# Guillermo Del Toro to film "Mountains of Madness"



## ShadyDavey (Jul 29, 2010)

(ok ok the pic is from Call of Cthulhu, sue me!  ) 

Excited? I am indeed positively tumescent with excitement! 








http://chud.com/articles/articles/24627 ... Page1.html

Fans have been waiting for this announcement for years and years, Guillermo Del Toro has been working towards it for a decade or more, and all of us knew that sooner or later it would happen, if only through the collective mental will of millions of genre fans and one lovely Mexican. And so it is has come to pass Mountains of Madness will be Del Toro's next directing project, says Deadline (the first able to say what many already knew). Not only that, but Guillermo's made it happen by recruiting the current biggest man in the business, James Cameron, to produce and shepherd the 3D project.

Mountains of Madness is considered the cornerstone of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythology and has been a target for Guillermo for a very long time. It's had a place in Guillermo's deals, in the past with DreamWorks and currently with Universal, and has sat in various stages of development and scripting since at least 2004. Matthew Robbins has been Del Toro's writing partner on the project, and they are now joined by producers Susan Montford and Don Murphy. While it was always the plan for Mountains of Madness to emerge in a big way from the Universal deal (which runs through 2017), between The Hobbit and some of Del Toro's more immediate and obviously commercial projects, it never seemed likely we'd see it so soon.

I can't think of a more miraculous marriage of resources and passion as Guillermo Del Toro and James Cameron. No matter what you think of Cameron as a filmmaker, it is utterly undeniable that he has the skills, clout, and drive to help bring the kind of scale to this project that it deserves. His name on the film (something he apparently plans to be stingy about, aside from Fantastic Voyage and Madness) should be a sign of how big Universal, Del Toro, and everyone involved envisions this being. Del Toro prophesied the scale (and commercial challenge) of this project years ago-

"ATMOM is a delicate project to push through a studio: no love interest, no female characters, no happy ending...

But i believe its time to resurrect the BIG TENTPOLE horror movie. The EVENT HORROR movie. Like THE EXORCIST was or THE SHINING or ALIEN or JAWS in their time..."

-and it's an incredible feeling to know it's going to happen soon. Deadline has preproduction pegged at starting within a few weeks, and cameras rolling next summer.

I have a strong suspicion Del Toro has some exciting tricks up his sleeve for this film, and can't wait for the official announcement from his mouth directly.

To wrap things up, CHUD's own Del Toro cohort, Nick Nunziata, had a few words on the announcement

"This is the big one. The mother lode, both for Guillermo and his die hard fans and fans of H.P. Lovecraft in general. This is a massive, dark, weird, and dense project and it shows incredible faith in the filmmakers for a studio to finally allow it to be. Considering that Guillermo dabbled in Lovecraftian beasties in the Hellboy flicks and they were colossal and delightful just imagine what he's going to do with the real things. I'm so glad I can finally discuss this publicly with folks. It's great to see filmmakers using their clout and passion in such a way that allows stuff to make it through the system in an era where it's easy to lose hope."

DEL TORO TO FINALLY CLIMB THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS


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## sakeido (Jul 29, 2010)

damn it! I just want Hellboy III! That's all!


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## ShadyDavey (Jul 29, 2010)

sakeido said:


> damn it! I just want Hellboy III! That's all!



Hopefully that's also in the pipeline.....although I confess this fills me with more excitement


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## pink freud (Jul 29, 2010)

sakeido said:


> damn it! I just want Hellboy III! That's all!



Hellboy would soil his drawers in the presence of Cthulhu.


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## ILuvPillows (Jul 29, 2010)

Anyone care to explain/link me to an explanation of what this actually is. I have no clue but the picture of a "kracken" and Del Toro makes me want to find out.


EDIT; Sorry, i guess it's not a kracken...it's more than a kracken


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## pink freud (Jul 29, 2010)

The real being for MoM would be this dude, I think:


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## highlordmugfug (Jul 29, 2010)

Reading the above comments: You guys REEEEAAAAAALLLLLLYYYY need to be better introduced to Lovecraft.

THIS IS AWESOME!
I hadn't heard anything about this yet. And I STRONGLY suggest that everyone who hasn't yet read At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft.
At the Mountains of Madness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 
Wiki
At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft Complete text for those who hate actual books.


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## Rich (Jul 30, 2010)

Holy holy hooooly shit! I hope this turns as could as good it has the potential to be. Not too much Hollywood nonsense and pleny of unspeakable horrors please!

It's not my favourite H.P. Lovecraft though, that would be The Colour Out of Space, there's just something reeeealy creepy about that story.

I'd love to see a big budget movie of The Call of Cthulhu as well, that would be too awesome.


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## JoshuaLogan (Aug 4, 2010)

I want to see his version of Frankenstein that's in preproduction right now.

The Hellboy movies were cool. The Devil's Backbone was pretty cool too. Pan's Labyrinth was awesome.


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## Cyntex (Aug 8, 2010)

Well I read most or everyone of his stories and the thing is what H.P Lovercraft does a lot is telling you he saw or heard something very terrifiying and then refuses to tell you what he saw, basically leaving it up to your imagination. So, I wonder how this would transfer to the big screen. 

That being said, sounds awesome, I wonder about the architecture, that's gonna be epic.


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## Variant (Aug 15, 2010)

pink freud said:


> Hellboy would soil his drawers in the presence of Cthulhu.



Indeed. Fuck that cheesy comic book crap, we're talking great old ones here.


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## dpm (Aug 16, 2010)

Most fucking awesome


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## Daemoniac (Aug 16, 2010)

I. Am. SOOOO fucking excited about this 

Fuck me, this will hopefully be a truly fantastic film, and knowing his movies (especially Pan's Labyrinth), he'll actually stay true to that "no happy ending" part.

Fucking excellent.


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## ShadyDavey (Aug 16, 2010)

Happy Ending? Crikey, I liked The Thing because it had that same sense of comsic nihilism........


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## signalgrey (Aug 16, 2010)

love me some Del Toro

Pans Labyrinth and the Devils Backbone still creep me out.


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## Daemoniac (Aug 16, 2010)

I'm seriously stoked about this. I've not read nearly as much of Lovecraft's stuff as I know I should have ([shame]), so I might actually have to go down to the library and borrow as much as I can find 

In all seriousness though, I'm an absolute sucker for tragedies, no matter what scale they're on


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## Daemoniac (Aug 16, 2010)

signalgrey said:


> love me some Del Toro
> 
> Pans Labyrinth and the Devils Backbone still creep me out.



Pan's Labyrinth was a fucking incredible film. I really do love his films...


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## ShadyDavey (Sep 8, 2010)

Fuck you Guillermo.....FUCK YOU _if the current rumours are true_.

What rumour?

He wants Tom Cruise to star. 

No....PLEASE no.


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## Varcolac (Sep 8, 2010)

Tom Cruise getting eaten by Shoggoths? I see no problem there.

Been on a bit of an Immortal kick recently. I immediately thought of the chorus to this song. But del Toro doing Lovecraft is possibly even more awesome.


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## sentagoda (Sep 8, 2010)

So sad he couldnt do The Hobbit


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## bostjan (Sep 8, 2010)

Hmm, Tom Cruise as Prof. Dyer?! I would rather see Donald Sutherland, or maybe Kiefer Sutherland.

This is a toughie. They announce they are making "At the Mountains of Madness" into a movie, so there will be a lot of fans gearing up for almost certain disappointment. Every fan will want this movie to be perfect, yet I doubt the movie will meet any of those expectations. 


I always really liked "The Music of Erich Zann" and "The Colour out of Space," but I don't see how either would be at all easy to pull off in a film format.


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## Guitarman700 (Sep 8, 2010)

Please don't cast tom cruise.... please?
H.P Lovecraft is my favorite writer, if they screw this up....


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## technomancer (Sep 8, 2010)

Cameron + 3D + Cruise


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## ShadyDavey (Sep 8, 2010)

bostjan said:


> Hmm, Tom Cruise as Prof. Dyer?! I would rather see Donald Sutherland, or maybe Kiefer Sutherland.
> 
> This is a toughie. They announce they are making "At the Mountains of Madness" into a movie, so there will be a lot of fans gearing up for almost certain disappointment. Every fan will want this movie to be perfect, yet I doubt the movie will meet any of those expectations.
> 
> ...



As far as I can remember they have been both done by amateurs but being unable to locate my "Cinema of HP Lovecraft" book I can't tell you who, or when >_<

I dislike Cruise.....intensely. I just don't think he would really suit the role unless it wandered away from the territory I hoped the film would occupy.....into a more mainstream actioner.


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## Demeyes (Sep 8, 2010)

I know there's a lot of love for Lovecraft but I couldn't get into him. I've read Mountains of Madness and a few other stories and they didn't do much for me at all. It's not that I don't like reading, I'm a big fan of science fiction and fantasy books and read all the time but I didn't get Lovecraft. The film could be promising though if done well, there is a lot of scope in it for some great cinema.


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## heavy7-665 (Sep 8, 2010)

Eh, Tom Cruise isn't too much of an issue for me(even though I only liked him In "The Last Samurai").


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## synrgy (Sep 9, 2010)

I'm still pissed (not at Del Toro directly; just at the situation) that he had to walk away from the Hobbit. 

I quite admire the majority of his work, and I expect this will be no different.


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## ShadyDavey (Sep 9, 2010)

technomancer said:


> More offtopic
> 
> I've seen this, though it was a while ago, and honestly I'd say it was more inspired by The Colour out of Space than adapted from it... saw it ages ago though, need to get a copy and watch it again.



Admittedly I also haven't seen it for years so yeah, I should probably do the same 

There's a suprising amount of Lovecraftian cinema just waiting to be viewed and some of it is actually very good indeed so I guess that's my cue to do some searching around to see what's out there.


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## bostjan (Sep 9, 2010)

ShadyDavey said:


> Admittedly I also haven't seen it for years so yeah, I should probably do the same
> 
> There's a suprising amount of Lovecraftian cinema just waiting to be viewed and some of it is actually very good indeed so I guess that's my cue to do some searching around to see what's out there.



more info please. 

I saw an animated version of Erich Zanna couple years ago. It was well animated, but just didn't translate well to video.


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## Justin Bailey (Sep 10, 2010)

goddamn it, dont ruin this for us by popping tom in here


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## Lord_Elixer (Sep 10, 2010)

Films adapted or inspired by books always seem to disappoint me. I am certainly looking forward to this though!!


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## ShadyDavey (Sep 19, 2010)

Update:







> For years, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has been trying to make his dream project, an adaptation of HP Lovecraft's arctic terror tale AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. And while it's closer (thanks to Universal and producer James Cameron), it's still a dream.
> As del Toro tells Deadline:
> 
> "We are not green lit, we are still budgeting and designing, and we are partners on this. I believe in my heart we are going to be making this movie in June of next year. We are budgeting the creatures and met with Spectral Motion and ILM, where Dennis Muren told me the sweetest words ever when he said, no one has ever seen monsters like this. That was truly one of the highlights of my fat life, a demigod like Muren saying that."
> ...



The other interview? Here ya go (contains discussion of other projects, still a good read).



*

**
EXCLUSIVEE** FROM **TORONTO:* As co-writer of _The Hobbit_ and director of a 3D adaptation of _At the Mountains of Madness,_ Guillermo del Toro plays often in Hollywood's big budget sandbox. But his heart still beats for foreign film indies. He has two at Toronto: the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-directed _Biutiful, _and_ Julias Eyes. _The latter is an old style fright film by newcomer Guillem Morales that's looking for distribution and stars Belen Rueda as a woman losing her sight to a degenerative disease. As the world disappears, shes sure there is someone in the shadows, stalking her every step. Who better than del Toro to dissect the state of foreign and specialty cinema, and the need for studios to take risks again? And watch how deft del Toro is when I ask him to confirm what my sources tell me: that he could have resurrected _Superman_ but instead chose HP Lovecraft's South Pole terror tale he'll make with James Cameron.​ _*Deadline New York*: What draws you to godfather these films, or_ Splice_,_ The Orphanage _or the others you produce?_
*Del Toro*: I'm the freaky version of that superhero who says, wherever there is injustice, I shall be there. Whenever there is a difficult project, Id like to be there. Movies that look safe are less interesting. First or second time filmmakers, Alejandro making his first solo movie [without Guillermo Arriaga], or Alfonso Cuarons brother Carlos first movie. Producing is gambling on a race and hoping you bet on the right horse because that horse is doing something different. When I read _Splice_, I came to the scene that called for Adrien Brody to have sex with the creature. It was wrong on so many levels that I said, if _I _am freaking out, then weve got to make this movie. _The Orphanage_ was a crazy bet for a first time filmmaker because it was so complicated but fortunately Juan Antonio Bayona was the right guy. In _Julia's Eyes_, weve got a sub-genre horror that harkens back to Mario Bava and Dario Argento. The symmetry of the movie is the antagonistic characters: a woman losing her sight, and a man that wants to be invisible.


_*
DNY*: The picture painted here at Toronto by buyers and sellers for specialty films is a little bleak._
*Del Toro: *That becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When the economic crisis hit, we were in the middle of the largest box office year in the history of cinema. Everybody got conservative, and the contraction led to a dismal things. It won't get better unless you get bold. This timidity has done a lot of damage in the most fragile places. Imagine, there is almost no possibility for a foreign language film to be distributed in America right now. That doesnt just make the industry poorer, it makes the landscape of cinema poorer, in America. The impossibility to get a good release on a really good European, Latin American, Asian movie is a tragedy.
_

__*
DNY:* And here you are, backing two Spanish language films as producer of Julia's Eyes and associate producer of Biutiful. How did it feel, watching Biutiful win Best Actor honors for Javier Bardem at Cannes, and then sit all summer waiting for distribution because few can run foreign language films through their ancillary output deals?_
*Del Toro:* As producer, you feel it creating a panorama that is shrinking the way you make movies that will recuperate only in their natural markets. As a director, its the one fight I dont want to give up. You should look not just at the market. _Julias Eyes_ and _Biutiful_ are powerful films that have every right to exist.
_*DNY:* Whats in the future for these specialty films?_
*Del Toro:* When distribution has a twist like has happened in this business, it means that somebody is about to make a lot of money, and a big impact if they are bold. The contraction of bidders, distributors and exhibitors that deal in foreign films means someone can take a market that certainly exists, even if you have to be more creative finding it.
_*DNY:* Was the studio infiltration into specialty films was the worst thing that could have happened?_
*Del Toro:* It was. It is a history of the briefest success, and the sharpest downfall. The moment the mini-majors got absorbed by the studios, they got more money, but inherited a lot of the timidity and fear-based decision-making. Now that most are gone, this is a ripe time right now for retaking the fort. However beneficial the money was in the short term, acquiring the fear syndrome in the long term has been really bad. But I can almost bet to you that within the next two years, somebody is going to become a big player in the much smaller pond that is specialty films. I dont know who that is, if its going to be somebody reemerging like a phoenix from the ashes, or a new player. But somebody is going to do it.
_*DNY:* Many Toronto films cover dark subjects. Hollywood is making safe bets. Should indie filmmakers limit themselves to films they know an audience wants to see?_
*Del Toro*: I dont think so. If film making is magic, theres a difference between close up magic and David Copperfield. If youre doing close up magic, which independent filmmakers do, it is a very delicate craft, interpersonal relationship, and being able to enrapture a very small audience. If youre doing a big spectacle film, youve got to be mindful of large masses. Even then, youve got to be responsible only to your storytelling.
_

__*
DNY:* What does it say that the biggest appeal of foreign language films to American film companies is for remake rights?_
*Del Toro:* All you can do is hold the fort until that audience comes back. The trend has gone toward escapism, but it will come back. Its strange for me, because I do spend half my time doing big budget movies, and half doing small, impossible little movies, but the lessons are the same. You make a good movie, it will find an audience, in this life or the next. _The Thing_ and _Blade Runner_, films I love, didnt find an audience when they got released. Now they are absolute classics.
_*DNY: *The studio infiltration into independent films inflated a small game to artificial proportions. Maybe the current struggle is the way it's supposed to be?_
*Del Toro: *Any genre is hurt by the people transients here for a fad. Same thing if youre directing horror movies to make money and couldnt care less about the genre, which is a tragedy. Same with what Id glibly call Sundance lite movies, or fake indies. A rash of them devalued the currency. Even now in the mainstream, I see people doing transgressive movies that I find incredibly right-wing or reactionary. They are disguised with the right veneer of boldness and hipness but the content is not what the real independent spirit of movie making is about. Its a veneer.
_*DNY:* What do look for before signing on to godfather one of these films?_
*Del Toro:* Certainty from the director. There are several big bets that both Bayona and Guillem have in their respective movies that I thought were not possible, but I supported them and they won. In _Julias Eyes_, Guillem put in the screenplay that for the next 20 minutes, while Julia has bandages on her eyes, the audience wont see the faces of the characters. We will hide them. I told him, thats nice to say, but you cant. He said, youll see. I didnt believe it, but then you see the movie, and its fantastically daring. Its easy in retrospect to say, _of course_ Guillermo would produce _The Orphanage_. But when you havent made the movie or seen any work by that filmmaker, its a true bet and you are putting your name on the line and saying to the director, either we both swim to land, or we sink together.
_*DNY:* What else do you bring to the table as producer?_
*Del Toro:* I am the nice adversary, the guy thats going to ask the tough questions and is not going to be happy with the quick answer. But once I see the certainty, the whites of their eyes, and know they are coming to take the fort, Ill say, do it. What I bring to the table is mostly in pre-production and post production. I think that during the shoot, you should never be there, unless something goes really wrong and as producer, youre responsible. The sign you did your job right is if you are not there. This is the way I was shown by Pedro Almodovar when he produced _Devils Backbone_ for me. He gave his opinion about the screenplay, he went to the editing room and gave his notes. But he visited the shoot just once.
*

DNY:*_ It has been awhile since you directed an indie and were at the mercy of your backers. Why was _Mimic_, which you made for Bob and Harvey Weinstein, such an unpleasant experience?_
*Del Toro:* I believe we were making two different movies. When I was going to produce _The Orphanage_ with Bayona, I had a lot of notes, and out of 20, Antonio took 2. My notes took the movie in such a different direction, which is what I thought it should be, that I told Juan Antonio, Ill come on board, but I want to remake the movie after, as producer. I believe there is a second chance at the same tale, from a very different perspective. On _Mimic_, they had a different movie in mind than I did as the director, and they wanted me to execute their movie. As opposed to them seeing what movie I had in me.
_*DNY: *Are you still bruised by the experience?_
*Del Toro:* I was, until 2 years ago, when I finally did the directors cut. Its not exactly the movie I wanted to do, but it definitely healed a lot of wounds. As soon as Miramax goes one way or the other as a company, those DVDs will come out. I am happy with the cut. I wouldnt work again with a studio or a producer that is not interested in seeing my movie, first. Im not saying Im always going to be right, but look at the movie the way I wanted it. And if I really failed to deliver, then we can have a chat.
_*DNY:* How hands-on do you get as producer, given your _Mimic_ experience?_
*Del Toro:* Now and then, when there is a real emergency, you have to protect the movie from producer partners, the elements, and sometimes the director making a blatantly wrong decision. When we started _Julias Eyes_, I was fighting with Guillem to take 5 more days. Guillem wanted to be fiscally responsible, but at the end of the movie, we were over5 days. I was very happy to say that as a producer, I was fighting for and not against those 5 days. When I see a short schedule, my question to the director is, are you really comfortable with this, or are you doing it to be a good boy? At the end, you only win the medal if the film is good, you dont win a medal if the movie is on time.
*


DNY:*_ As director, you could have gone to work for Warner Bros, doing a_ Wizard of Oz_ movie, and, Ive heard, the studio wanted you to resurrect_ Superman_..._
*Del Toro: *There were other projects [he laughs].
_*DNY:* Thats diplomatic. Why did you instead choose At the Mountains of Madness, a much harder picture to get greenlit?_
*Del Toro :* I came out of _The Hobbit,_ and it was the biggest heartbreak Ive experienced as a filmmaker, because I will never know what that movie would have been. I was very mindful that I didnt want to have a rebound movie, as happens sometimes when somebody comes off a long romance. There were very big, lucrative, beautiful projects on the table, and I was developing one of them with Jim Cameron. In my stubborn fashion, I slipped Jim the script, again, when we were meeting on that other project. He said, you still want to do that? To his credit, he said, well, lets pursue that instead. This is the movie I most want to do. I havent done horror in a long time. _Devils Backbone_ tries to make the ghost a victim, and not a scary character. _Blade 2_ is more action than horror. I really love the genre and last time I did a horror film was _Mimic,_ and that was not a horror for the right reasons. Thats a muscle I want to flex. _Frankenstein_ has the mitigating factor that for a length of the narrative, you favor the monster. For horror to work, you have to be afraid. You have to keep the monster in a black and white light. I mostly love monsters too much to see them in that light, but Lovecraft allows me to.
_

__*
DNY:* Because the villain is an otherworldly species?_
*Del Toro:* Because the proportion is so big. When the monster has a dimension that allows you to humanize it, thats the route I usually want to go. The cosmic proportions of the Lovecraft horror are so immense, it forces you to find humanity in other aspects of the tale. You can keep the monster inhuman, remote and scary, which is a great benefit.
_*DNY:* Universal needed to be convinced to make this film, which is a bold play. Ive heard there was a meeting with you, Jim, Ron Meyer and his Universal execs that swung the deal. How did you walk away with a yes?_
*Del Toro:* Adam Fogelson and Donna Langley have always been friends of the project. The screenplay that is on the internet is an old screenplay, and the one I gave to Jim and Universal is different. When I came back from _The Hobbit_, I gave my Jimmy Stewart Mr. Smith Goes to Washington speech at Universal. I pitch with heart on sleeve, and Donna and Adam were moved, liked the new take and said, lets develop it hard. But I wanted to be shooting by June next year. I didnt want to let another year go by without shooting, it made no sense. So Jim, Jon Landau, Rae Sanchini, came with me for that big meeting. Jim and I were able to do a double tag team, talking about the world and the experience that _Mountains_ would be. We found new ways for them to see it, and they agreed to investigate it further. We are not green lit, we are still budgeting and designing, and we are partners on this. I believe in my heart we are going to be making this movie in June of next year. We are budgeting the creatures and met with Spectral Motion and ILM, where Dennis Muren told me the sweetest words ever when he said, no one has ever seen monsters like this. That was truly one of the highlights of my fat life, a demigod like Muren saying that.
_*DNY:* Is that because of the way the creatures are enhanced by Cameron's 3D?_
*Del Toro: *Not only that. Its hard to say without spoiling it. The way the creatures are rendered and done is going to bring forth an aspect of Lovecraft that has not been done on live action films. Part of my speech was, Im putting all the chips I have accumulated in 20 years as a director, betting them on a single number. This is not just a movie and then move on to the next. Its do or die time for me. Cameron does his movies like that every time and I find it surprising the way people judge success in retrospect, like, _of course_, I would have done that. _Avatar_ was the largest gamble, again, so were _Titanic _and _Terminator 2_. I love that type of filmmaker, with those gigantic stainless steel balls, Alec Baldwin-style in _Glengarry Glen Ross_, fucking clanking together. You cant explain success in retrospect. The moment you leap into the void, that moment is impossible to negate, after success. He leaped into the void. Peter Jackson leaped into the  void with _The Lord or the Rings_. George Lucas did with_ Star Wars._
_*DNY*: Universal is turning Stephen Kings_ The Dark Tower _into 3 movies, with TV series in, something Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman and Brian Grazer have to figure out. Maybe boldness isn't dead?_
*Del Toro:* Ill tell you. This is the time to be bold. There is a saying in Spanish, The raging river is a fishermans gain. Which means, when the river is raging, few people jump in, but they bring out a lot of fish. This is the time to be bold. If we are not, the self fulfilling prophecy is dying. I love that Chris Nolan did _Inception_. He did it because he can, but I assure you, this was not easy to push through. Whether bold movies succeed or fail, they dont go unnoticed. Movies that are timid definitely are not succeeding in this time. The problem we have as a craft and artistry medium, we can only hope to be defined by our hearts. This industry gets defined weekend by fucking weekend, and that is as impossible as chronicling your autobiography day by day. You assume certain people in the industry will be lemmings, but the one who has my sympathy is the lemming who steps back and says, 'oh, fuck you all, Im going to do this other thing.'
*


DNY:*_ Is there hope for studio risk taking, between all the sequels and branded films?_
*Del Toro: *There is a horizon of hope. We talk about this geek comic book generation, but it wasnt long ago that nobody made those movies. Look at people like Chris Nolan, or Alfonso Cuaron, these are guys equally at home doing _Memento, Y tu Mama Tambien_ as they are with _Harry Potter _or _Inception_. Theres a generation here that is marrying independent filmmaking sensibilities with mainstream, the pop version of what _Easy Riders_ did for the 70s. Were not going to have another 70s, but we are finding a generation of people like Neill Blomkamp, in movies like _Monsters_ and _Buried_, that are incredibly innovative pieces of entertainment that have the verve and the audacity that come from independent filmmaking. Nolan and Alfonso are the Mac Daddies of that breed, but Blomkamp, Rodrigo Cortes, they are coming up all over the world. I dont think the aversion to risk can suffocate this.


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## technomancer (Sep 20, 2010)

Ugh the more I read about this the more I dread it coming into being... the fact that he's going to RELY on a technology that is a poorly functioning gimmick really doesn't give me much hope. Mountains of Madness is such an atmospheric piece of story telling, and I have the sinking feeling it's going to be transformed into 3d action cheese with Tom Cruise shooting at shit


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## ShadyDavey (Sep 21, 2010)

technomancer said:


> Ugh the more I read about this the more I dread it coming into being... the fact that he's going to RELY on a technology that is a poorly functioning gimmick really doesn't give me much hope. Mountains of Madness is such an atmospheric piece of story telling, and I have the sinking feeling it's going to be transformed into 3d action cheese with Tom Cruise shooting at shit



Unfortunately I think you're right.

I had high hopes to start with and given Del Toro's worship of HP then I didn't think it was unreasonable to imagine he would do the story justice. Although the acceptance of computers into film making is something of a given I really hope that he doesn't cast Tom Cruise......the further away he gets from the traditional image of a monster movie towards the sorts of productions the HP Lovecraft Historical Society execute on a shoestring budget, the better.

Check out their Call of Cthulhu.........takes a massive steaming dump on a lot of contemporary multi-million dollar productions and a number of over-paid preening moronic actors....


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## synrgy (Sep 21, 2010)

For what it's worth, just think about this for a second:

Most people said the story in Avatar was shit, but that the visuals were amazing, right?

So imagine that level of visual presentation with a LEGIT story behind it. One of the best movie going experiences ever? Sure sounds like it.


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## ShadyDavey (Sep 21, 2010)

If the visuals rival Avatar, if the story isn't butchered for the large screen, if the cast isn't compromised of self-absorbed fart sniffers like Cruise..........IF that's the outcome then yes, absolutely.........but it would be so easy to screw up any one of the components of the production and make it all into a festering buboe of a movie.

It's not even greenlit yet so I'm not holding my breath but man,.....I don't want to be dissapointed.


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## 7slinger (Sep 21, 2010)

I should find some time to read this story, haven't had much time to read for about 2 years, and this is certainly getting alot of praise

...and I'm picturing tom cruise in Tropic Thunder right now


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## All_¥our_Bass (Sep 21, 2010)




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## Varcolac (Oct 1, 2010)

Relevant to this motion picture:

BBC News - Ancient giant penguin unearthed in Peru

Six foot giant penguins. CTHULHU FHTAGN.


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## ry_z (Oct 1, 2010)

Demoniac said:


> Fuck me, this will hopefully be a truly fantastic film, and knowing his movies (especially Pan's Labyrinth), he'll actually stay true to that "no happy ending" part.



 Big Del Toro fan here. Pan's Labyrinth is one of my favorite films, and I'm definitely looking forward to this.


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## bostjan (Oct 1, 2010)

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wyah'nagl fhtagn! 

Maybe del Torro will remake Scott of the Sahara?



Varcolac said:


> Relevant to this motion picture:
> 
> BBC News - Ancient giant penguin unearthed in Peru
> 
> Six foot giant penguins. CTHULHU FHTAGN.


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