Video: “The Wolf Man” at Comic-Con 2008

"I've been making myself up as a wolf man since I was ten years old,"...

“I’ve been making myself up as a wolf man since I was ten years old,” claimed legendary make-up artist Rick Baker, who’s won six Oscars for his work in films as varied as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “Ed Wood” and “An American Werewolf in London.” He’s a natural fit, then, for director Joe Johnston’s update of the 1941 Universal horror film starring Lon Chaney Jr. Those classics “were the films that made want to do what I do,” Baker announced at the Comic-Con panel for the new film. “When I heard they were doing ‘The Wolf Man,’ I actually went to somebody I knew at Universal and said ‘I have to do this movie. I really want to do this movie.’ And, fortunately, they listened.”

The gracious Baker described “The Wolf Man,” which opens on April 3rd, 2009, as “pretty old school,” praising the studio’s choice to have an actor in make-up playing the lead instead of making the character computer-generated. Joining Baker on the panel were Emily Blunt, who plays female lead Gwen Conliffe, and the wolf man himself, Benicio Del Toro, who found his way to the role after his agent spotted a poster for the original movie in his house.

Take a look at video clips from the panel below:

More from Comic-Con 2008: The “Watchmen” panel with director Zack Snyder, stars Billy Crudup and Carla Gugino and others; the “RocknRolla” panel with director Guy Ritchie and star Gerard Butler; “The Spirit” panel with Frank Miller and Samuel L. Jackson.