Kate Beckinsale gets her turn at a leather-clad superhero. Photo courtesy of Framestore CFC.

These drawings were what got the star Kate Beckinsale interested in the film. “Kate didn’t want to take a look at this script based simply on the fact that it was a werewolf movie and she told us she wasn’t interested,” Wiseman said. “But her agent sent her the script anyway with all my drawings.”

“Len had done these really fantastic drawings of Selene (Beckinsale’s character in the movie) and the werewolves,” Beckinsale remembers. “They were so cool and interesting and not old-fashioned gothic. There were really fresh and I thought, ‘Wow! That’s interesting,’ and I read the script. It’s not like a comic book where she does somersaults and isn’t a real character. She’s flesh and blood.”

Framestore brings to life these enrages werewolves. Photo courtesy of Framestore CFC.

A Mixture of the Old and the New
One very effective way of bringing a vision such as this to the screen was to look back at the visual effects of the past and bring them up to date, and to stay in-camera as much as possible. They felt the need for something tangible, something you could reach out and touch. The filmmakers first visited Budapest to absorb the dark, brooding, gothic vibe. They also wanted to distinguish their vampires and werewolves from the current glut of CG creature features. Where digital imaging of furry creatures can be difficult and expensive, a lower cost and more reliable method was available: using actors in sophisticated animatronic suits. For that task, they chose Patrick Tatopoulos.

Best known for his creation of the animatronic Godzilla for the American version of the film — a mechanical creature more than 30-feet tall, the largest mechanical creature ever built. Tatopolous and his design team had previously collaborated with Wiseman when the director worked in the art department of that film as well as Stargate and Independence Day.