MOVIE NEWS – The legend of Wolf Man is a mystical story, but the latest film version takes a different direction – the cause of the transformation is now an infection, as we live in an age of frightening epidemics.

“At the beginning, we were wondering how we could transform the well-known story in order to make it relevant to today’s audience – says the actor who plays the title role, Christopher Abbott. – “We immediately thought that the main character’s transformation could be linked to some kind of disease. Alzheimer’s came to mind right away, which is not contagious, but it is a mysterious and devastating disease. Everyone has a relative or acquaintance with Alzheimer’s, including me, so you could say that this is a common experience. We know how scary it is. Someone is physically there, but something has become a journey, and unfathomable things are happening in their eyes. So we wanted to inject something like that into our werewolf story.”

The new Wolf Man is a reimagining of Universal Studios’ classic monster movie. Blake and Carlotte (Abbott and Julia Garner) move to his family’s Oregon farm with their daughter after Blake’s father goes missing and is presumed dead. They are attacked by a werewolf in the woods, and the head of the family is injured. Blake begins to transform, and his wife and daughter try to save his life.

(Wolf Man – in the cinemas from Thursday!)