Guillermo Confirms At The Mountains of Madness Is Dead

It's amazing how quickly these stories go from zero to sixty in a short amount of time. Just last night rumors were circling of a June start for Guillermo del Toro's At The Mountains of Madness. Along with that Universal had been pegged as passing on it because of the price tag and the rating. Now CriterionCast has confirmation from the director himself the project is indeed dead.

There aren't any details being released it's unknown at this point if the producers are able to move the project over to 20th Century Fox. Yet what is known is that this is crushing for the director as this was his dream project. This has to be the worst move by Universal as I think this could lead to del Toro walking from future films with the studio.

Guillermo del Toro Could Make Pacific Rim Before At The Mountains of Madness?

Last year everything looked good for Guillermo del Toro until he had to leave The Hobbit because of MGM's money issues. Then he went on to make At The Mountains of Madness with Tom Cruise attached in the lead role. Now there is word Universal isn't happy with the budget or the film's rating. Currently it would cost $150 million to make the R-rated horror film and that's not including the marketing fees. Universal has been plagued with many poor decisions lately and are not taking up any risky projects like Mountains. Even if del Toro is the creative mind behind the camera and script. Along with James Cameron as the producer and working on the film's 3D effects.

There is word from Deadline that they could move the project to the James Cameron friendly Fox who would be willing to shell out the $150 million needed. They also mention that if these problems keep persisting Guillermo might have to push pause on the project all together. This would mean he'd look to Legendary Pictures' (Warner Bros.) massive monster movie Pacific Rim as his next movie instead.

Universal really seems to have something against the genre as they bumped The Thing prequel from April to October and have yet to release a trailer which has already been played in theaters. Not to mention international markets would love this film as it's similar to Lord of The Rings in scope. Plus the bloated ticket prices for a 3D film would also bump up the box office takes. While it sounds risky on paper it's a dream project for Guillermo and Universal should be understanding of that if they want him to direct multiple films for the studio. Previously the director signed on to direct a bunch of films for the studio which includes a new Frankenstein film. Personally I'd rather see the film at another studio if it means the original vision is made.

James McAvoy Briefly Talks At The Mountains of Madness

It had been reported by Collider that James McAvoy had been Universal's choice the play the lead role in At The Mountains of Madness. While Guillermo del Toro had been campaigning to get Tom Cruise in the part. Tom and del Toro had been talking about making a new Van Helsing film before it got axed to make Mountains which was reported by Vulture. There is also word from Deadline that Cruise is aiming for supporting role in the musical Rock of Ages but is still attached to Mountains. Ron Perlman (Hellboy1-2, Blade 2) seems to be the only person currently cast in the film when Guillermo announced to MTV writing a role just for him.

Currently promoting a new film James McAvoy was asked by CinemaBlend about At The Mountains of Madness. He seems to playing it safe not coming out and confirming or denying his involvement.

"I don’t know anything about the story, but he’s an amazing director. I would be very lucky to be able to work with someone like that one day."

Based on the classic science fiction horror story by H.P. Lovecraft. A group of scientists and archaeologists travel to Antartica on an expedition in the early 1920's. There they stumble upon the ancient relics of an abandoned city hitherto completely unknown to mankind and uncover a prehistoric species that is awakened only to wreak havoc on their victims.

It's been a passion project for Guillermo del Toro and has even the caught the attention of long time friend James Cameron who is producing. Guillermo has written the film and will direct now that he's left The Hobbit. It's expected to be shot in 3D and it's effects are sure to be a blend of practical makeup, puppets and CGI. That along with his amazing touch of detail to his sets, characters and monsters it should be another quality horror film.

Del Toro Talks At The Mountains of Madness

 Guillermo del Toro's next film At The Mountains of Madness is quickly becoming one of my most anticipated new films in development. Being a massive fan of the writer/director/producer I've come to expect nothing but expertise in all things horror. So when he started adapting H.P. Lovecraft's thrilling horror novel I got excited. We started hearing casting rumors of actors such as James McAvoy and Tom Cruise. MTV was able to get del Toro to comment on one person he'd love to see in the film. Of course that would be Ron Perlman who has previously worked with Guillermo on four films (Hellboy 1-2, Blade 2, Cronos).

 "All I can tell you is if Ron Perlman is free, he will be in....I wrote a part for him. He read it and if everything falls in place, Ron Perlman has a role in it written specifically for him."

Also, Guillermo recently talked to the NYTimes about creating the look of his creatures for the film. He gets to work with a blank canvas since Lovecraft really left the imagery to the reader's imagination. 

"We've been designing for the last 3-weeks. It's being produced by James Cameron, who's been a friend for 20-years," del Toro said, "we have avoided working together until the time came for the right project. Obviously, the difference between the novella and the movie is that Lovecraft had a gift for making everything specifically ambiguous. He would say 'the leering face loaded with madness,’ or 'the evil perverse entity of unnamable'… everything was unnamable, indescribable. When you're reading you go,'Whoa!' your brain fills those spaces. For every creature, everyone has a secret mental image of what those creatures look like. It's going to be impossible to please everyone."

"I've been thinking of those monsters for twenty years. Fortunately for me no one has done monsters like the ones I'm doing. In all the movies ever made there's never been monsters like the ones we're doing. About two weeks ago we were visited by Dennis Muren. He looked at the designs, and he turned to us and said, 'No one has seen monsters like this ever.' I was like, [boyish grin] 'Yeah!' I was happy and vindicated and all that."

Guillermo del Toro's At The Mountains of Madness Updates

Guillermo del Toro announced back in July his next film would be an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness. The film is being produced by James Cameron which will be shot in 3D May 2011. The story is written in first-person perspective by the geologist William Dyer, a professor from Miskatonic University. He writes to disclose hitherto unknown and closely kept secrets in the hope that he can deter a planned and much publicized scientific expedition to Antarctica. On a previous expedition there, a party of scholars from Miskatonic University, led by Dyer, discovered fantastic and horrific ruins and a dangerous secret beyond a range of mountains taller than the Himalayas.


Wired recently spoke to producer James Cameron about the project and he compares the film to his own Aliens. "In this particular case, I’m working with Guillermo because I enjoy his company, and a creative collaboration is something that we’ve talked about doing for a long time," Cameron tells Wired. "It’s going to be an epically scaled horror film and we haven’t seen anything like that in a really long time — I guess since ALIENS."


Collider has learned that Universal wants to hire James McAvoy for the lead while Guillermo wants Tom Cruise.