Halloween is upon us ...

Halloween season is here! Don’t believe me? Go to your nearest Wal-Mart type superstore or grocery store. To get to the milk you will have to climb at least three mountains of Halloween candy. I love this time of year. Until I can convince the governments of the world to make Halloween a monthly occurrence I will have to be satisfied with our annual trip to monsterville.


This month, I have several things planned for you loyal Werewolf Kibblers. I have plans to review many of my favorite spooky films and books, including Sweeney Todd, Trick r Treat, Dog Soldiers, A Night In The Lonesome October (yes, again), Phantasm, and at least one of Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies. I will release at least two more pieces of chapter art for Werewolf Gunslinger: All Hallows. That story has turned out to be a lot of fun, so I am working to get it completed as quickly as my gnarly little fingers and demented brain will allow.

Also, Chris Kelly has published his first full-length novel. To celebrate that, he is hosting a month long blog tour. Check out the interview here. Then, go buy Matilda Raleigh: Invictus. It’s $2.99. I bet you spent more than that at Starbucks on a mocha. Help a new author out.

Because I am anal and at least mildly deranged, I know that October 13 is the day my character Lucifera from the novel Lucifera’s Pet became a vampire. To celebrate her birth in darkness, I am publishing the entire first chapter of Werewolf Gunslinger: All Hallows for free on my blog on October 13. The chapter features the lovable Miss L doing what evil vampires do best: bad things.

So, stock up on candy. Get your costume in order. Hang the garlic at every door and window. Halloween is on its way!





M.T. Murphy is the author of Lucifera’s Pet, a violent and sexy dark fiction tale of werewolves and vampires. Connect with him below:

Website: http://www.luciferaspet.com/

Blog: http://werewolfkibble.blogspot.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/WerewolfMike

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/luciferaspet

Smashwords (Free eBooks): http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/mtmurphy

Lucifera's Pet: The Motion Picture!!!

Ok. The title is a little misleading. Has my novel been opted for a major motion picture? No. Not yet. That doesn’t mean I can’t go ahead and get everything planned out for when Hollywood eventually comes knocking on my door.

This morning, I asked a couple of fellow writers the following question for an upcoming interview:

Assume you have just won the equivalent of the literary lottery and a major film studio wants to turn your work into a big-budget motion picture. Which of your stories would you like to see as a film, and who would you want to be involved (actors, director, etc.)? Also, CGI or no CGI?
 
I decided I wanted to be the first to answer my own question.

Without further ado, here are the cast and main players in the film adaptation of Lucifera’s Pet:

Director:

Guillermo Del Toro

He has proven that he can do amazing things within a budget. He also can stay faithful to source material and bring even the most absurd characters to life in such a way that you forget about the prosthetics and just see the character. He can also pepper horror with a healthy dose of comedy. GDT is my guy.

Cast:
 

The Werewolf

 
Robert Downey Jr.

The lead player has to be able to chew up entire chunks of every scene in which he appears. He also has to be simultaneously psychotic and sympathetic. Who better than “the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude?”


Emil Vladu – Master Vampire

Cary Elwes

Let’s turn back the clock and have Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride, circa 1987 play the villain. He already has the air of condescension down to a science.


Robert Marrick – Emil’s henchman

Steve Buscemi

Marrick is creepy and he talks with an exaggerated lisp that makes him sound like a snake. I can think of no one better to play him than my favorite creepy actor.

Nash – Lucifera’s consigliore

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

Nash is big, brooding, and never speaks a word. He probably has a little too much charisma for the part, but The Rock will have no trouble filling the role physically.

Christopher Johnson – Newly turned vampire


Justin Long

The awkward, brainy kid from Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, will be perfect as the awkward, brainy vampire.

William O’Connell – werewolf

Daniel Day Lewis

O’Connell is big and boisterous with a mustache as big as all outdoors. He also has two knives: one in his hand and one in your back. Daniel Day Lewis is a lock for the role.


Now for the tough part: casting the title character.


Lucifera Romana – Master Vampire of Los Angeles

Shelly Martinez

Whenever I write Lucifera, Shelly in her former role as “Ariel” is how I picture the character. Would she win an Academy Award? Don't know. Don't care. If I were interested in Academy Awards, I’d rewrite the story about an innocent man on death row that Hollywood usually loves to shower with golden statues.

Supporting cast: Sean Connery as Tarquin. Catherine Zeta Jones as Lucrecia. Sir Anthony Hopkins as Cornelius. David Tennant as James. Valerie Bertinelli as Mary. Christian Slater as “The Mugger.”

Special Effects:

The team from Hellboy and Hellboy 2.

In both films, they bring monsters to life that I never believed would work on the big screen. These guys blend makeup, animatronics, and computer graphics in such a way that you forget you are watching something impossible. I would love to see what they could do with a pack of seven-foot-tall werewolves.

There you have it. That’s my film.

Now for the fun part. Tell me about your movie. You can post your thoughts here or we can make it really fun: Add pictures and put it in your blog, then post the link here. Either way, I want to hear about what your vision will look like on the big screen.

M.T. Murphy is the author of Lucifera’s Pet, a violent and sexy dark fiction tale of werewolves and vampires. Connect with him below:

Website: http://www.luciferaspet.com

Blog: http://werewolfkibble.blogspot.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/WerewolfMike

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/luciferaspet

Smashwords (Free eBooks): http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/mtmurphy

Favorite werewolf movies

Let’s face it, when it comes to movies, werewolves have always taken a back seat to their monstrous cousins. There are countless vampire films and a ton of zombie flicks. Wikipedia lists sixty-one films that use the Dracula character, alone.

When I find a good film about my favorite brand of things that go bump in the night, I want to be sure that people know about it. So, in no particular order, here are my favorite werewolf movies that you should run out and buy/rent/put in your Netflix que/borrow/steal and watch immediately.

Teen Wolf (1985) –Becoming a werewolf causes Michael J. Fox to go from loser to captain of the basketball team, most popular guy in school, boyfriend of the head cheerleader, badass who can make the principal piss his shorts, and all-around coolest guy ever.

Painfully obvious spoiler alert:

In the end, he blows off the head cheerleader to be with the girl who truly cares about the real him and not the Teen Wolf. The team wins the big game by one point and he learns the valuable lesson that he should just be himself.

Whatever.

The true moral of this film still rings true: Werewolves rule.

Bad Moon (1996) –When Muriel Hemingway receives a call from her brother asking to stay at her place for a few days, she is thrilled to see him. When it turns out that said brother is now a blood-thirsty werewolf who has the nasty habit of eating people he runs across during the nights of the full moon, she and her tough-as-nails-with-a-heart-of-gold German Shepherd are less thrilled.

WTF Moment #1: Michael Pare’ pissing on his sister’s house to mark his territory.

WTF Moment #2: Werewolf squaring off against a German Shepherd and not immediately biting its head off.

The werewolf model in this film is still one of the best I have seen to date.

The Howling (1981) –At the suggestion of her psychologist, a television news anchor spends some time at a psychiatric resort near a small community in the woods to recover from a horrible attack from a madman. She soon finds out that the community has some very dark secrets concerning certain residents who grow fangs and excessive body hair.

This film pieces together more than enough horror elements and story twists to keep me coming back time and again. There is no small amount of scenery-chewing in the performances of the cast, but that just makes the The Howling that much more fun.

WTF Sequel #1: The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf. How they managed to talk Christopher Lee into doing this film is beyond me. It is even worse than you think. Trust me.

WTF Sequel #2: The Howling III: The Marsupials. According to this film, werewolves in Australia have pouches like kangaroos. Even though I had nothing to do with this movie, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the country of Australia for this abomination of celluloid. I am truly sorry.

Dog Soldiers (2002) –A group of six British soldiers on a training exercise deep in the Scottish highlands find out that they were actually sent to be the bait for a pack of werewolves being hunted by British Special Forces.

This is a fun film with plenty of scares and fantastic performances made for a fraction of the budget of a big Hollywood picture. There is not a drop of CGI to be found, which I love.

Hey, I know that guy Moment #1: Kevin McKidd stars (Lucius Vorenus from HBO’s Rome)

Hey, I know that guy Moment #2 (Geek edition): Sean Pertwee, who plays the Sergeant, is the son of Jon Pertwee, who portrayed the third Doctor in the original BBC Doctor Who series.

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That’s it for now. I am sure more will come to me as soon as I post this.

So, what are your favorite werewolf movies?