CREATURE FEATURE

Just east of Guelph, watch out for the mutant form of werewolf

By STEVE TILLEY,
Canoe network (Canada)
Jam! Showbiz features

link: http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/2005/11/04/1292727-sun.html



ROCKWOOD, Ont. -- This place is too damn pretty to be teeming with werewolves.

Placid ponds, towering trees, the picturesque ruins of a 19th-century textile mill ... and flesh-eating lycanthropes? A little hard to swallow, but the cast and crew of the horror flick Skinwalkers are in the process of making it palatable indeed.

The $20-million-plus film, which wraps shooting next week in Toronto for a 2006 theatrical release, is on well-travelled cinematic terrain. Some might even say the werewolf sub-genre has been over-explored, from Lon Chaney Jr.'s furry faces of the '40s to John Landis's classic An American Werewolf in London to the recent Canuck-made Ginger Snaps trilogy. Among many, many others.

But producer Don Carmody promises that Skinwalkers will stand out. "Visually, I think the creatures will be something no one has ever seen before," said Carmody, taking a break between scenes on a location shoot in the Rockwood Conservation Area, east of Guelph.

"The creatures themselves are a true blend of human to beast. They're very subtle, but still very sexy and powerful. They're not dressed up in giant dog outfits."

Directed by James Isaac (Jason X) and starring Jason Behr, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra and a host of fresh and mostly Canadian young talent, Skinwalkers is Lions Gate Films' first foray into this particular horror genre, a partnership with Red Moon Films and Germany's Constantin Film.

The exact form that Skinwalkers' critters will take is a carefully guarded secret. The film's make-up prosthetics, which were designed by the legendary monster-makers at Stan Winston Studios in Hollywood, were kept well hidden from visitors during a set visit last month.

Toronto-based digital effects house Mr. X, in turn, is supplying the 400 or so CGI effects shots that will be used in the film, but how or even whether the computer wizardry will be used in the werewolves' transformations is also hush-hush.

Skinwalkers star Behr (The Grudge), who plays the leader of the film's evil werewolf clan, didn't really mind the long, laborious process of being turned into a monster.

"It's been a nice excuse for me to let out the inner animal, and I'm not talking about the drum-playing Muppet," Behr said. "It's been a lot of fun for me as an actor to just play around with this guy."

Behr's group of werewolves clashes with a pack of noble wolfmen (and women), led by Koteas (Collateral Damage) and counseled by Tom Jackson (North of 60). The shoot has travelled from Toronto to Hamilton to the Guelph area to the picture-postcard brewery town of Creemore, which provided the setting for a massive gun battle. Yep, these werewolves rely on more than just teeth and claws to get the job done.

"It's a modern-day tale, but it's almost like a Clint Eastwood western," said actor Kim Coates, who plays the second-in-command of the evil werewolf tribe.

Coates was one of the first actors in the movie to do a full-on transformation scene, which required him to spend five-and-a-half hours in the makeup chair. But given that the guy behind the creature effects designed everything from Arnie's robotics in The Terminator to the T-Rex in Jurassic Park, Coates didn't mind at all.