Universal's Next Werewolf Movie Features A Nazi-Fighting Lycanthrope
Chris Morgan, the screenwriter behind most of the Fast and the Furious sequels, is now producing a new film for Universal. The studio with the richest horror movie legacy of all will make The Wolf's Hour, based on a 1989 novel. The story is set in WWII, and sees the Allies using a lycanthrope to infiltrate occupied Paris in order to stop a Nazi attack on London.Bradley and Kevin Marcus optioned the novel on their own a while ago, says Deadline, and scripted the take that set this deal in motion. Here's the plot of the book, originally by Robert R. McCammon:
Michael Gallatin is a British spy with a peculiar talent: the ability to transform himself into a wolf. Although his work in North Africa helped the Allies win the continent in the early days of World War II, he quit the service when a German spy shot his lover in her bed. Now, three years later, the army asks him to end his retirement and parachute into occupied Paris. A mysterious German plan called the Iron Fist threatens the D-Day invasion, and the Nazi in charge is the spy who betrayed Michael's lover. The werewolf goes to France for king and country, hoping for a chance at bloody vengeance.
McCammon is a well-regarded author, and there's actually quite a lot of praise for the book, though we can't predict whether or not the qualities that readers prized will translate to the screen. It's not a small story, and hopefully the fact that Universal is letting Morgan run with it can be taken as implication that the studio might be willing to commit the proper budget.