The Wolfman has a new director, and it’s Joe Johnston.

Mark Romanek left the project a few days ago, and since then we’ve plowed our way through a series of directing rumors, none of which involved Johnston. Now though, Variety reports that it’s the Jurassic Park III director who has the job.

If there’s a reason people seem more excited about this particular remake than the run of the mill stuff we usually report on, it’s probably because of Benicio del Toro who, let’s face it, is basically a Wolf Man in real life and is thus eerily perfect to tackle Universal’s hairiest classic monster. Hell, just look at the picture to your right… and that’s Benicio before they put the Wolfman make up on him. Too awesome for words.

Joe Johnston has been taking it easy for awhile now. In the 90s he was responsible for enjoyable films like The Rocketeer, Jumanji, and October Sky. Since 2000 he’s only made two movies: Jurassic Park III and Hidalgo, both of which he probably owes all of us our money back for. But he does have a flair for the retro, if Rocketeer is any indication. I can see him doing something pretty cool with a classic genre flick like this from Universal’s catalog. As long as Benicio is still the guy they’re fanging then all is well.