Universal and Blumhouse Productions’ Wolf Man is changing shapes, with news that Christopher Abbott (Possessor, Poor Things) would replace Ryan Gosling as the lead in the werewolf thriller. The project, which is now due to release October 25th, 2024 (nice and speedy, then), is being directed by Invisible Man filmmaker Leigh Whannell.

Whannell had initially been tapped to direct the monster flick when the project was first announced, but later stepped aside in 2021 with Derek Cianfrance (Place Beyond the Pines) replacing him. Gosling and Cianfrance later departed the project, though Gosling still looks to receive an executive producer credit. The script was written by Whannell and Corbett Tuck as well as Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo (the duo behind the recent Dumb Money).

For Whannell, Wolf Man marks the second monster movie and fourth directing collaboration with Blumhouse, after 2020’s The Invisible Man, Upgrade, and Insidious: Chapter 3.

Plot details are being kept tightly contained, but the story will reportedly focus on a man whose family is being terrorized by a lethal predator. The 1941 original film told the story of Larry, a man who returned to his Welsh ancestral home from the United States upon learning of his brother’s passing. It’s there that, when he tries to save a rural girl named Jenny from a werewolf attack, he gets bitten by the supernatural creature and starts a life-changing transformation.