Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I prefer writing “Coming Attractions” articles based on trailers. This is because trailers are concrete evidence that a movie is on its way. All too often, a movie can go into development or even production and never make it to the screen. There are so many times when a project is announced, a director becomes attached or a casting decision is made, only for those decisions to come undone as the project continues on to the box office or to obscurity. I am hoping and praying that this is not one of those times, and I’m not normally a praying man.
Tonight, it was announced that Guillermo Del Toro, now free of his directing duties to The Hobbit, is now set to direct an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. For those who are not aware, this is a really big fucking deal.
I’m not excited about this because I’m a Lovecraft fan. Far from it. I’ve read At the Mountains of Madness, just before deciding that Lovecraft really wasn’t for me. But the story is perfectly suited to GDT’s sensibilities, and that’s why I’m excited about this.
Del Toro is a master filmmaker, especially when it comes to horror and fantasy. This is a man who can bring monsters to vivid, breathing life and then make them sympathetic, scary or both at the same time. He’s known to have a huge collection of monstrous folklore, old childrens’ stories and various macabre literature, stemming from a lifetime’s passion on the subject that clearly comes through in his work.
For many years, GDT has made At the Mountains of Madness his passion project. Even as he worked on the Hellboy movies, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Hobbit, this is the movie that he consistently had on the back burner, left to stew until the time was right. And now he has the weight of James Fucking Cameron behind him, in addition to GDT’s good friend (and my former patron), Don Murphy.
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re in for something very special if this film actually gets made. I’m talking about an R-rated tale of fantasy horror, shot with the finest CGI and 3D technology that Cameron can offer, crafted by a man who’s spent a lifetime in the genre and over a decade crafting this screenplay.
If the execs at Universal could hear me right now, I’d tell them to please, please, please give Del Toro the money and the leeway to make this as awesome as it should be. I have absolutely no doubt that GDT would rather fall on his sword (I’ll bet he has one around the house somewhere) than make this into a subpar movie. Not after all this thought and preparation.
When there’s more news about this that’s fit to print, I’ll be sure to post it here. In the meantime, why not read The Strain, a novel co-authored by GDT, or pre-order its sequel, due this September?