Del Toro, Hopkins star in ‘The Wolfman’

Movie: "The Wolfman"

When: Opening Friday at local theaters

Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving

Director: Joe Johnston

The story: In Victorian-era Britain, an American returns to his ancestral estate to reunite with his estranged father, search for his mysteriously missing brother -- and experience an eerie transformation after he's attacked by a rampaging werewolf.

The buzz: After remakes of such classic monster chillers as "Dracula," "Frankenstein" and "The Mummy," this 21st-century werewolf revival has been a long time coming; originally slated for release in 2007, it was initially pushed back to February 2009, then to November 2009, before this weekend's at-long-last arrival. Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins is a monster-movie veteran, having played vampire-hunter Van Helsing in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 "Dracula" revamp. Oscar-winner Del Toro has previous experience playing a hairy character: Duke, the Dog-Faced Boy, in 1988's Pee-wee Herman sequel "Big Top Pee-wee," which marked Del Toro's feature debut. And Oscar-winning makeup maven Rick Baker is an expert at creating hairy creatures, from apes ("Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan," the "Planet of the Apes" remake) to Bigfoot ("Harry and the Hendersons") to, inevitably, werewolves ("The Howling," "An American Werewolf in London"). But it's the first time Baker has worked with director Johnston since their 1991 blast "The Rocketeer."