Guillermo del Toro, At the Mountains of Madness

[DMcCool]

I understand your sentiment, but there aren't many Lovecraft works that would even justify a large scale production.  AtMoM is one of those rare ones that could call for lots of special effects and the like.  That being said, I've seen well-produced, story-faithful productions, and that's all good and well.  I think I'm ready to see if Hollywood can hand me a big budget story worth telling.

[Cloven Sunfish]

http://www.fearnet.com/news/interviews/b20970_exclusive_guillermo_del_toro_talks.html

Here's some fresh news on the project...not so good news, either  . Del Toro is downplaying AtMoM as his next film because it hasn't actually been greenlit yet. I guess we'll see in the coming months what his next project is. I really hope he's able to give it the proper treatment. It's a story that would make a great, creepy period piece if left to capable hands.

[davidsverse]

del Toro will make the movie.  It will just be a few years.  When I heard he was Directing the Hobbit, the first thing I thought of was that the money the Hobbit makes will give del Toro the power to make Mountains happen.

The other issue is that there is a prequel to the Thing being made right now.  It will take place in the Norwegian base that was dead at the beginning of the Thing.

[MAS]

The other issue is that there is a prequel to the Thing being made right now.  It will take place in the Norwegian base that was dead at the beginning of the Thing.

Yeah, you have to think the marketting execs will stress about flooding the market with similar material especially if ATMOM has "tent-pole" funding.  They'll want to sweep the market and make as many $$$ as possible after a big outlay.

[Genus Unknown]

Bad news, everyone.

[Kaelestes]

How does one quickly raise $150 million? Is there a piece of paper somewhere that I could sign? Because if I had the money I'd give it to del Toro without a second's hesitation, just like I'd pay to have all of China Mieville's books recorded in audio, and pay to reignite the development of Sadness and the sequel to Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. The Mountains of Madness film is something that just needs to happen, like jelly needed to happen when toast was invented, and I hate that it might not simply because someone who already has more than enough money won't make tons more on the project.

I think greed should be punishable by death, or at the very least a really severe beating.

[Cloven Sunfish]

This is bumming me out so hard  . This New Yorker article really shows how much passion Del Toro has for this project, and I really respect him for not backing down on the R rating. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/03/guillermo-del-toro-madness-has-gone-dark.html Hopefully he tries shopping it to another studio, at least.

[Genus Unknown]

Here's the thing though: what R-rated content is there in the material? It's Lovecraft, so there's no sex. There's gore, but you can have gore and a PG-13 rating. Is this just a bunch of other stuff that GDT was trying to shoehorn in there, or...?

[Bob Lovecraft]

Of course it is. The rating system is geared towards letting pictures be made that the studios are looking to be made. That's all there is to it.

As for gore, well, if he is staying true to the narrative, then when the outpost base is investigated, well, it will look a lot like John Carpenter's The Thing. And then, yeah, I can see an R-rating. But still in all, Del Toro has been shown to be bankable, so I don't really see the problem with making his film. Maybe they are looking to have the director's cut be the gore-fest and Del Toro wants to put everything i up front. Who can really say.

Bob

[Cloven Sunfish]

Here's the thing though: what R-rated content is there in the material? It's Lovecraft, so there's no sex. There's gore, but you can have gore and a PG-13 rating. Is this just a bunch of other stuff that GDT was trying to shoehorn in there, or...?

I think an R would give him more freedom not to re-tool the film, whereas a PG-13 rating might mean the film would need to be made more "relevant" to the 13-18 demographic.

[Kaelestes]

I think, primarily, he needs to drop the whole 3D thing. That's just superficial silliness which inflates costs, and no great film has ever required it. (Same goes for Mr. Cruise)

Drop those and you've saved yourself $30-50 million right there.

[Bob Lovecraft]

Yeah, but nothing with "eye candy" in it is coming out NOT as a 3-D formatted film now, so he will more or less have to do a 3-D version of it if he wants to bill the special effects and cinematography.

Bob

[fubarinpittsburgh]

How does one quickly raise $150 million?

Bake sale?

[catamount]

As much as I respect Guillermo del Toro as an artistic filmmaker, it was doomed from the start. I just don't see how he could create a true Lovecraftian (one which would satisfy our collective fan based hearts) cinematic version of ATMOM and make it enjoyable for a broad based audience (which the studio wants in order to make $).

I have an idea...let's raise some funds and send Andrew Leman out to the Antarctic with a fleece jacket and tape recorder!   

[ahtzib]

I blogged about it a bit here (and broke protocol by not limiting the Cthulhu to Cthursday).

http://www.ectomo.com/2011/03/08/films-universal-studios-will-be-making-instead-of-at-the-mountains-of-madness/

The thing that drives me nuts is, it has a lot of the stuff desired of a blockbuster, as I note there.

Bravo guys, for making Stretch Armstrong! Makes me think of Bill Hicks' advice to marketers.