Benicio Del Toro - Wolfman Inspired By Del Toro's Memorabilia Collection

Actor BENICIO DEL TORO is taking credit for bringing THE WOLFMAN back to cinemas - a poster for the original film which was hanging on his wall inspired the Hollywood remake.

The Puerto Rican star takes the lead role in the upcoming big budget blockbuster, based on the classic 1941 horror movie of the same name.

And Del Toro admits the idea for the new film came from his collection of monster movie memorabilia, after his manager spotted a Wolf Man poster on his wall and urged the star to pitch the idea to bosses at Universal Studios.

He says, "Their memorabilia is scarce. It's hard to get and really expensive. I have been a fan for years of all those movies, all those '30s movies; the horror movies like Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, Dracula and King Kong. I grew up watching those movies on TV in Puerto Rico. My manager saw the movie poster (for The Wolf Man) when he was at mine and said that he was going to Universal the next morning. We went to Universal with the idea. That is how you do stuff. You go to the studio."

And Del Toro is convinced his hairy appearance when he went to meet movie bosses persuaded them he was the right man for the lead role.

He adds, "I was in the middle of getting ready to do the Che movie. So I looked pretty much like a Wolfman! I looked either like The Wolfman or a smaller version of (Star Wars character) Chewbacca."