At long last.
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.”