Mountains. Madness. Del Toro. Ia! Ia!

August 2, 2010 5:50 PM

Guillermo Del Toro is set to direct his version of Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness.
posted by New England Cultist (117 comments total)

please don't be terrible please don't be terrible please don't be terrible please don't be terrible please don't be terrible please don't be terrible
posted by bshort at 5:52 PM on August 2, 2010 [12 favorites]

roll for sanity, Mr Del Toro.
posted by wilful at 5:52 PM on August 2, 2010 [15 favorites]

The stars are right.

And eponysterical.
posted by thescientificmethhead at 5:52 PM on August 2, 2010 [4 favorites]

eponysterical!
posted by bshort at 5:52 PM on August 2, 2010

I've only recently begun an intense love affair with Del Toro's stuff, and can't imagine anyone more suitable. Bring it on!
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 5:53 PM on August 2, 2010

He gave up Hobbit for THAT? Sheesh..

(I seem to be the only one who thinks that is a crazy direction to go though, everyone else seems to think that it is awesome news ... )
posted by lundman at 5:54 PM on August 2, 2010

Yes, bring it on. As I like to say: It's about god damn time.
posted by marxchivist at 5:55 PM on August 2, 2010

Needs hahahahaHahahaHAHaHAHAHAHHHHHAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA tag
posted by Azazel Fel at 5:55 PM on August 2, 2010

I seem to be the only one who thinks that is a crazy direction to go though, everyone else seems to think that it is awesome news ...

Everyone else seems to agree with you. Or seem to be unknowingly agreeing with everyone else.
posted by eyeballkid at 5:57 PM on August 2, 2010

The project will be shot in 3D

Oh for fuck's sake. This bullshit trend isn't dead yet?

That said, I'm looking forward to it. You know what would be neat? A companion film of The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, maybe directed by Guy Maddin.

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:57 PM on August 2, 2010 [7 favorites]

Guy Maddin should pretty much make every movie, ever.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:00 PM on August 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

The elders think this is an apt choice.
posted by squasha at 6:00 PM on August 2, 2010

Del Toro also wrote a pretty good vampire book.
posted by boo_radley at 6:00 PM on August 2, 2010

Lovecraft is too good to put on film and I am going on record here and telling you that this will be a bad film.
posted by turgid dahlia at 6:01 PM on August 2, 2010

Lentrohamsanin: "Oh for fuck's sake. This bullshit trend isn't dead yet?"

Eh, it's this kind of stuff that 3D was meant for. I think it could be great.
posted by brundlefly at 6:03 PM on August 2, 2010

Also James Cameron needs to stop touching things.
posted by turgid dahlia at 6:03 PM on August 2, 2010 [4 favorites]

I am going on record here to say that I'm pretty much going to see this movie even if it sucks.
posted by Stunt at 6:03 PM on August 2, 2010 [7 favorites]

The Hobbit will be fine with some generic hack doing a Peter Jackson impersonation. Probably better off, in fact. This, however, requires someone special, so I'm really hoping these reports are true and not just based on conjecture.
posted by Artw at 6:04 PM on August 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

3D?

Fhtagh it and move on.
posted by jquinby at 6:05 PM on August 2, 2010 [25 favorites]

I would probably see it in 2D first. Somehow I feel that suits the source better. Then I can hype it up in 3D after.
posted by New England Cultist at 6:05 PM on August 2, 2010

Lovecraft is too good to put on film and I am going on record here and telling you that this will be a bad film.

Yeah, I want to like this idea but I have a feeling it's gonna jump the shark due to heavyhanded CGI (when Lovecraft's s stuff is in fact brooding and subtle) and of course they'll be jamming in an out-of-place romantic subplot.
posted by crapmatic at 6:11 PM on August 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

I would probably see it in 2D first. Somehow I feel that suits the source better. Then I can hype it up in 3D after.

4D or better would suit the source. Where are our non-Euclidean cameras?
posted by me & my monkey at 6:12 PM on August 2, 2010 [42 favorites]

The cosplay for this is going to be awesome.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:15 PM on August 2, 2010

I just noticed that Lovecraft sounds a looks a lot like Hovercraft.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:15 PM on August 2, 2010

Er, whatever, pick a verb.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:16 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

He gave up Hobbit for THAT? Sheesh..

I think the problem is that the Hobbit wasn't happening because of studio bullshit. So it wasn't 'do the Hobbit or do AtMoM' - it was 'do nothing or do AtMoM'.
posted by Sebmojo at 6:18 PM on August 2, 2010

No one could ask for a better match between director and source material. Have no fear, folks, this will not suck.
posted by dbiedny at 6:19 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'd like to see it in 3D, but with non-Euclidean geometry that moves anomalously in a diagonal way, so that the rules of matter and perspective seem upset.
posted by Wataki at 6:21 PM on August 2, 2010 [6 favorites]

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtaghn!
posted by KingEdRa at 6:23 PM on August 2, 2010

Yeah, I understand people being worried about the Lovecraft getting watered down in the process of adaptation to a major film, but if any major director working today is capable of getting this right it's Del Toro. He doesn't strike me as likely to shoehorn in a romantic subplot just for the sake of formula, and as the director he'll be calling the creative shots. On the other hand, James Cameron is already sitting on top of a gigantic pile of fuck you! money, and as the producer he's the guy calling the marketability shots. So does he have any real reason to tamper with the source material? Put my vote in the excited column for this one.
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:27 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

So does he have any real reason to tamper with the source material?

Well, I don't know. Lovecraft doesn't seem very ... cinematic. I think Del Toro can do the best that can be done with it, but when horror depends on things that cannot be seen without shattering your psyche, you can't just show them.
posted by me & my monkey at 6:34 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

♥
posted by JHarris at 6:34 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I think Del Toro can do the best that can be done with it, but when horror depends on things that cannot be seen without shattering your psyche, you can't just show them.

Del Toro has been wanting to do this for so long that I suspect he has the whole thing already plotted out in his head.

I do fear the meddling hand of James Cameron, but at least there are no thong-wearing smurfs in this one.
posted by JHarris at 6:37 PM on August 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Nooooo. The horror! Please, not....3D.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:41 PM on August 2, 2010

I just read Mountains of Madness because of this thread and I think it could be a fantastical, very eerie film if done properly. Which I think Del Toro can definitely accomplish, if he preserves the nuanced, slow build up the book has.

Just Kindled Call of Cthulu, working through the list. Good stuff.
posted by disillusioned at 6:47 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I guess I'm the only one here who thinks that Del Toro spends so much time plotting the visual elements of a movie that he gives the craft of narrative second billing. Like a slightly more horrific Tim Burton.

I wish him success and his audiences an enjoyable film-going experience.
posted by En0rm0 at 6:48 PM on August 2, 2010

If Lovecraft never existed, would thee be a Metafilter?
posted by Postroad at 6:48 PM on August 2, 2010

3d could be used to enhance the "this can't be happening, but it is, and it's driving me insane" effect. E.g. the 2d cues tells you that a monster is running at you, but the depth cues make it seem like it's going away from you.
posted by Nquire at 6:57 PM on August 2, 2010 [17 favorites]

I'm not a big Lovecraft fan, but I think Del Toro could do a good job with it.

Lovecraft, apart from his mythos, isn't a very good writer. The mythos is the only redeeming part of his stories, and given someone with the proper eye for imagery and the ability to construct a good story surrounding it, I think that it could make of a good movie.
posted by codacorolla at 7:00 PM on August 2, 2010

One big issue is that the Elder Things just look silly. Barrel-shaped winged vegetables with starfish heads? HPL just wasn't trying very hard that day.
posted by meehawl at 7:00 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Film smarties:

"Although this has long been Del Toro's dream project, he had difficulty convincing investors of the need to make it R-rated, period, and with a huge budget. All of these factors are high-risk, and have not yet been elaborated on in the press."

How is R-rated a risk factor? Everything at my local Redbox (oh the shame) is rated R.
posted by mecran01 at 7:01 PM on August 2, 2010

If Lovecraft never existed, would thee be a Metafilter?

No, I believe I'd be an elder god. What dost thou think?
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 7:02 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'd like to see it in 3D, but with non-Euclidean geometry that moves anomalously in a diagonal way, so that the rules of matter and perspective seem upset.

Win.
posted by New England Cultist at 7:02 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

One big issue is that the Elder Things just look silly. Barrel-shaped winged vegetables with starfish heads? HPL just wasn't trying very hard that day.

On the contrary, the description of the Elder Things is one of the star attractions in all of Lovecraft. It's that they exist as alien creatures divorced from human notions of biology or aesthetics. Cthulhu himself is a gigantic squid-headed humanoid thing with dragon wings. The alienness matters more to Lovecraft than big teeth and claws, and the Elder Things are exquisitely imagined.
posted by JHarris at 7:06 PM on August 2, 2010 [5 favorites]

heh.

Down from the skies they came, with filmy wings and rules and regulations and routines and Dho-Hna knows how many forms to be filled out in quintuplicate. Banal little bureaucruds, the lot of them. You could see it just looking at them: Five-pointed heads -- every one you looked at had five points, arms whatever, on their heads (which I might add were always in the same place). None of them had the imagination to grow three arms or six, or one hundred and two. Five, every time.
posted by Artw at 7:13 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hastur isn't just unspeakable. He's undirectable as well.
posted by markkraft at 7:15 PM on August 2, 2010 [5 favorites]

I'm conflicted because I read this at such a young age the first time (probably 11?) and I have such stong images in my mind of what it all looks like that even if it's good, it won't match my long-held internal imagery that I've built around this story, and for that reason it'll disappoint.

When I re-read it when I was in my 20s, it didn't scare the crap out of me, but the first time through as a barely pubescent pre-teen, it scared the holy living bejeebers out of me. I haven't seen my holy living bejeebers since, actually. I think it'd be hard for a move to re-create that now that I'm in my forties, so I'm ambivalent, even if it's great.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:15 PM on August 2, 2010

After the first Hellboy, I was settling in to be a Del Toro fan for life. Then came Hellboy II, and now I don't care anymore.

Why is HE the Lovecraft guy? He had Mike (maybe the most Lovecraftian guy on the planet) Mignola's work to draw from for the second HB, and he made a pile of lame-assed, non-Lovecraftian fairy tale horse hooey.

And yeah, yet another Burtonesque genius director who's too freaking 'special' to bother about the written word.

Just what Hollywood needs.
posted by Trochanter at 7:15 PM on August 2, 2010

Of course yer Old One (or Elder Thing) is not the star monster attraction. That would be your Shoggoth.

Or maybe giant penguins, if you swing that way.
posted by Artw at 7:16 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

but the thing is, Burton's visuals are hackenyed. Del Toro is the best, and the newest thing to happen with monsters in decades--maybe up to Whale.

I want to see this. (can we give the budgets to several Jeniffer Aniston RomComs to him instead?)
posted by PinkMoose at 7:16 PM on August 2, 2010

> How is R-rated a risk factor? Everything at my local Redbox (oh the shame) is rated R.

The single largest movie going demographic (ie, the single largest block) in the US are teenage boys with nothing to do on a Friday or Saturday night.

If it is R rated, their parents have to go to the movie theatre with them, vs dropping them off at the cineplex and coming back later to pick them up.

If your movie costs 200 million dollars and you want a 4x return on investment, you need those idiots to come watch your film. And if you are going to spend 200 million on a film, and your options are an R rated lovecraftian film or PG-13 Dark Knight, you are going to go with Dark Knight.

This phenomenon pretty much explains all the comic book movies, and Michael Bay.
posted by mrzarquon at 7:18 PM on August 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

> Why is HE the Lovecraft guy? He had Mike (maybe the most Lovecraftian guy on the planet) Mignola's work to draw from for the second HB, and he made a pile of lame-assed, non-Lovecraftian fairy tale horse hooey.

Hate to break it to you, but he co-wrote HB2 with Mignola. As someone who digested everything Hellboy fanatically up to and after the second film, I can say it was the best comic book movie of 2008, with Dark Knight being my favorite Graphic Novel Movie of 2008.
posted by mrzarquon at 7:22 PM on August 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Comics Hellboy and film Hellboy are pretty distinct things (as is cartoon Hellboy), but you can't exactly call comics Hellboy in-fairytaley, what with fighting fairies, elves and giants all of the time.
posted by Artw at 7:27 PM on August 2, 2010

Man, that first two hours of the expedition being cold is going to be awesome.
posted by khaibit at 7:33 PM on August 2, 2010

he co-wrote HB2 with Mignola

Nope.

How did your relationship change on this movie?
The first movie was him adapting my work. Really, this one is taking my characters and putting them in a pure Del Toro world. I was a lot more willing to argue on the first movie, to defend my story and my ideas. But then everything I argued against ended up being the parts of the movie everyone liked the best.

Like what?
Um … almost everything that involved emotion? I would be like, "Hellboy can't say that!" But then it worked. So on this movie, I just said, "You clearly know what you're doing."

posted by Trochanter at 7:35 PM on August 2, 2010

Ugh, the only Guillermo Del Toro film I liked was Mimic. Yeah, I know...

Well, for y'all sake I hope this doesn't suck.
posted by fryman at 7:47 PM on August 2, 2010

En0rm0: "I guess I'm the only one here who thinks that Del Toro spends so much time plotting the visual elements of a movie that he gives the craft of narrative second billing. Like a slightly more horrific Tim Burton."

Seriously? Have you seen The Devil's Backbone?
posted by brundlefly at 7:49 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I STILL think "Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" is set to be Disney's next big animated blockbuster.
(Narrator voice) "In a place... beyond dreams... a young man... searches for a vision..."
Carter: "I saw the city again! I have to find it! Whatever it takes!"
".... he will meet allies..."
(the cats curl around his legs, and leap from the rooftops for the moon...)
"And enemies...."
(the strange sailors cackle as the ship full of rubies leaps from the waters...)
"And... these guys..."
(The three comic ghouls poke each other and do a 3 Stooges routine, one gnawing on a human femur)....
posted by The otter lady at 7:49 PM on August 2, 2010 [23 favorites]

Mignola was involved with HB2, though. I saw him give a talk where he spoke about the studio's attempt to use him as a check on GDT's budget-increasing effects backfired and they ended up with the giant plant monster.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:50 PM on August 2, 2010

Mignola: It's an original story that Guillermo and I came up with about two years ago. It actually reflects the direction the comic is going in. It's not in any way the same story, but it deals with similar things. The focus is more on the folklore and fairy tale aspect of Hellboy. It's not Nazis, machines and mad scientists but the old gods and characters who have been kind of shoved out of our world.

He may not have written the whole thing, but that leads one to believe that Mignola was pretty well integrated into the creation of HB2.
posted by mrzarquon at 7:54 PM on August 2, 2010

How is R-rated a risk factor? Everything at my local Redbox (oh the shame) is rated R.

PG13 films make a lot more money than R films, on average (of course, the average includes things like Avatar and Titanic). Think: Every stupid romantic comedy or every stupid Adam Sandler/Eddie Murphy/etc movie.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:55 PM on August 2, 2010

Del Toro has been wanting to do this for so long that I suspect he has the whole thing already plotted out in his head.

Actually, I'm sure he has a notebook. And the notebook is to be sent to a trusted friend or relative if... something should happen.

Reading the notebook will probably lead to learning the true past of filmmaking, of 7th dimensional hounds that are not hounds, demanding a complete absence of right angles, the bizarre polyps of cinema floating in and out of people's minds as memes just waiting for the right combination of visual and auditory stimulus to awaken wilted organs of perception to be seen, disturbing considerations of what exactly is a Deep Gaffer on crew, and of course, an unstoppable obsession to film What Must Not Be Filmed.

Sadly, The Last Airbender Movie has already been made...
posted by yeloson at 8:02 PM on August 2, 2010 [8 favorites]

when Lovecraft's s stuff is in fact brooding and subtle

Have you seen Pan's Labyrinth? Brooding and subtle is what Del Toro wants to do. He's fine sacrificing it for the paycheck, but that's his milieu.
posted by lumpenprole at 8:06 PM on August 2, 2010 [4 favorites]

I'm going to see this movie just becaus the story is Lovecraft, but I won't be expecting much. His writing actively caused things to spring out of the trapdoors of the cellar of my imagination. Movies are a passive "look what's up here on the screen! You don't have to do anything bit sit there and take it" For the record, it's my considered opinion that The Rats In The Walls is the best of his work for a movie
posted by Redhush at 8:08 PM on August 2, 2010

I was really hoping for The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward, and I even started writing an adaptation of The Shadow Out Of Time... but this will do fine, I think.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:18 PM on August 2, 2010

PG13 films make a lot more money than R films, on average (of course, the average includes things like Avatar and Titanic). Think: Every stupid romantic comedy or every stupid Adam Sandler/Eddie Murphy/etc movie.

How does the genre being horror affect it?


Actually, I'm sure he has a notebook.

I was going to say that he found it in a deserted house, but that was Robert Bloch.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:22 PM on August 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

BLF, I'm actually really surprised that there isn't a Charles Dexter Ward movie; that always struck me as one of HPL's move filmable stories.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:23 PM on August 2, 2010

and of course they'll be jamming in an out-of-place romantic subplot.

I'm pretty sure I read an interview with Del Toro somewhere where he said that one of the reasons it was so hard to get funding for this project was that he absolutely refused to jam in a romantic subplot.

The guy seems to really, really love Lovecraft and I think he's determined to respect his source material.
posted by magnificent frigatebird at 8:23 PM on August 2, 2010

BLF, I'm actually really surprised that there isn't a Charles Dexter Ward movie; that always struck me as one of HPL's move filmable stories.

There's always The Resurreted. It's not a great adaptation, but a somewhat close one and somewhat enjoyable.
posted by dougmoon at 8:32 PM on August 2, 2010

*Aversion Therapy puts on his rubber squid hat and gets in line for tickets.*
posted by Aversion Therapy at 8:33 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Actually, Pope, there is a Charles Dexter Ward movie - The Resurrected. I scrounged a DVD of it a few years back, and quite enjoyed it.
posted by Wulfhere at 8:41 PM on August 2, 2010

How does the genre being horror affect it?

I think that, just in general, studios like to push for PG13. Especially with big-budget effects films with name directors (who are associated with PG13 big-budget effects films like Hellboy and, previously, The Hobbit).
posted by shakespeherian at 8:44 PM on August 2, 2010

It's now on top of my checklist. Thanks!
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:45 PM on August 2, 2010

He had Mike (maybe the most Lovecraftian guy on the planet) Mignola's work to draw from for the second HB, and he made a pile of lame-assed, non-Lovecraftian fairy tale horse hooey.

You mean like all that stuff where Hellboy's the King of England and Morgan le Fey is right pissed about it?

Oh, no, wait, Mignola's doing that in the comic right now.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 8:48 PM on August 2, 2010

I think the problem is that the Hobbit wasn't happening because of studio bullshit.
True, the delays were frustrating, and hard for everyone involved including the smaller studios around Wellington.

But the in-laws are reporting they officially started building the sets for Hobbit last week, so that's something.
posted by lundman at 8:49 PM on August 2, 2010

Yeah, anyone who thinks del Toro can't do brooding and subtle and hasn't seen The Devil's Backbone yet is talking out of his/her tentacled lower orifices. The main question is whether he's going to be allowed to actually make the movie instead of being forced to undergo Death By Hollywood Committee.
posted by mediareport at 9:09 PM on August 2, 2010 [5 favorites]

I was going to say that he found it in a deserted house, but that was Robert Bloch.

A great story that, all the better for entirely shaking off Lovecrafts voice.
posted by Artw at 9:10 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

With 3D and geometry beyond our ability to grasp, this movie could induce headaches beyond mortal description.
posted by chairface at 9:18 PM on August 2, 2010

I'm a big fan of Lovecraft, but I actually think At The Mountains of Madness is really a pretty terrible story. I don't think it's going to really be an "adaptation" if you are forced to hire someone to add the entire plot since the original doesn't have one.

Incidentally, I recently learned that all of those character and place names, like Hastur and Hali and Carcosa, which got shared around by Lovecraft and Marian Zimmer Bradley (Darkover) and Robert W. Chambers (The King in Yellow), were actually originally coined by Ambrose Bierce.
posted by kyrademon at 9:21 PM on August 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

In other news, I heard that Michel Houellebecq is going to screenwrite THE SILMARILLION.
posted by Zerowensboring at 9:34 PM on August 2, 2010

Tentacled lower orifices. Now *that* is horrifying imagery. Tentacled head, no problem. Tentacled rectum? Ugh.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:03 PM on August 2, 2010

>How does the genre being horror affect it?

Brian Yuzna, I believe, said something along the lines of "if you can make a horror movie / slasher for less than a million dollars, you'll turn a profit".

Granted that was mid 80s I think, but horror has to be cheap, since it doesn't have the draw that mainstream cinema does. The original SAW cost 1.1 million, took in a 100.

If they spent 20 million on SAW, it still would have brought in 100 million. And that's the horror / gore porn genre, almost a concentrate of other horror films, and was extremely successful. Execs would use it as a benchmark for other horror films: you'll get 100-200mil tops for a popular horror movie. Who'd spend 100mil making one, especially consider GDT made like 85 mil with a sequel coming off pans labyrinth that WAS pg13.
posted by mrzarquon at 10:13 PM on August 2, 2010

Everyone thinks Hastur is so scary, but he can't hold a candleja
posted by tzikeh at 10:18 PM on August 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Mountains of Madness is hardly a story at all, never mind a good one. It's a lovecraft.wikia article about the Elder Things and the Shoggoths.

That said, Del Toro is not an idiot and I expect he'll make a good movie. It just won't look very much like the source material.
posted by zjacreman at 10:51 PM on August 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Actually, I'm really excited to see how he depicts millions of years of detailed expository history through the medium of sculpture.
posted by zjacreman at 10:55 PM on August 2, 2010 [6 favorites]

When I was a kid (15-ish), I looked *everywhere* for HP Lovecraft books. Every used bookstore, every mall bookstore, even a "bookstore" at an RV park in southern Washington on a family driving trip to Los Angeles.

Now, at my favourite used bookstore, there is a stack of remaindered HP Lovecraft books. Stacks of them. I could travel back in time...
posted by KokuRyu at 11:24 PM on August 2, 2010

I'm not a Lovecraft fan (although have always wanted to be, there are elements of his writing I think are incredibly cool and others which bore me) but obviously Del Toro is, and I'd far rather see him tackle that then The Hobbit. Back when it looked like the next five to six years of his career were going to be taken up with that I was rather disappointed.
posted by opsin at 12:17 AM on August 3, 2010

This is great news. Think about it - as shitty as Avatar was it was an amazing spectacle that used the 3D wisely. With Cameron producing he'll help Del Toro use the technology to make us shit our pants in the best possible way. I am all for this.
posted by AzzaMcKazza at 12:25 AM on August 3, 2010

Arkham … shit, I’m still only in Arkham
posted by homunculus at 12:35 AM on August 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

Every time we have a thread about Antarctica it devolves into a discussion of Lovecraft.

oh wait. this thread is actually about At the Mountains of Madness? ok, nevermind.
posted by kaibutsu at 12:41 AM on August 3, 2010

Not sure what draft this is, but this pdf seems to be an incarnation of the script penned by Del Tor and Matthew Robbins.
posted by New England Cultist at 1:25 AM on August 3, 2010 [2 favorites]

4D or better would suit the source. Where are our non-Euclidean cameras?

Look, it's not my fault--the storage room is a hypercube, and the key only exists last Thursday.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:57 AM on August 3, 2010 [4 favorites]

Cthulhu is a very good modern adaptation of Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Del Toro has the background for a Lovecraft ending, plus the protagonist survives in this case. I'm therefore hopefully excited.

We're not expecting detailed deceptions of Shuggoths, just well placed flashed of seething dark blobs, coupled with good acting and storytelling.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:28 AM on August 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

I think, finally, this could be a film to beat the first film I ever saw in 3D - The Creature From The Black Lagoon
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:13 AM on August 3, 2010

And a bit back I listened to a really good old radio adaptation of Mountains of Madness... it's probably still out there on the interweb... somewhere...

Of course I fully expects The Deep going out tonight on the Beeb to set a very high bar...
(previous statement may be ironic.)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:17 AM on August 3, 2010

Just to be sure I'm going to get my boat up to head-ramming speed.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:24 AM on August 3, 2010

I couldn't get New England Cultist's link to work, but the screenplay draft is on this page, which has lots of Del Toro's other scripts, too.

Thanks for the pointer!
posted by Trochanter at 7:30 AM on August 3, 2010

Just to be sure I'm going to get my boat up to head-ramming speed.

As The Little Mermaid has shown, this also works in Disney movies.
posted by yeloson at 7:52 AM on August 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

So I too was initially upset by Del Toro leaving the Hobbit, but surely someone as dedicated and talented as him will do ATMOM justice..I hope...

If you live in or near NYC you too can have your own ATMOM theme day by checking out the Nicholas Roerich Museum(Painter whose images inspired and are referenced in the story) previously and also the Race to the End of the Earth exhibit at the Natural History Museum. My friend and I even finished it off with some Dinosaur BBQ (surely what the old ones may have eaten).

Oh the mad piping!!!

ps. yes i am geeked for this film(enough so to finally join MeFi after many years of lurking in the shadows). Ah my first post is Lovecraftian and such the sweeter for it!
posted by Capricorn13 at 8:27 AM on August 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

As The Little Mermaid has shown, this also works in Disney movies.

Ursula was actually just Cthulhu's head.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:31 AM on August 3, 2010 [2 favorites]

jeffburdges: "Cthulhu is a very good modern adaptation of Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth."

For a Lovecraftian vibe, the 2000 Oz Cthulhu movie is better, if rougher around the edges, and virtually impossible to find legally. There's also Rough Magik, the BBC's Delta Green-ish pilot for a Cthulhu series (bonus: stars Avon from Blake's Seven!).

The 2007 Cthulhu movie is one of those unintentionally hilarious "serious" horror movies which if executed just a bit less po-faced could have been on the fast-track to serious cultdom. I mean, putting a conflicted, gay protagonist into Innsmouth where one of the worst, most debasing and inhumanely degrading experiences he undergoes is being raped by the space-warping, weirdly angled and tentacled vagina of Tori Spelling (who's already got a touch of that Innsmouth Look even before makeup). Now that's horror incarnate.
posted by meehawl at 9:48 AM on August 3, 2010

!
posted by supermedusa at 9:48 AM on August 3, 2010

Metafilter: raped by the space-warping, weirdly angled and tentacled vagina of Tori Spelling.
posted by jquinby at 9:50 AM on August 3, 2010

I STILL think "Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" is set to be Disney's next big animated blockbuster.

Th HP Lovecraft LiteraryPodcast guys who apparently I can't shut up about are doing The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath at the moment. This is great because I never read the thing but it means I get to know whats in it (lots and lots of links to other Lovecraft fantasy stories I didn't like, apparently), but they also talk about how they'd make a movie version, and it's pretty funny, the stuff about cats especially.

Lovecraft - real big on cats.
posted by Artw at 10:54 AM on August 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

I liked the gay protagonist bit worked very well for Cthulhu (2007). People aren't necessarily so afraid of the ocean's depths anymore, but christianity, that's scary shit.

Yeah, it's not very faithful, fine. Afaik, the previous gold standard for professionally done Lovecraft adaptations was In the Mouth of Madness, which only tenuously referenced Lovecraft's work. I'm unable to find your Oz version on TPB or STC.
posted by jeffburdges at 3:03 PM on August 3, 2010

jeffburdges - I'll have to give that a watch at some point, but I would defiantly say that out of all the people I know who've seen that movie you certainly seem the most positive about it.
posted by Artw at 3:22 PM on August 3, 2010

I'm always a little leery when I hear that they are going to try to adapt some classic story that everyone knows, and everyone suspects that a film will ruin.

That said, as I consider the directors that could pull this off, Del Toro more or less tops the list.


(I suppose that Kevin Smith could... No, definitely Del Toro!)
posted by quin at 3:27 PM on August 3, 2010

Just fyi, August Derleth largely organized Lovecraft's work into the Cthulhu Mythos and the Dreamlands, which isn't very precise and kinda mucked stuff up. Lovecraft's stories are in-fact often sci-fi horror for his time, but others have fantasy elements.

For example, there are not so many where humans employ spell, only The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Cats of Ulthar, and Dream Quest come to mind. Yet, spells are ubiquitous in the Call of Cthulhu RPG.

For another example, Lovecraft described the Shoggoth as more likely bio-engineered than summoned.
posted by jeffburdges at 3:34 PM on August 3, 2010

Just pointing out that Lovecraft never viewed his work as some cannon, unlike say Tolkien. Fans are usually happy if you nail the vibe, but not the precise story.
posted by jeffburdges at 3:40 PM on August 3, 2010

This is, what, the umpty-bazillionth directorial work to which Del Toro has been attached in the past few years? I wouldn't hold my breath for this to actually get made.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:30 PM on August 3, 2010

Beyond the Mountains of Madness was the last tabletop rpg campaign I ran so I'm really looking forward to this.

Here's the trailer for the remake of Don't be afraid of the Dark written and produced by Del Toro.
posted by Tenuki at 3:03 AM on August 4, 2010

"Tentacled lower orifices. Now *that* is horrifying imagery. Tentacled head, no problem. Tentacled rectum? Ugh."

It's self-cleaning.
posted by Eideteker at 12:05 PM on August 4, 2010

Beyond the Mountains of Madness was the last tabletop rpg campaign I ran so I'm really looking forward to this.

I'm tempted to aquire that, though it's kind of pricey just to read and not play.

Obligatory link to A Colder War, which is a sequel of sorts to Mountains of Madness and some other Lovecraftian stuff.

Avoid at all costs "Hive" by Dan Curran, which is also allegendly a sequel but concentrates more on riffing on The Thing (referencing both versions!) and Quatermass and the Pit.
posted by Artw at 12:10 PM on August 4, 2010

Artw: I always liked Dream-Quest, the imagery is quite vivid in it and, hey, cats! It presents an interesting alternate take on many of Lovecraft's monsters and themes. It is also arguably Nyarlathotep's greatest story, demonstrating easily how fearsome and multifaceted he is.
posted by JHarris at 1:34 PM on August 4, 2010

Well, tastes vary I guess. I've never been able to read the bloody thing, and pretty much hated all the other "dreamlands" stuff it ties into. Me, I'm all about the awesome cosmic SF/Horror side of Lovecraft, and the whimsical Dunsany inspired Pagan Idylls leave me cold.

I'm not that keen on Tolkien either, mind you.
posted by Artw at 1:43 PM on August 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

At the Mountains of Madness by Ian Culbard.
posted by Artw at 7:49 PM on August 5, 2010

Interesting note about the Guillermo del Toro produced 'Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark' remake.

“The movie has no profanity, no nudity, no gore, no graphic violence, so we thought we were gonna get a PG-13, and we got an R,” he says in the interview. “And we said, ‘What can we do? Why are you doing it?’ And they said, ‘No matter what you do, the movie will always get an R, because it’s too scary.’ It deals with primal childhood fears in a really strong way.”

Sounds promising.
posted by Tenuki at 7:07 AM on August 25, 2010