It was only a couple of weeks ago that producer Jason Blum offered a vague status update on Ryan Gosling’s The Wolfman, which was set to be written and directed by The Invisible Man‘s Leigh Whannell, before the Saw co-creator was forced to drop out of the project due to scheduling conflicts.
However, Deadline reports that a replacement has now been found, and it’s a very intriguing choice who has plenty of experience working with the leading man. Derek Cianfrance, who helmed Gosling’s Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines, has been confirmed to be taking the reins of The Wolfman.
Cianfrance recently landed an Academy Award nomination for penning awards season favorite Sound of Metal, which saw Riz Ahmed land an Oscar nod for Best Actor, so he knows a thing or two about crafting hard-hitting character-driven stories backed by stellar performances, which is why the prospect of him applying that approach to a new spin on a horror icon sounds so exciting.
It was Gosling who initially pitched Universal with a fresh take on The Wolfman, so you’d imagine he’d have been integral to Cianfrance landing the job once Whannell departed. The studio are going all-in on developing a slew of updated monster movies following the success of The Invisible Man, but this one might just be the most hotly-anticipated of them all.
