anyone's ever been given, but no for some reason. And then Max von Seidow is like, I'll just leave. I'll just leave and leave it for you. Yeah. Do you think you forgot it? Well, he said no. Yeah. Probably got off the train. It went, wait, stop. Oh, no. So he goes to Emily Blunt. I'm going to stay and figure out what happened to my brother. Anyway, later that evening, he gets bit by a werewolf. Yep.

Figures it out pretty quick. Yeah. There is a moment, yeah, where a werewolf tears through an encampment. Great. I think that's pretty solid. That's Rick Baker. Prostetics and makeup, right? Yeah.

So the transformations in this and the designs, they are Rick Baker, or any of the physical stuff of the transformation, which there is very little of. And the reason was... But again, that's, I feel like a throwback to the... I mean, it's a budget thing also, but it's probably also a throwback to, like, you're not going to see everything. Well, There was supposed to be more practical transformations, but there wasn't time.

It was supposed to be like what Rick Baker did in the 80s good werewolf movie. But again, with Joe Johnson coming on so late, they couldn't really get to that. I think the final werewolf design is pretty good. I think there's elements of like guerrilla in it and other stuff, which works for the most part. Took three hours. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Hour to get off.

That's fun. There's a love sequence. A sequence of moments where two people are falling in love, I should say. Sure. Not love making. It's not. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? It's like, I guess we're in love.

These guys are in love because they're skipping stones. I guess we're in love now. Yeah. But that's how it happened back in the day. Oh, I did. You're like, this person's whimsical because they like to skip a stone. I guess we'll get married before we both die of pleuracy. Yeah.

Whatever that is. We'll figure it out. Or leprosy. We'll figure it out. So yeah, Anthony Hopkins is in this as mentioned. He's reentering the Dark Universe because he's Van Helsing and Horny Dracula. Oh, that's true. So that's good.

He has a great sequence He's low key But I think he's the best kind of low key There's a moment where the police come to get his son And Anthony Hopkins comes out With a gun and he's like You better fuck off I'm gonna shoot you

And there's a guy on the roof He's gonna shoot you You gotta get out of here That's right I thought that was He's great It's a really well handled moment It convinced me enough

I remember when first seeing this To be like Well maybe he's not the werewolf guy No but he is He was just setting his son up for later He was doing acting He was doing acting In a way he's a lot better

than his son at acting In a way, he is a lot better. And we find out how he got the werewolf disease. Because he went to India, and he got bit by Indian Gollum in a cave. Correct. And then he took it back. Took it back to the Moors and spent decades being locked up by his servant. And then he's like, nah, I'm just going to go nuts with it.

Yeah. It's way more fun to just be out and about and werewifing it up and whatever. Yeah. And he's obviously the one who really killed his mother and whatever, whatever, you know. Okay. Yeah. Man, you were down on good. movies this week.

It's not a good movie. It's not a good movie. I would say it's a very average movie. That's a shame. Sorry you hate having fun. It's not fun. It's not fun. I just meant generally.

Oh, that's true. Yeah. So of course, in framing his son, who gets locked up in an asylum again, because the second time this has happened to him, I do like the sequence where he kills a bunch of nerds in a room. I love nerds getting their comeuppance. Absolutely. People who think they know better, these scientists, Mason.

That's right. Experts. It's also dedicated their lives to this thing. Happens to be a werewolf, how would they know? Yeah. I think also this seat is a really good example of why venues should have push doors instead of pull doors. I mean, that's, yeah, I'm loving all that. For when you need to flee.

Yeah, that's right. They should have really big doggy doors for fleeing. Yeah, and for dogs. And whales, I guess, yeah. So, and then he gets to have a bit of a run around London. But looking at that. Do do, do, do, do. having a run around in London

Yeah, yeah Warren Civon Sure But you remember in the 80s Yeah vaguely When American werewolf Running around London

Yeah Now that's running around in London I agree That's a crazy scene This is nowhere near that That's true Yeah And it's not even the practicality of it

Like the hectic nature Of that like The bloodshed and the terror It's not here He's just kind of bounding about Yeah I know But like bloodshed was Better in the 80s

You know Yeah sure I mean okay I will say this Yes I liked how he wanted to go home to behead Anthony Hopkins. And he does it. And that's good.

But it's just like the end of a Marvel movie, a thing that you love, where it's like... Two CGI guys. Yeah, two, well, I think they're mostly practical, but there are CGI guys. Two guys with the same power set. Two guys with the same power set fighting each other. I thought that would be really interesting. But it's all right. Yeah.

I mean, it is cool when he goes on fire. That's fun. I enjoyed that. But other than that, it's... I don't know, man. And Emily... Do you think maybe this is where they should have revealed that Anthony Hopkins, in addition to being a werewolf,

also has a creature from the black lagoon to him. Sure. So he's an aquatic werewolf man. Yeah, that would have been... You can't beat me because I've got an additional weird thing going on. I'm also other mummy. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important.

Can't take being on hold anymore? Fizz is 100% online, so you can make the switch. in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.com. Yeah, cool, man. I think that would be cool, man. It would be like the end of secret invasion where they've all got different arms of different guys or whatever. Oh, my God. Yes, please. Now, that's a Marvel movie. Benicio del Toro is like, well, I've got, I found Frankenstein's neck plugs. So I've got Frankenstein powers now too. And it also, at the same time in the lead up to the finale, Emily Blunt, she's going to do some research to help to figure out what's going

on. And so she reads a book and she visits a woman. Like an expert. Yeah, it doesn't amount to anything. At the end, she does a bit of, hey, remember who you are. And he does, he does for a minute. And then he gets shot. Remember who you are, a bad actor. Remember that I brought you into this bad situation. In a way, this is my fault. In a way. Don't murder me, though. No, Don't do it. But I do think it's interesting that Hugo weaving, whose whole thing in this, was catching a werewolf. His whole Hugo Weaves thing.

Yeah. So I'm going to do a fresh one of those. Please. His whole Hugo Weave thing. Yeah, that's right, is to catch a wolfman guy. And then at the end, he gets turned into a wolfman. It's like the promise of something more interesting, which I do want to talk about. It's like, you've got a day off and you're like, I'm going to have a nice brunch.

And then you get turned into brunch. That's true. Yeah. But what is brunch? I'm sick, folks. What is brunt? That's an Ezra Miller thing. That's Ezra Miller.

Yeah, I don't like that. You didn't think I can bring it back to Ezra Miller. No. No, sorry, you didn't want me to bring it back to Ezra Miller. Correct, yes. Yes. Oh, I want to talk about the future of this franchise, Mason. Okay.

As in this particular movie. Did they want this to be a franchise? Yes. I guess that's naive thinking I might be half. I guess every modern movie being made, they want to turn it into a franchise if possible. Well, this is post-iron man. This is post-the-dark-night, you know? This thing's happening.

Things were moving and shaking. So true. But before we get into that, we should do the trivia man. This is the trivia section of the show. I love it. Do you know Danny Elfman scored this? And he based it on Bram Stoker's horny Dracula score, which you can hear a bit of. And then the studio was like, no, we don't want this.

Let's get Paul Hasslinger to come in and replace him. But then Universal's like, nah, who cares? Just put back the Elfman score. I think this was a mad scramble. It feels like that. It's cut weirdly. A lot of the special effects don't kind of fit the era that they're supposed to be. The special effects don't match the ear.

era, if that makes sense, the tone? They match them more than Van Helsing did. Maybe I'm seeing this through the lens of, I like this more than I like Van Helsing. Yeah. I think that's probably it. Maybe that is true. That bit where the claws go through the guy's mouth and whatever? Can't show that.

Nah, it can't show it. You can't show it, though. People are getting their bits chopped off. Yeah, and it's fine. The bear that we see, remember that bear? Oh yeah. Travelling bear. Yeah, it was actually a recycled animation from the Golden Compass. They just recolored it. Oh, because it's a polar bear in that. Yeah. But a bear's a bear.

A koala bear is a bear, all bears are bears. They should have added a re-coloured Daniel Craig if they had the asset. What colour? That's up to you. I'm not a filmmaker. Whatever colour you want, he's in the background, just hanging out. You mentioned this, but Inspector Francis Abiline, or Abilene, played by Hugo Weaving, he's based on Frederick Abiline, who was the Scottish Yard inspector who investigated Jack the Ripper. But also, of course, he didn't figure that out in real life.

No. Even though there was a lot of trails of blood and everything. evidence at the time and people said, I saw this guy and then went, oh yeah, which way did he go? I don't know, in one of those dirty, dark alleys that London's famous for, one of those millions of alleys? I read this, I don't know whether it's true, but apparently Gene Simmons and David Lee Roth were some of the people called into the Wolfman's Hals. Huh.

I don't know, man. I don't know about that. Should have got Warren Zeeve on. Yeah. I was of London. Sure. I can't do it because my voice has gone. You don't have to do it.

We'll get David Lee Roth to do it. Let's get him. Is he on cameo? Yeah, man. Is he still alive? Yeah, he's still alive and he's on cameo. That's great. I'd pay J. Simmons, but I don't like him.

I think he's a prick. Apparently also, I don't know whether this is true. There was going to be a sequence where the wolfman just casually kills Jack the Ripper on the Weirwolf rampage. Oh, yeah, that's fun. Tide, they didn't, I guess. He could just kill a bunch of, just run down the streets of London and kill Sherlock Holmes and... Yeah. The Queen.

Exactly. Michael Crawford from some mothers do have him. Mr Bean Mr Bean Whoever's available Is it Michael Crawford? Yeah Okay

You know it He was the fan of the opera He was Condor Man Yeah he was Condole Man Yeah And also apparently two endings were filmed But not used One where Benicia del Toro bites Emily Blunt

Before she shoots him And she looks up and stares At the moon as he dies She goes, come on man Come on, I don't want this Yeah And in the other ending She doesn't manage to shoot Lawrence

Before she dies from his attack And he stands up and stares directly with the camera and growls. Wow. Both these are good. Incredible stuff. Yeah. Well.

Anyways, on a budget of $150 million dollars too much, this may... Yeah, that is too much. Yeah. See? Yeah. That's none of my business, man. I don't care. What would have we paid for this in 2010?

It should look better. $10.50? 12 bucks? Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. With our student discounts. Oh my God.

I don't care if it costs $150 million. It's not my money. I agree. They care, though, because it, made 142.6. Oh, so big loss. Huge loss. Yeah.

So in terms of a franchise, Ruby's costumes made Halloween costumes for both child and adult. Mesco toys made action figures and replica medallions. There was a novelization. People were high on this. The medallion is not the key to this. I agree. It's the sword.

It's the sword cane. Yeah. I buy the sword cane. They auctioned that off. I had a look. Yep. You made like 5 grand or something. Propoctions.com or something.

Yeah, they got to make their money back some. It was somehow, I guess. And it did. Yeah. They made back $142 million on selling that cane. There was a sequel initially planned, very loosely, which would focus on Hugo Weaving's character, who was now a werewolf, and would use his abilities to capture Jack the Ripper. I don't know whether this was true. I couldn't find anything concrete about it.

But also, can he control his werewolf powers enough as using sniffology to find Jack the Ripper? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. What are we doing here? Maybe he's got werewolf sniffology of his. Yeah. Maybe. I mean, I would watch Weirwolf detective, whatever, whatever. And people will say, Wolf Among Us.

That's what they'll say. No, I want Hugo Weaving doing it. Yeah. You know that video game, which is based on the comic and whatever. Oh. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Because the original had a bunch of sequels. Yeah, it did. The Wolfman met Frankenstein. Yeah, he'd meet all sorts of blokes. And then probably the... Abbott and Costello. Yeah, they made a bunch of two other blokes. Yeah.

All those blokes. Those blokes. And then Abbott. and Costello and Frankenstein and the Wolfman. Mm-hmm. Met Michael Crawford. He did have him. What?

Yeah, it's true. And was he dressed as condor man? Yep. Yeah. Wow, Titans of Cinema. A cat had done a whoopsie in his barrow. I had to figure out who the culprit was, but it was a cat. Which cat?

So there was a movie that went direct to DVD called Wehrolf the Beast Among Us. Okay. That was planned as a spin-off. It was released, but guess what? It wasn't. It was just unrelated and a thing that came out. Huh. Yeah.

Because I guess the werewolf IP is free. Yeah, it is. I guess you're devastated, though, that this didn't get a sequel. It did get, we did get a Wolfman follow-up. Did we? More recently, you remember? Oh, Wolf-Man? Modern Wolf-Man.

Yeah, okay. I know. It's about generational trauma. Sure. In a way, I guess this is about generational trauma, but they weren't harping on about it. You know, it's more about sometimes, because the modern one is like, you know,

generational trauma from your parents that comes back to you. and then, but this one's basically what if your dad was bitten by an Indian golem who turned into a werewolf and then later he bit you. Like it's not really...

I feel like they have the same themes. I think you're being too easy on this and being like, well, the generational trauma and this is more subtle. No, it's fucking not. It's not at all. I'm saying there are two not great movies. I'm just saying if my dad got picked by an Indian gollum

and then he bit, I'd forget. Yeah? You wouldn't behead him? No. Okay. No. Do you think you're doubt to be interested in Big Sandwich.com? Maybe.

Because next week... He's interested in the stuff that I do. Sure, there you go. Sometimes he asked me about it and I'm like, Dad, I don't even know. He's like, I saw this on Instagram. I'm like, Dad, I don't know. I think it's a joke, but I don't... I think it's a fake thing that somebody who listens to our podcast, they made a joke or Photoshop or something.

No, I didn't actually do whatever that is. So I guess I think he probably would be. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Well, that's great, because him and like everyone else can check out next week's video early. Here's a hint. Dracula Untold, Mason. You said Draclier.

Yeah, I'll put that in. Okay, that's great. Draclear Untold. That's not the only thing there. We also do video game Let's Play. We do bonus podcasts. We do movie commentaries. We also have a podcast called The Weekly Planet, where we're talking movies and comics and TV shows.

That comes out every Monday on its own YouTube channel, Spotify, Apple, wherever, whatever, whenever, Shakira, etc. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. much to Ben and Lawrence for the edits. Thank you, Ben and Lawrence. I can't wait to watch Dracula Runtold, which I think is a better movie than this. Ah, let me help. Let's solve that thought. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay, Mr. Bloody Sunday movies. Yeah. That's what you should call me. I'm not going to call you. That's what

you have to call me. Very confident now. You are going to eat those words. You better not take these out. I'm leaving a minute. You're going to eat those words next week, I think. I've never been wrong and I don't plan on starting now. Goodbye, everyone. Grabed out, you guys. We'll see it next week. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore? FIS is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes.

Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca.