Comments on: Guillermo Del Toro Confirms ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ Is Dead

By: JustSayMaybe

JustSayMaybe — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:54 +0000

A sad sign of the times. Poor Guillermo del Toro, putting so much work into projects that fall through for him. Hopefully he can get something going soon.

By: RNL

RNL — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Very disappointing.

I haven\’t read the screenplay, but I have read the novel, and I find it hard to imagine what he needs that kind of budget for. Where is all the money going? Could someone who\’s read the screenplay explain what\’s been added/expanded to the plot of the novel? Is it all going on a big \’flashback\’ sequence while they\’re reading the hieroglyphics?

By: Edwin Pagan

Edwin Pagan — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

It\’s unfortunate. But as Del Toro fans we\’ve been here before, and we will continue to stand by our cinematic hero.

Edwin Pagan
LATIN HORROR
http://latinhorror.com/

By: R. Fischer

R. Fischer — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Thats another blow for original filmmaking. Not only that Tom Cruise in it would have been a bad joke…its a serious setback for all the Lovecraft fans out there that the movie is now in limbus.
The only director that would have been able to bring a Lovecraft story to the big screen would have been del Toro.
I hope that he does not give up and the project will be realized
one day.
And for the other hand – when will filmstudios realize that we dont need another shitty monster movie with a story seen 1000 times before or another Avatar crap. For cancelling this project i have one for you – Universal go to hell…

By: James

James — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Surely this movie could be made for less than $150m?

Like everyone I\’m dying to see it, and with an R rating as its creators intend, but If Del Toro really wants to get it made he should find a way to make it for less rather than holding the studio to ransom over such a massive budget and potential P&A spend.

I know this is a controversial opinion but it\’s either that or do the PG-13 version, which I\’m guessing, having not read the book, is impossible, otherwise he\’d be doing it?

By: Irrelephant

Irrelephant — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Let\’s not make crass generalizations here. Del Toro is far from uniquely equipped to handle Lovecraft. Sure he\’s incredibly gifted for the craft of monstermaking, but is there anything in his previous work to indicate his tone would match Lovecraft\’s hopelessness? Frankly, I just don\’t see it. I\’m saddened by this news, it\’s a film I would love to see, but I harbor no ill will towards Universal – as Kevin correctly points out, they\’ve definitely been taking risks for a long time, even when it hasn\’t paid off. I have faith that the project will be resurrected some day.

By: Bob Brinkman

Bob Brinkman — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Sorry, I don\’t trust the financial estimates of the film industry. These folks claim that the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series have both lost money. Indeed, according to them, no movie in the past 20-30 years has made any money.

I wish I had their accountants working for me…

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

You can make the film for less than the above mentioned cost. And you can make it without a name star and you can make it relatively cheap (when you refer to 60 million as \”paltry\”, there\’s something wrong with you.)
If Bava could make classics with NO money, why can\’t Del Toro? He\’s as talented as Bava, why can\’t he be as resourceful?
The Bands made Re-Animator for a lot less than 60 million.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

\”This is a crushing blow, and a clear indication that Hollywood more than ever is afraid of original ideas\”

It\’s a crushing blow, yes. But, a book adaptation is–by definition–not an original idea.

By: kure

kure — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

its already confirmed that hes doing pacific rim,it starts filming in september.and its not generic,trust me this will be a huge,huge movie with stuff we havent seen before and with enormous budget…

By: Carnal

Carnal — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

I love this mans work, and he is more than capable of pulling off lovecraft, he showed me that in Hellboy. The man obviously knows something about Cthulu based mythos. Let the sleeper awaken.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

That just ruined my day. Very sorry to hear this, I hope he gets to make the film someday.

By: Evilcritter

Evilcritter — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

As much as I love Del Toro and want to see him make this film, once I heard Tom Cruise was attached my interest plummeted. The budget seems inordinately high as well. Was Del Toro going to build the whole of the ancient city? Someday, hopefully, this project will come back, with a more suitable cast and a more reasonable budget.

By: ThisGuy

ThisGuy — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

I don\’t blame the studio anymore than I blame Del Toro.

The film could be made if both sides just reached a compromise & made it a smaller scale R rated film.

I don\’t think Madness is dead forever. Del Toro cares too much about the project- but maybe he should start rethinking how to make this film. From the sounds of it his plan has always been to make the \”Avatar of R rated movies\”. A huge spectacle that could play to all audiences even though it features monsters straight out of the Thing that swallow people whole. If he really wants to remake he should scale it down and make it a genuine horror film.

His best movie is still \”Pan\’s Labryinth\”, a movie I assume was made for about 1/5 the price of his Hellboy movies (they\’re fun but I found neither to be great & the action scenes never truly excelled) & Madness could be made with some smart rewriting.

I mean this happens all the time. Scorsese\’s \”Last Tempation of Christ\” was originally envisioned as an epic in the vein of \”Beh-Hur\”. It became clear to Scorsese that was NEVER going to happen so he scaled it down & made a fantastic character piece.

Madness could be shrunk down from the \”biggest action adventure film of all time\”- an R rated Mummy- to a more claustrophobic horror film.

By: Joseph Nanni

Joseph Nanni — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Having spent three months prepping and the last three days shooting an HPL project, this is the worst news possible.

By: Paul Winger

Paul Winger — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

BUT AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS IS NOT DEAD. See stellajamesstudios.com/pr-views and the various press releases made the moment the del Toro project collapsed. It\’s gone to Stella James Studios and the film makers Mihai/Sparks, who released the audio book version in March as well. Long live Lovecraft!

By: Let_It_Go_Unmade

Let_It_Go_Unmade — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

This is the curse of all HP Lovecraft films. The genius of Lovecraft was his ability to create monsters so terrifying and horrible the human mind could not even CONCEIVE of them.

To then ask a team of creature designers and VFX wizzes to go and render that unimaginable horror in a clear visual format renders the whole thing silly.

Who wants to see a gigantic CGI version of the OLD ONES swallowing up Tom Cruise? And based on Guillermo\’s penchant for cheesy creatures (see Hellboy 1&2), I can\’t imagine how it would work.

Time to move on…

By: JohnDoe

JohnDoe — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Maybe James Cameron will help him get this project off the ground somewhere else?

By: Rashad

Rashad — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Funny how Inception keeps getting referenced for originality. Avatar was an original script and is the biggest movie ever.

Del Toro was lucky cruise would deign to be in one of his movies

By: Kevin Jagernauth

Kevin Jagernauth — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Funny that someone calls \”Avatar\” \”original.\”

By: Mark Tedin

Mark Tedin — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Can\’t he take Wayne Barlowe with him and try another studio? Nobody owns the rights to Lovecraft any longer.

By: RNL

RNL — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

\”The genius of Lovecraft was his ability to create monsters so terrifying and horrible the human mind could not even CONCEIVE of them.\”

Just because his characters tend to go mad doesn\’t mean the monsters are \’inconceivable\’. They\’ve been depicted plenty of times.

Nor does a film adaptation have to show the creatures in all their detail. It\’s a bit of a false dichotomy that people set up between novels and films, this notion that films have to show you everything. Films can be just as suggestive and implicit as novels.

By: captain naive

captain naive — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

somebody get Megan Ellison on the phone !

By: bradco

bradco — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Perhaps if Pacific Rim is successful and with continued backing of James Cameron, we will see At the Mountains of Madness come to fruition at a later date, just leave Tom Cruise out of the equation, please.

By: Let_It_Go_Unmade

Let_It_Go_Unmade — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:58:53 +0000

Totally agree RNL — but for 150 million I wasn\’t getting the suggestive and implicit vibe… more like a CGI festival of tentacles…

Even in well executed films like DAGON, that moment at the end when the creature is revealed always seems to be a let down.