Variety is reporting that Universal Pictures has enlisted 2x Academy Award-nominee Ryan Gosling (Blade Runner 2049; The Nice Guys) to star as the titular monster in their upcoming Wolfman remake.
The studio has been holding virtual meetings with several directors over the past month and is expected to make a decision on who will ultimately take the helm relatively soon. No frontrunner has emerged, but Bad Education director Cory Finley is rumored to be among those in consideration.
Lauren Shucker Blum and Rebecca Angelo wrote the screenplay.
Plot details, save for the basic werewolf premise, remain under wraps for now, but the film will be set in modern day and is currently being described internally as something more akin to the Jake Gyllenhaal-fronted thriller Nightcrawler, albeit with a supernatural twist. Gosling would portray an anchorman who gets infected.
No potential production start date has been given, but it seems as though Wolfman will be Gosling's next project after he completes filming Phil Lord and Chris Miller's upcoming Project Hail Mary adaptation for MGM.
On a related note, Variety reveals that several filmmakers, including, but not limited to, James Wan, Paul Feig, and John Krasinski, have pitched their own takes on characters in Universal's massive monsters library and each of those projects are currently in various stages of development. Gosling's take on Wolfman was among the first to gain some serious traction and aligned with Universal's new post-Invisible Man vision for their monster movies.
In addition to Wolfman, Universal is also actively developing Elizabeth Banks' The Invisible Woman, Karyn Kusama's Dracula, Dexter Fletcher's Renfield, and Paul Feig's Dark Army.