Happy 4th! We’ll keep this brief because there’s #MURICA times to be had. You’ll recall that back in 2011, Guillermo del Toro announced that his long-gestating adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains Of Madness” had been killed by Universal. The studio was apparently in love with the project, but didn’t like the financial-recouping prospect of a $120+ million movie with an R rating, so they shuttered the project.
As early as last year, Del Toro did say he would try to mount the project again, and now the “Pacific Rim” filmmaker is suggesting he could make it at his “new home” at Legendary Pictures. And of course, he’s now willing to do it at a PG-13 rating.
“I said to them, that’s the movie that I would really love to do one day, and it’s still expensive,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I think that now, with the way I’ve seen PG-13 become more and more flexible, I think I could do it PG-13 now, so I’m going to explore it with [Legendary], to be as horrifying as I can, but to not be quite as graphic.”
“There’s basically one or two scenes in the book that people don’t remember that are pretty graphic,” he continued. “Namely, for example, the human autopsy that the aliens do, which is a very shocking moment. But I think I can find ways of doing it. We’ll see. It’s certainly a possibility in the future. Legendary was very close to doing it at one point, so I know they love the screenplay. So, we’ll see. Hopefully it’ll happen. It’s certainly one of the movies I would love to do.”
That definitely sounds fairly hopeful anyhow.
As for “Pacific Rim 2,” which now has a 2017 release date and also backed by Legendary, Del Toro suggested the sequel will be quite its own beast. “I don’t want to spoil it, but I think at the end of the second movie, people will find out that the two movies stand on their own,” he explained. “They’re very different from each other, although hopefully bringing the same joyful giant spectacle. But the tenor of the two movies will be quite different.”
See you in about three years.
Tom Cruise sucks. Please screen someone new. Sick of the same ol actors. People generally connect better when there is no association with a million other movies. Please give someone else a chace.
A rated R movie can't get financed, but on the other side utter pieces of pure crap like "sharknado 2" get financed… -_-
F**k you sellout del toro. Rated R or not at all you greedy little pig. I hope you burn for these blasphemous comments.
PLEASE keep Tom Cruise out of this when it finally gets made. I know he was cast when it was going to happen before, but I hope that fell through. Nothing would screw up this picture more than having this man involved in it. There are so many better actors and bigger box office draws who would not bring all the baggage that Mr. Cruise does.
In any case, PG-13 or R, Del Toro will adapt Lovecraft as monster cgi-fest. I've read the leaked early draft and it's nothing to wait for if you're a fan of Lovecraft, but if you liked the recent Godzilla film then maybe it's something to wait for.
So he really wants to do it, and I think he would be the right person to actually make a good adaptation of a Lovecraft story. 95% of Lovecraft films are a tremendous waste. Then I read that he will compromise and be ok with the "flexibility" of a PG-13? Why don't you just go to Disney and make it then? An awesome opportunity to do Lovecraft justice wasted…
PG it and your ruin it. it has some strong graphic scenes that you cant just gloss over.
Do an image search on "CSI autopsy", and tell me again why such a scene would require an R rating?
If he really wants IN THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS to become an actual reality,del Toro will have to do whatever it takes and accept whatever kind of film ratings he has to,for I'm all willing to accept the film how it is(and will eventually become) as long as it's a real good film that does both del Toro and H.P. Lovecraft proud.
Just seconding what was said below: Film the 18 cert, show an edited PG-13 at theatres and then 'director's cut' the *real* version on DVD/BluRay.
Just seconding what was said below: Film the 18 cert, show an edited PG-13 at theatres and then 'director's cut' the *real* version on DVD/BluRay.
Just seconding what was said below: Film the 18 cert, show an edited PG-13 at theatres and then 'director's cut' the *real* version on DVD/BluRay.
I'd kind of like to see it in the hands of Nic Pizzolatto…or Chris Nolan!
John Carter was one of the best movies of the past several years and got screwed by Disney's horrific marketing and regime changes. Given the dearth of willingness to do something like Lovecraft's classic on a big scale (not to mention JC II) I would KILL to see what Del Toro can do with the Masterpiece of the Fantastic. Ignore the idiotic nay sayers below.
Hollywood studios have no balls. I'm sick of movies being made with all the emphasis on getting kids in the cinema, one of the best movies in recent years was Dredd precisely because it was made for an adult audience, no HP lovecraft based movie should be anything less than 15 at the lowest, preferably am 18 or R. If you can't stay true to the source, don't make it.
In America anyway, PG-13 might as well be a R rating as long as it's violence/gore. But anyway, film it how you want it, have the studio edit and release it as PG-13, then release it on Blu-Ray Unrated. Of course we all know how this works… it'll bomb at the box office and then do well on home media/VOD/etc.
I Like Del Toro, but do not understand his (or others') love for this story. Like so much of Lovecraft's work, this is an underwritten, suspenseless pseudo-sci-fi-horror that really did not make a lot of sense. It basically consisted of two people foolishly walking through corridors of an alien encampment and actually avoiding encountering its all-but-extinct builders.
If he had better script-writers than on Prometheus, Ridley Scott would do an amazing At the Mountains of Madness.
He's too much of a lightweight to do it justice. He pretty much dumbed down Mike Mignola's Hellboy, and I can't see him doing anything else with this. Maybe he can get Edris Elba and some robots to cancel Cthulhu.
I agree with the poster who says Del Toro is overrated. Pan's Labrynth was good. Everything else is definitely meh. Pacific Rim was junk and unbelievably dumb. Also, does It feel like Del Toro notifies the press whenever he farts? I am so bored of his non-news.
most overrated filmmaker working today.