The Big Picture
- Michael Giacchino shares behind-the-scenes goodies from the creation of Marvel’s
Werewolf By Night
, including storyboard sketches and a horrifying werewolf transformation shot. - Giacchino’s rough notes in the notebook show scenes, including one of Jack preparing to confront Elsa’s stepmother, showcasing the process of bringing the project to life.
- The director’s idea for the werewolf transformation was to provide an old-school, homage feel to classic monster movies, with the werewolf finally breaking out for a gory hallway fight.
A few months back, fans were treated to a new release of Marvel’s horror special Werewolf By Night in color, reigniting love for the Hammer Horror-inspired project directed by Michael Giacchino. Though it’s still up in the air whether he’ll be able to revisit Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly), Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal), and Man-Thing, aka Ted, again, the composer-turned-director still has plenty of things to share from the streaming event that started it all. On Friday, Giacchino took to Instagram to share a few more behind-the-scenes goodies from the special’s creation, including a notebook with storyboard sketches and a shot of the director testing Jack’s horrifying transformation into the titular Werewolf By Night.
Giacchino’s notes for the crew are very rough, but a few things can be made out among the scenes, including one shot of Jack preparing to clock Elsa’s ruthless stepmother, Verussa Bloodstone (Harriet Sansom Harris). The notebook gives a brief tour of the process of bringing Werewolf By Night to life, with directions for when and where certain shots were needed. The image of the werewolf transformation, meanwhile, offers a small glimpse into one of the special’s most harrowing scenes. Werewolf By Night‘s change was done practically in front of a projector to further invoke that old-school feel and the behind-the-scenes shot demonstrates the shadow in all of its terrifying glory. The director’s silhouette can be seen alongside the towering figure of a fully transformed Jack, showcasing the imposing stature of the werewolf.
One of Giacchino’s first ideas for the project was to have Jack painfully forced into his new form off-screen with the silhouette behind Elsa as the only indicator of his monstrous new form. It’s an homage to monster movies like The Wolf Man and Werewolf of London that was specifically made not to try and outdo the classics, but to harness the imagination to frighten. The payoff only comes minutes later when the werewolf finally breaks out of his cage and starts rampaging through Verussa’s soldiers, culminating in a one-take hallway fight that fully embraces the gorier tone of the MCU horror special.
Giacchino Has No Shortage of Ideas for ‘Werewolf By Night’s Characters
Penned by Pete Cameron and Heather Quinn, Werewolf By Night still stands as an outlier in the MCU’s catalog. Though the recent Echo has similarly shown Marvel can successfully get more mature, Giacchino’s special is beloved for its embrace of horror history and colorful characters from the wider comic book canon. If given the opportunity, the director would be thrilled to resurrect Elsa, Jack, and Ted with another macabre presentation too. “My wish is that, yes, there will be more with these characters,” he said last year during a Q&A at a Werewolf By Night color screening hosted by Collider. “I would love to, and I have ideas of what I would love to do with them, and it’s all crazy and nuts, but I think that’s the only way to go about it. So, hopefully, one day. Hopefully, one day.”
Until that day comes, both the color and black and white versions of Werewolf By Nightare available to stream exclusively on Disney+. Check out the new behind-the-scenes images from Giacchino below:
Watch on Disney+
