The Wolfman Remake Now Director-Free

Hecklerspray loves remakes.

Such is our affection for the genre, indeed, that we've been trying for several years to get our own version of Purple Rain off the ground. It's a lot more literal than the original - in fact, the movie features no original studio recordings by Prince, and simply features a shower attachment fixed to our office sink and filmed through a purple filter, while in the background a climate expert chats about the devastating wrongness an actual shower of coloured rain would imply. On the plus side, though, the movie features no original studio recordings by Prince.

Someone who isn't too keen on remakes, it would seem, is director Mark Romanek. Romanek - previously best known for his 2002 film One Hour Photo, in which Robin Williams stands around a pharmacy mumbling a bit before taking some snapshots of a crying man having sex - was all set to direct Universal's upcoming 'reimagining' of horror classic The Wolfman.

Then he walked away.

With weeks to go before the shoot begins - and with that old chestnut 'creative differences' being cited - The Wolfman now looks to be in limbo, something which can't have gone down well with signed-up stars Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro.

Hopkins in particular must be wishing that all this had happened on a previous film of his, and therefore saved him the embarrassment of starring in a turkey. Something like Hannibal, for example. Or probably definitely Hannibal. Yes - Hannibal without a doubt. He must be thinking of Hannibal. Christ, Hannibal was shit.

This isn't the only Universal film to fall into a directorless trap.  State Of Play - based on the BBC drama of the same name - is theoretically ready to shoot, but just needs that all important head honcho to step behind the camera and tell stars Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck what to do.

Fear not, though - other big-budget BBC adaptations are alive and kicking, and the multi-million dollar update of Terry And June (featuring Jon Voight as both) will be hitting cinemas soon.

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Director Romanek departs "Wolfman" - Yahoo