“We are rewriting slightly the screenplay we’ve had for 12 years. There [are] movies that have come out that have done things that are similar to some of the stuff we were trying.”
After over a decade of “let’s do another rewrite’s”, however, it appears that the planets are beginning to align. Recent months have seen Tom Cruise attached to the project, an adaptation of one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most celebrated pieces of work. Although the actor has yet to be officially cast, it is beginning to look somewhat of an inevitability, Cameron finally addressing the rumour after it was so expertly deflected back in September.
“Tom does want to do the picture. I don’t think we have a deal with him yet, but we’re hoping to get that closed. Hopefully we’ll be shooting by June or July.”
There are a number of reasons to be excited about del Toro’s take on this genre classic, not least the power of Lovecraft’s source material. Pitting mankind against colossal creatures, hopeless futility and inevitable insanity, At the Mountains of Madness is a traumatic and visceral read, as the reader witnesses the descent into delirium first hand. Having toyed with Lovecraftian imagery with Hellboy’s Ogdru Jahad, the Cthulu mythos is undoubtedly in good hands.
Boasting the potential to be not only a horror classic but a gorgeously traumatic adaptation, del Toro appears on course to marry the haunting realism of Pan’s Labyrinth with the inventive creature design consistent throughout the director’s work. A better fit for the director’s creativity than perhaps even The Hobbit movies, the potential casting of Cruise in a lead role should do little to dampen one’s excitement. Forget Knight and Day, if the actor can recreate his performance on Oprah Winfrey’s sofa, At the Mountains of Madness could have the most exquisitely demented endings since Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan.
Seriously though Guillermo, then can we have Hellboy 3?
