Thursday 29 July 2010

Del Toro to direct film adaptation of Lovecraft's 'At the Mountains of Madness'

According to Empire:

"It’s both a shock and yet not truly surprising, as the Lovecraft tale (which sees a 1930s scientific expedition discover something ancient and terrible at the South Pole that suggests mankind’s origins might lie with the powerful, alien elder gods) has been a passion project for the filmmaker for more than 13 years.


The movie has been at more than one studio over that time, with the current incarnation starting off at DreamWorks in 2004. But that stalled out and Universal took it over when del Toro made an overall deal there in 2007. It looked like the Madness might actually begin there, before The Hobbit came a-calling and GDT headed to New Zealand.


But with Middle Earth now off the table, it’s back into the Madness for the man who has long dreamed, along with writing collaborator Matthew Robbins, of bringing the monstrous elders to life."
I must admit I'm not that familiar with Lovecraft's work, having only read a handful of his short fiction, but I've heard good things about this particular story. With James Cameron onboard to help with the 3D aspect, this is certainly one to keep an eye on.

1 comment:

Nathaniel Katz said...

Out of every writer I've read, I'd say that Lovecraft is the one least likely to get an event remotely decent film adaptation. Piling on top of that, this story's no doubt going to be one of his harder ones to do. How, exactly, could they convey the picture-history the way Lovecraft did through the texts?

Ah well, I guess I should just recognize that there's no way an adaption of it could be totally faithful and try to enjoy whatever comes out.