Guillermo del Toro Wants to Make His AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS Movie at Netflix and Shares His New Vision for It
Years ago Guillermo del Toro was trying to make a feature film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness for Universal Pictures. No matter how hard he tried to get that movie made, the studio wouldn’t budge on it and give it the greenlight.
There are a lot of factors that went into Universal’s decision not to move forward with the film. The main reason, though, is that they didn’t want to give an R-rated film such a massive budget. Del Toro also blamed Ridley Scott’s Prometheus because the two projects shared so many similarities in regards to the plot and they had similar set pieces. Prometheus also had a big budget and fell below expectations at the box office.
Well, the filmmaking landscape has changed a lot since those days, and there are more options for Del Toro to take the project. On top of that, the filmmaker is now an Academy Award Winner, and he carries more clout in Hollywood these days. He also has a strong working relationship with Netflix and that is the place where Del Toro would like to make his At The Mountains of Madness movie now.
According to Del Toro, one of the first potential projects he took to Netflix was At the Mountains of Madness, and he said that he would change some things up with the script. He recently shared in an interview with The Kingcast:
"The thing with Mountains is the screenplay I co-wrote fifteen years ago is not the screenplay I would do now, so I need to do a rewrite. Not only to scale it down somehow, but because back then I was trying to bridge the scale of it with elements that would make it go through the studio machinery."
He went on to say that if he got to make the movie at Netflix, he could “go to a far more esoteric, weirder, smaller version of it” and shared:
"You know, where I can go back to some of the scenes that were left out. Some of the big set pieces I designed, for example, I have no appetite for. Like, I've already done this or that giant set piece. I feel like going into a weirder direction."
Tom Cruise was originally set to star in the original project, but Del Toro wouldn’t bring him in now. He is looking to cast mostly unknowns:
"You know, I think the age has changed now. Tom is fifteen years older. I think ... would be a different cast. If I can, I would go for mostly unknowns and make the journey the star."
Sure, take the story in a weirder direction! I love weird! The director also talked about how crazy and unsettling the ending of the story is, saying:
"I know the ending we have is one the most intriguing, weird, unsettling endings, for me. There's about four horror set pieces that I love in the original script. So, you know, it would be my hope. I certainly get a phone call every six months from Don Murphy going 'Are we doing this or what? Are you doing this next or what?' and I say 'I have to take the time to rewrite it.'"
Whoa, ok… so Netflix actually wants to produce this movie, and they are reaching out to Del Toro asking him when they can make it! That’s awesome! At The Mountains of Madness could actually happen and it sounds like it’s really all up to when Del Toro wants to do it!