Well word has reached me, from an incredibly reliable source - that you've settled on Brett Ratner as the director. With the work that Romanek, Baker and Benicio have done - I have no doubt that Brett will capture enough magic to assemble a trailer campaign that will sell the film. But you really need much more than a trailer. [...]

Brett Ratner makes watchable films. Movies that go through your system as if consumed off a soapy plate. They're empty - hollow works. He's a terrible ACTOR's director. His basement is a disco, and the Wolfman has no disco in his soul. This is a PERIOD film - to make a convincing period film you need a director for an eye for details... Someone that knows this world and period. X3 was a financial success - but that was based on an incredibly successful franchise by Singer. Ratner killed it. Made the WORST FILM OF THE SERIES - and Fox sold it brilliantly. Dare to make the great film. STOP. Find a different director... please.

With the production reportedly scheduled to begin in March, Universal's options must have been tragically limited, necessitating the choice of a director who's previously proven that even with precious little lead time, he can show up on set minutes before cameras are ready to roll and collect enough footage to produce one of his signature, incomprehensible masterworks that will go on to simultaneously break box office records and bring to an end any hopes of sustaining a franchise. And AICN shouldn't fret too much about this misconception that Ratner's not an "actor's director"; we're sure that after a last-minute pre-production party at Hillhaven Lodge's legendary disco, both Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins will be more than willing to buy into their new helmer's program, impressed at the filmmaker's openness to the surprisingly insightful notes offered by the "script coordinators" providing their story-meeting lap-dances.

• UNIVERSAL - IF YOU LET RATNER DIRECT THE WOLF MAN YOU'LL DESERVE THE TURD YOU'LL END UP RELEASING ON SCREEN!!! [AICN]
• Previously: Mark Romanek Quits 'The Wolf Man' Over Creative Werewolf Differences [Defamer]

Romanek exited the film late Monday night over creative differences.

The film has long had Benicio Del Toro aboard to play the werewolf, and the studio just set Emily Blunt ("Charlie Wilson's War") and Anthony Hopkins to play the other leads in the film.

The studio maintains that Romanek left the project in strong shape and that it expects to set another director quickly.

While some may consider Romanek's unbending allegiance to his art a tad overzealous, we think it will be the studio, not the director, who winds up most regretful, particularly once they view the lazily conceived final product from his replacement: Cutting budgetary corners may be attractive to the bottom line, but one can never place too high a value on such small-detail luxuries as real werewolf hair and hiring a lycanthropic accent coach to ensure maximum howling authenticity.

[Photo: markromanek.com]

• Romanek drops out of 'Wolf Man' [Variety]