The century-plus history of the cinema has seen more than its fair share of grand projects nurtured by filmmakers for years before being abandoned under any number of conditions. In modern times there have been few directors as determined to make a dream project into a reality as Guillermo Del Toro and his long-gestating adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft‘s 1936 novella At the Mountains of Madness.

After keeping it on the back-burner for several years, the man who brought the world the Hellboy movies, Pan’s Labyrinth, and last year’s international blockbuster Pacific Rim announced his intentions to bring Lovecraft’s vision of bone-chilling horror to the big screen in 2010. The project found a home at Universal Pictures with none other than James Cameron serving as a producer and Tom Cruise circling the lead role. Del Toro intended to shoot Mountains of Madness in 3D on a budget of around $120 million. Giving this film the coveted green light seemed practically a certainty, but unfortunately the studio pulled the plug early the following year over concerns if the film would reach a wide enough audience to justify the sizable expenses that would be required to suitably adapt it for the screen, especially since Del Toro was aiming for an R rating with the final product.

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.

Sigh.

Since 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Guillermo del Toro has been attached to direct some truly exciting movies. Unfortunately for we the fans, the Hollywood machine is a fickle beast and now two of said exciting projects have perished, and we’re hearing about the third movie that del Toro will be directing “next.”

It started with The Hobbit, which del Toro was attached to helm for a long while before constant delays forced him to walk away from the two-part movie. Next up was the thrilling announcement that he would instead be taking on At the Mountains of Madness, an adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story that Guillermo had been dreaming about making. With James Cameron by his side it appeared that this one would be a surefire success, but alas, after whispers of trouble on the horizon, we now know that Universal Pictures has decided not to back the passion project.

So why exactly did this ambitious project fail and what will del Toro do next? Keep on reading to find out!

Some things are just a little too good to be true, perhaps.

Back in July, it was reported that director Guillermo del Toro was finally making the movie he had been dreaming of making: an adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story, At the Mountains of Madness with none other than James Cameron helping out.

The director had big plans for the movie, sharing that it would be a big budget horror movie with the movie medal of honor, an R rating. The only problem with that is movie studios don’t like taking risks on horror and R-rated films, let alone ones that come with a massive price tag, so it was unclear whether or not the greenlight would be given…even with fan-favorite del Toro and a helping hand from Cameron.

Check out Episode 10 of the Flix of Doom podcast, the official movie podcast of Geeks of Doom, September 6, 2010, with hosts Empress Eve and Justin Vactor. For this Robert Rodriguez-themed episode, we take a look at the filmmaker’s past movies, as well as his new one released this weekend, Machete. We also touch upon movie news and box office results.

Full Episode Guide is here below, along with player.

Listen now!

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