Universal Pictures is planning a new version of its horror classic "The Wolf Man," with Benicio Del Toro playing the title role reports Variety.

Like the 1941 original that starred Lon Chaney Jr., new pic will be set in Victorian England. Del Toro will play a man who returns from America to his ancestral homeland, gets bitten by a werewolf and begins a hairy moonlight existence.

"Seven" scribe Andrew Kevin Walker has begun writing the script and spent several months working on some frightening new twists to a familiar tale, adding several characters and plot points that take advantage of cutting-edge visual effects technology.

Its expected the studio will shoot "The Wolf Man" in early 2007 after Del Toro completes Che Guevara biopic "Guerrilla", and be a Summer 2008 tentpole for the studio.