Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Teen Wolf (TV)

8/9/10 – Blastr.com reported MTV is doing Teen Wolf as a TV show.  The wolf-outs looked good, but more importantly, the actors taking werewolf stuff seriously looked good. They're already starting a serious story with lots of layers, action and romance. Maybe turning an '80s comedy gimmick into a serious monster show was a good idea after all.  Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) gets a wolf bite and becomes a star lacrosse goalie while gaining other new powers. (It was basketball for Michael J. Fox. We guess kids play more lacrosse now.) They're actually going to show a lot of wolfiness, more than you'll see on network shows like Vampire Diaries.  With more werewolf screen time, the adapters of Teen Wolf came up with three different breeds of wolf we'll see. "In the series there are three types of werewolves, an alpha, omega and beta," director Russell Mulcahy said. "The omega being a full wolf. What you saw is the beta, and then there's the psychotic, dangerous and totally original different design for the omega, which is the real monster of the show."  Scott will start out as a beta, and both the betas and alphas are bipedal. They walk like humans. It's only the omega that runs on all fours. "We didn't want a dog running around," Davis said. "The other werewolf shows and movies have werewolves you could pet. We wanted to have one you could kiss."  Tyler Hoechlin plays Derek Hale, Scott's sort of werewolf mentor. He's only a little further along in the werewolf cycle, a beta on his way to becoming alpha. "He's kind of an older beta," Hoechlin said. "I'll be closer to developing like an actual wolf, whereas Tyler Posey's character will be a little more babyish. It's that whole growing-up thing all over again. You start out as a baby at the werewolf bottom, and you kind of work your way up. As you become stronger and learn how to control it a little more, your powers progress.  The werewolf that we're doing is completely different from the other werewolves that are going around right now," Posey said. "It's more of a sexier, sleek werewolf. Gotta push that sexy. It's not as hairy as the original Teen Wolf, Michael J Fox. It definitely gives a darker and new feel to this werewolf."  One of the new powers they gave this Teen Wolf is the ability to attract girls. Now, that sounds silly at first, but if you think about it it's actually the most useful superpower of all.  Teen Wolf is coming in 2011 to MTV.

5/20/10 - MTV has picked up the new series Teen Wolf, based on the 1985 Michael J. Fox film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  The new series stars Tyler Posey as "a dorky high-school student who gets a rush of new powers, including the ability to attract girls, after a wolf attack." The series is executive produced by Jeff Davis, Marty Adelstein and Rene Echevarria. 

12/14/09 - MTV has assembled the acting pack for Teen Wolf, its reinvention of the 1985 movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Tyler Posey, Tyler Hoechlin, Crystal Reed and Dylan O'Brien have been cast. MTV's take on the film, which starred Michael J. Fox as a high-school student who discovers he is a werewolf, is a dramatic thriller with a buddy-comedy element at the center and a romantic plot line. It revolves around Scott McCall (Posey), a dorky high-school student who gets a rush of new powers, including the ability to attract girls, after a wolf attack. O'Brien will play Scott's best friend who is initially dismissive of Scott's theory that he was bitten by a wolf but then begins research on human-werewolf transformation. Reed will play a sweet new girl at school who is immediately smitten with Scott. Hoechlin will play a handsome local boy who in fact is a vicious and predatory werewolf capable of great harm. Wolf is executive produced by Jeff Davis, Marty Adelstein and Rene Echevarria.

9/1/09 - MTV is moving forward in the development of a new series based on the 1985 high school lycanthropy comedy Teen Wolf and has ordered a pilot, according to the Hollywood Reporter.  The 1985 film starred Michael J. Fox as a teen basketball player who discovers, along with the other bodily changes associated with adolescence, that he's a werewolf. The movie was co-written by Jeph Loeb.  According to MTV exec Liz Gateley, the series will be "...a dramatic thriller with two best friends in the center who provide a great comedy element: They are two very relatable characters on the outer circles of popular cliques."

6/22/09 - Moviehole reported that a remake of the classic Michael J. Fox monster comedy Teen Wolf is in early development; Warner Brothers currently has the project out to writers, looking for the craftiest re-interpretation of Rod Daniels' 1985 hit.

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