Rumors have been flying all week about Guillermo del Toro’s big-budget adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness, the movie that he’s been trying to make his entire career.
First io9 scooped everyone with news that it would start shooting in June. Then they unscooped themselves when a Universal producer said it was still in development hell.
Late last night, CriteronCast said they had an email from del Toro himself saying Mountains is not greenlit, but: “The opposite- Dead.”
All accounts have del Toro sticking by an “R” rating for Mountains and a staggering $150 million budget. It would have needed Return of the King-size audiences to meet that budget, and no movie with an “R” rating has done that kind of business. Even with James Cameron producing—the man who made Avatar and Titanic, the two top-grossing films of all time—and Tom Cruise in talks as the star, Universal wouldn’t commit.
The latest rumor has Legendary Pictures pursuing del Toro for a big-budget monster monster flick called Pacific Rim.
There is some good news for Lovecraft fans, though: We definitely won’t see the mighty shoggoths undone by salt water.
Just by money.
"Quick! Use the saline spray!" (Image by David Lee Ingersoll, from The Black Seal 3.)