One of the most frustrating films of all time is Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s timeless “At the Mountains of Madness,” an epic horror tale that has almost single-handedly kept Lovecraft’s brand of highly disturbing tentacle terror in the public consciousness since its original publication in 1999. 1936.
This is the story of a group of explorers who find some gruesome artifacts and creatures in Antarctica that may or may not prove that humans are just the insect-like byproducts of the planet’s real inhabitants, all in the service of the great Old God Eldritch Horror. Cthulhu. So much of del Toro’s work was influenced by Lovecraft that it made sense for him to direct the stories of the author’s most famous. And son, if he succeeds, it will be something very special.
In the mid-2000s he developed the film as a huge R$150 million show for Universal with James Cameron producing and Tom Cruise starring. We already knew the world lost something cool when the project died, but now del Toro makes the heartache even more intense when he releases the never-before-seen CGI tests that ILM did while they were preparing the film.
Never-before-seen footage from At The Mountains Of Madness
What he released was a 25-second clip of a 3D animated series created as a test to show how he brought Lovecraft’s creatures to life. The film itself will be live-action, this is just a test to show what PSA can do with VFX on the creatures:
If I had to guess, I would say that the creature shown is a Shoggoth. Lovecraft describes this as more like a squid and a jellyfish. They’re an amorphous mob with dozens of eyes, so maybe this is a new creature or maybe del Toro’s own interpretation. Or, more than likely, it’s PSAs just proving they can make photo-real tentacle monsters.
Maybe there is still hope for the adaptation
Either way, it’s badass and I really hope Guillermo del Toro can make his dream project a reality one day. And he might.
Back when he was trying to make it through the studio system, the idea of ​​a R$150 million film didn’t make sense, but now things like “Deadpool” can make a PG-13 blockbuster money, so maybe the studio might be more willing to finance. movies like this. We’re also in an era of streaming where box office revenue isn’t as important as content that grabs a lot of attention.
When del Toro was on my podcast, The Kingcast, last year he talked about how he wanted to rewrite the original script to make it a little cheaper and a lot weirder and his plan was to launch it to Netflix. He has “Pinocchio” soon to be released with streamers and his show “Cabinet of Curiosities” has received rave reviews from fans of the genre.
Man, he should have shown them the test tape above. I knew if I had the money and leverage to cut a big check to make this film happen, I would. Maybe next time Powerball hits $2 billion…
As an interesting addition, she told me on that podcast appearance that she continues to wear the Miskatonic University ring and will do so until she makes the adaptation. Such is his commitment to make this happen. So someone with deep pockets better step up! Now is the time!