Cursed, American Werewolf & other Universal monsters
More coverage: Legacy of the Lycanthrope: A Werewolf Timeline | Director Joe Johnston interview | Video: Exclusive Cast Interviews
Rick Baker and the Wolfman. The pairing of the two is sweet like peanut butter and chocolate, and when we broke the scoop about his involvement back in 2007, An American Werewolf in London fans rejoiced. It’s the first time, in a long time, Baker gave us a lycanthrope. We almost got to see one of his beasties run rampant had Dimension Films and Wes Craven stuck with their initial vision of Cursed in 2005 (KNB EFX later took over creature duties when Baker’s designs were scrapped). Before that, he took the minimalist approach in bringing out the animal in Jack Nicholson in Wolf.
With The Wolfman, it’s full-tilt Baker time with actor Benicio Del Toro in his make-up chair undergoing a hairy metamorphosis that Baker says is inspired by the original Jack Pierce make-up and features a few alterations. He explains more in an upcoming video interview we’ll be posting later this week, however, Shock Till You Drop had about an extra fifteen minutes off-camera to speak with Baker about the remake, Cursed, An American Werewolf in London II and the other Universal monsters he would like to explore.
Ryan Rotten: Is Cursed still a sore subject for you?
Rick Baker: [laughs] Yeah, it’s still a real sore point because they started that movie and shut it down and then I packed the stuff up. They started it up again, which is what they said they probably wouldn’t do, then they re-did my stuff and didn’t use a lot of it. The deal was I wasn’t supposed to get a credit but they still gave me one.
Rotten: I saw your werewolf for that film and loved it.
Baker: I wished it didn’t happen, butâ¦
Rotten: But The Wolfman comes along giving you a chance to put your stamp on a classic creature.
Baker: And I did something I don’t do, I pursued this. I went in and said I wanted to do it. I was glad. It was hard. The whole production was hard for everybody. Harder than it needed to be.
Rotten: When we spoke at Comic-Con in 2008 it was undecided what was going to happen with the transformation. Since then I understand you were brought back in for another round of shooting?
Baker: We came back and did six weeks of re-shoots. They cut the film and decided the film needed some more work, this happens. The main thing wasn’t so much transformation stuff I was involved with, none of the quadruped stuff was in the film initially. [Editor’s note: The Wolfman runs on two legs and, at times, on four legs when he breaks into a full gallop.] They decided to speed up some stuff. The transformation I would have loved to have been more involved with. They utilized some of my design sculpts and skin. Made models from that. I was intentionally left out of it which, to me, is stupid. I pour my heart and soul into it when I do a movie like this. I think they did some terrific stuff though. Steve Begg, who’s the visual effects supervisor who should be here, had a really hard job.
Rotten: Have you seen the final film?
Baker: I haven’t seen the final thing. They called me in for a DVD thing the other day. The movie hasn’t come out yet, I haven’t seen it. [laughs] I’m looking forward to seeing it though.
Rotten: I found an old quote from you, around the time you did Wolf, where you said, “I’d love to do a transformation that takes advantage of digital technologyâ¦marry rubber with CG.” I’m guessing that’s something you’d still love to do.
Baker: I would. Those transformations are always fun to figure out. I think we did some cool stuff in American Werewolf but I cringe when I look at it. That was one of the first times I had a crew on board and they were a dozen guys, fans of a horror, who hadn’t worked on a movie before. The average age was 18-years-old but we managed to do something, 30 years later, that looks pretty damn good. Now the people that are available and were inspired by that film are great artistically or mechanically or great sculptors or mold makers. They’re not first-timers. So we could do amazing stuff now. I would definitely use the digital tools available, you’d be crazy not to. I’d like to mix it up. I think there could have been much more of an impact here if Benicio was in make-up in some of the transformation instead of a CG head right away.
Rotten: Talk about some of the rigors Benicio’s make-up on set…
Baker: There’s always a little fixing up to do, but Benny, what’s great about him is he goes for it. He doesn’t hold back. He doesn’t care if he looks stupid, he puts trust in the fact they won’t use it if it does. He tries things that others actors won’t. It was so fun to watch that. But it’s hard on the make-up, too. He’d fill his mouth up with blood. Then he’d spit it out and after a while it’s all over the chin and the hair is falling off. It’s got slobber and blood all over it. All you can do is push it back on. I really had fun with him. He was cool to work with. He would pull things out of movies and re-enact them. I’d call him on it all of the time. “Phantom of the Opera, you’re doing the Hunchback there, Curse of the Werewolf!” [laughs] Then he’d do stuff on his own and you’re like, “What the hell?!” [laughs] That’s brilliant!
Rotten: I’m surprised. I would never have pictured him as a monster kid. He was downstairs earlier today talking about Aurora model kits and his favorite charactersâ¦
Baker: Oh yeah, he’d bring in magazines into the make-up trailer every day. We bonded over that. I felt like I was playing with the kid down the street, like we were playing monsters. The whole experience of the film was a bit painful other than working with Benny and all of the actors.
Rotten: Taking another turn, I recently re-read an article about John Landis’ script for An American Werewolf in London II that was scrapped in the early ’90s. Did you ever do concept pieces for that?
Baker: No, I never saw that script, actually. What was amazing about American Werewolf is there was a script which today is unusual. [laughs] He had written that when we did Schlock together. The only difference in the script is the porno theater in Piccadilly Circus was a cartoon theater but it changed to a porno theater because it really turned into that.
Rotten: What’s up next for you?
Baker: Right now there’s something looming in the near future that will be really cool.
Rotten: Are you ready to revisit another creature feature so soon after this? Universal is gearing up for Creature from the Black Lagoonâ¦
Baker: I did designs for the Creature a long time ago. I’d be interested in that. I think that’d be a good use of CG though. A guy in a suit underwater is hard. I would love to do some kind of Frankenstein project. I would do any kind of gothic horror project. I wish they’d do more of them, it’s what made me do what I do now. I heard they’re going to do a Bride of Frankenstein remake which I think is sacrilege. I would do it, though, if they asked me, just like when I heard they were going to do a King Kong remake. I said, “They’re probably going to get some idiot in a gorilla suit.” I was right. [laughs]
Rotten: There’s always room for another go at Frankenstein.
Baker: So far, I haven’t seen one I’m crazy about. What Jack Pierce did with that make-up is so brilliant, if I did the Frankenstein monster, I’d sort of do what I did here with the Wolfman. Stay true to the concept but just tweak it a little bit. On James Whale’s Frankenstein it seemed to all click, didn’t it?
Rotten: I agree, that is Frankenstein to me.
Baker: Karloff, Pierce…it all worked.
Rotten: You’re Creature, is it lizard-like or closer to Gill Man?
Baker: Gill Man.
Rotten: Nice!
Baker: There’s a beauty in that original design. We utilized the proportion and body.
Rotten: I hope to see it someday…
As I said, keep watching Shock Till You Drop for our video interview with Baker this week!
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
