As 'The Wolfman' Turns: Elfman's Score is Back

If The Wolfman were a girl I was kind of seeing, I'd come up with any excuse to not return her calls. To put it mildly, the bitch crazy. I'm sure there has been a big studio movie that's had this many problems in the past few years, but I don't remember one with such a high profile. If it's even possible, there's more stuff happening behind the scenes on this one. First, for your information if you're new and for your enjoyment if you're not, here's a quick recap of the nonsense. Director Mark Romanek is bounced (or bounces), and he's replaced with Joe Johnston. The release date is pushed back from April 2009 - following a Comic Con outing in 2008 - and just when you think the November release date would stick, the effects suck and the studio pushes the movie back again. Then Danny Elfman removes his score from consideration because he has to work on Alice in Wonderland, which the studio follows up by firing the editors and then firing their replacements. Got it? OK. Now Elfman's score is back in the film, according to Movie Score Magazine, and you would expect them to kind of know a thing or two about that sort of thing. The movie's out in three weeks. Time to stop screwing around, don't you think? Here's a recap of this particular fault line from Movie Score:

"The replacement of Elfman’s, reportedly, old-fashioned orchestral score with music by ex Tangerine Dream-member [Paul] Haslinger, who is best known for his electronic scores, was heavily debated in the film music community. The fact that Elfman’s score is back in the film, and the back-and-forth process of the film’s musical approach, implies that the filmmakers have had a difficult time to decide in what direction to take the film."

Ya think? Universal wants to bring all the old monster movies back, but this is not the way to start. Man, I had high hopes for this once upon a time, but they have slowly and consistently eroded.