Before Guillermo Del Toro started filming his directorial effort Pacific Rim, he saw his adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness stall over at Universal Picturess due to budgetary concerns over an R-rated projected. At first there was a slight chance that the film could be produced after Del Toro was finished working on Pacific Rim, but those dreams have been quickly dashed thanks in part to Ridley Scott.
Del Toro recently commented on his official website, Del Toro Films, stating that Mountains may never happen because the film bares a strong resemblance to Scott’s upcoming film Prometheus.
Here’s the exact quote:
Prometheus started filming a while ago- right at the time we were in preproduction on PACIFIC RIM. The title itself gave me pause- knowing that ALIEN was heavily influenced by Lovecraft and his novella.
This time, decades later with the budget and place Ridley Scott occupied, I assumed the greek metaphor alluded at the creation aspects of the HPL book. I believe I am right and if so, as a fan, I am delighted to see a new RS science fiction film, but this will probably mark a long pause -if not the demise- of ATMOM.
The sad part is- I have been pursuing ATMOM for over a decade now- and, well, after Hellboy II two projects I dearly loved were not brought to fruition for me.
The good part is: One project did”¦ And I am loving it and grateful for the blessings I have received.
Onwards.
Del Toro elaborated on why Mountains may never happen with this quote:
“Same premise. Scenes that would be almost identical. Both movies seem to share identical set pieces and the exact same BIG REVELATION (twist) at the end. I won’t spoil it.”
It seems as though Del Toro has seen a rough cut of Prometheus or at least enough of it to convince him that he would have to hold off on Mountains for a while. And while Mountains is stalled indefinitely, the plan of attack was great. The film would have been directed by Del Toro, produced by James Cameron, be a starring vehicle for Tom Cruise, and be rated R. So all of that would have been a great gamble for Universal. Hopefully with Prometheus well behind us, we will get to see At the Mountains of Madness eventually. Just don’t expect it to happen any time soon.
[Source: Del Toro Films]
Would rather say it’s more down to Universal doing The Thing prequel, as that is much more similar to Del Toro’s AMOM script (that was floating around the web a while back), but I’m sure Prometheus doesn’t help there either. Although a successful R rated sci-fi horror might persuade Universal to green light AMOM.
Comment by Andy Barbieri — May 8, 2012 @ 5:16 am
And now James Cameron is only filming Avatar related movies too! Would he still have produced “At the Mountains of Madness” with Guillermo del Toro? Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.
Comment by PAUL — May 8, 2012 @ 9:18 am
The way to hit this is the same way they should marketed John Carter. Hit on it’s roots. Mountians is the original space adventure. In the 1920’s the South Pole was the MOON! Drive that most of the horror and SF you have seen or has read in the past all is derived for HPL.
Comment by Randall Porter — May 8, 2012 @ 9:56 am
If you make me choose between Ridley Scott and Guillermo Del Toro, Del Toro loses every time.
Comment by Ono_Sendai — May 8, 2012 @ 3:26 pm
Errm what? “the exact same BIG REVELATION (twist) at the end. I won’t spoil it.â€Â Well if Prometheus has the same revelation at the end as ATMOM then GDT *has* spoiled it, since most people reading this will probably have read ATMOM. Annoying.
Comment by Spag_Hoops — May 30, 2012 @ 4:31 pm