There's some serious partying going on one late October evening in a remote area outside of Toronto. From a distance, a fire pit's glow cascades over the area. Loud music interrupts the midnight silence. Clanging beer bottles and glasses contribute to the festive atmosphere. Male voices can be heard and so can .... growling?
This is no human get-together. Mere steps away, a feral pack of werewolves is celebrating merrily around the charred body of a victim as it roasts on a spit. The werewolf predators sit on tree stumps as they rip into their human meal and take swigs of alcohol. A tent stands in the background next to a large table. But the true showstopper on-site is a throne with deer bones adorning the top.
All of a sudden, alpha werewolf Connor (Jason Momoa) slowly stands up from his crouched position, cocks his head and looks around. All the werewolves become silent and pay close attention as their leader sniffs intently. Could something be wrong? Are unsuspecting interlopers about to become the second course?
Right at that moment, first-time director David Hayter yells "Cut!" "Wolves" is a supernatural thriller written by Hayter, who also penned the superhero films "X-Men" and "Watchmen." Tonight's ambitious sequence obviously features not only one lycan, but a group of the critters, something relatively unheard of in the werewolf genre.
"It's very challenging," acknowledges Hayter. "On our biggest day, we have 15 makeup effects people on board at any given time. They are doing all the savages. They are putting on the claws. They are putting in their eyes. They are putting the patterns on their faces. On top of that, we have two full wolves today. We have Jason and Lucas Till. They each take four hours apiece to put into full wolf makeup. It's quite a logistical endeavour."
During a break from filming, Hayter and Momoa separately spoke to Moviefone Canada about werewolf lore, the makeup process, wolf clans and ratings.
Big Bad Wolf
"Wolves" revolves around Cayden (Lucas Till), a high school football player with a beautiful girlfriend and loving parents. His normal life starts to unravel when his werewolf nature begins to emerge. Then, one night Cayden blacks out and awakens to find his parents murdered. Horrified, confused, and believing he was responsible for their deaths, Cayden hits the road in search of answers. His quest leads him to Lupine Ridge, a small town inhabited by werewolves. It's here that Cayden encounters Angelina (Merritt Patterson), John Tollerman (Stephen McHattie) and the ruthless Connor.
"Connor is the master," explains Momoa. "He pretty much runs the town. He has his disciples. He is looking for a pureblood woman to mate with, so he can carry on his lineage. His whole pack is obviously not purebloods. There's a woman (Angelina) in this that is a pureblood. Connor wants her. Someone is in Connor's way and he will do anything to get her. I don't like that. We get into a little bit of a fight over her. There's some beautiful twists and turns that David designed in this."
Unleashing the Beast
Transforming into a werewolf can be hell. Maybe not for the actual characters, but for the actors themselves. The process can be long and tedious, even if the end results are jaw-dropping and realistic. During this interview, a wolfed-out Momoa laid motionless on the ground to keep cool and comfortable between takes.
"The only people who make this feel good are the people who created this costume, David and Lou Elsey," offers Momoa. "They are phenomenal. They do my makeup and I try not to bitch as much as possible. It's definitely challenging. I've never had anything glued to my face. I was a little nervous in the beginning because you can't get out. This cooler hooked up to me is like a cooling suit. There's ice water getting pumped in here right now. I run really, really hot. That's a problem at our household. My wife is always cold and I'm always hot. I don't even sleep with sheets on and I'm fine with that. The costume is extremely hot for me. Everyone else doesn't believe me, but if they watch, buckets of ice melt down in here."
Strange Behaviour
In order to capture the essence of wolves and study their movements, Momoa took all the necessary steps. He read books, watched videos and visited The Wolf Connection, a wolf rescue organization. The already imposing and muscular actor also bulked up further for the role.
"As far as training goes, I wanted to get really, really big," says Momoa. "I trained and trained and tried to get big. A fight scene required me to deadlift a lot of weight. I have to lift a lot of guys up and slam them down. We wanted to make it pretty vicious and brutal. I'm not doing too many swift moves. They are body blows. They are huge power slams."
Nature of the Beast
Viewers should forget about the werewolf mythology established in "The Wolf Man," "American Werewolf in London" or "The Howling." Hayter breaks a lot the rules and mixes things up.
"A lot of the mythology I'm changing," explains Hayter. "Turning into a werewolf is not something that occurs just at the full moon. This is something if you learn to control it, you can call on it at any time. Anything you have in your nature, you should be able to call on any time, whether it be rage or an emotional response. You should be able to whip that up within yourself.
"Silver doesn't do anything one way or the other," he adds. "If you get shot by a bullet, you get shot by a bullet. There's less mysticism about this. There's less magical effect to it. These are people who come from a line that has this wolf in them. I've tried to make this real, for lack of a better term."
Evolution
These werewolves aren't the strong, furry silent types. They grunt and growl and yep, they even talk.
"Back in the day when I first wrote this script, the idea was that this savage pack would be wolves that had been wolves for so long, they had lost their humanity," reports Hayter. "They were just animalistic monsters up in the hills.
"Then, I had spoken to actor Ray Stevenson about playing Connor, because he's a friend," continues Hayter. "He had graciously accepted the offer. Then, I thought if we had an actor like Ray, we should probably give him some character and dialogue. Things started to change from there. We also didn't have the money to have 20 full-on wild creature effects in the movie. When 'Wolves' came around, Ray was doing 'Thor 2,' so we went to Jason, who has been phenomenal."
Hierarchy
Not all werewolves are created equally. Depending on the breed, some are more powerful than others. That also makes them higher in the chain-of-command.
"You have two different types of wolves," notes Hayter. "You get wolves like in the classic mythology. If you get bitten or scratched, you get a taste of this power. It's weaker or diluted, though. If you're born with it, you're what we call a "purebred," so you go into the full transformation to full wolf.
"On top of that, you have the original bloodlines of these people," he adds. "You've got some people who have joined Connor up here in the hills to run around as savage wolves. Then you've got people in town who may, or may not, ever transform again, but they have this ability within them. You have a clash between the town wolves and the savage wolves."
Killer Instincts
Horror fans put a lot of stock in a movie's rating. Slapping it with a PG-13 could mean watered-down, more young adult fare. An R rating usually represents a blood-soaked romp of a good time. Hayter smiles when asked which category "Wolves" will fall into.
"If you take a look at our barbecued fellow over there, you'll know we are not going for PG-13," says Hayter. "I don't understand why you would have a movie about wolf people that was not rated R at the very least. When I saw Matthew Vaughan's incredible movie "Kick-Ass," it was so refreshing to see a comic book movie with unflinching brutality. The violence in it was so bracing and original and cool. It's kind of like what we went through on the 'X-Men' movies, where I said, 'Wolverine is a guy who has nine-inch steak knives that come out of his hands. People are going to get stabbed. People are going to get cut. It's just the nature of what they are.'
"Well, when a wolf fights, they have teeth, claws and body mass," Hayter concludes. "That's it. I'm fond of saying this is not a horror movie, but people get slashed. Throats get cut. People are bitten. It is inherently brutal and I think our core audience wants a film like this."
"Wolves" hits theatres on November 14.
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