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[quote="TC"][/quote]

Stunned silence over the possible addition of Cruise to this? :lol:

I'll be honest, I don't care if weirdo scientology closet case is in it, his signing on might be the last nudge it needs to get greenlit. Weirdo scientology closet case could certainly use a respectable movie as well, it's been a looooong time.

On a slightly related note, has anyone been watching the Onion Network News on IFC? Their running story about rebels from the future time traveling back to 2011 to try and destroy Suri Cruise before she takes over the world is pretty fucking hilarious.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

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I guess I'd have to agree with you both. If that's what it takes to bring this to the big screen, then I guess I can live with it. As long as it gets a proper director with love for the source material and who knows his Lovecraft inside out. His books have a very special vibe to them and I really hope they can bring that out on celluloid.

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Actually looks like with this week's New Yorker Scientology expose, Tom is about to be in the press dog house yet again...really I don't mind him that much as an actor although he now comes with so much baggage that he can't really fill an actual role outside of 'action guy.' Would be sweet if they cast him and he was one of the first characters to get destroyed, though.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

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Latino Review (pretty solid source, albeit working off the info linked above from earlier today) seems to think this project is perilously close to dead and that del Toro will take Pacific Rim, which sounds like a Godzilla update of some sort. :cry:
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

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I thought indications were pretty strong that Cruise was in if the studio gave the green light. I have read elsewhere that he may get a boost via the new Mission: Impossible flick, which is getting very early good buzz, and that that might help get the deal done at another studio. I just feel bad for del Toro. After reading that big profile of him, dude has put in countless hours of work on this and the Hobbit and it's pretty sad to see it all go down the tubes.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

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EXCLUSIVE: As Deadline first revealed Monday, Guillermo del Toro’s plans to next direct Tom Cruise in the R-rated At the Mountains of Madness imploded, and he will instead direct Pacific Rim, a Travis Beacham-scripted monster movie that is fast coming together at Legendary Pictures with a PG-13 rating. The town and media have been buzzing since about the business implication of a rising star filmmaker being denied the chance to swing for the fences on his dream project at his home studio, even when it is god-fathered by 3D guru James Cameron. Here, Del Toro confirms he will next direct Pacific Rim for Legendary Pictures' Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni, and what prevented At The Mountains Of Madness from becoming reality for a June start at Universal.

DEADLINE: When I first wrote Monday about Universal suddenly balking at Mountains, studio insiders said they weren’t sure Tom Cruise was definitively in, and they couldn’t stomach a $150 million R rated film because few of those have grossed the $500 million or so needed for Universal to make money. What do you think of that?

DEL TORO: Definitely, closing Tom’s deal was in their hands. He was without a doubt, absolutely in favor of being in the movie. We met extensively, both in Canada and the U.S., dozens of times. Final polishes of the screenplay met with his approval. Closing the deal is not something that was in my hands. They needed to close it corporately. As far as the movie grossing that much, obviously I’m not impartial, but I have to believe that with 3D, Tom Cruise, Jim Cameron, the scope of Lovecraft’s novel that is one his best regarded and most widely known works, I would venture that it could absolutely have been done. I think the R should be worn like a badge of merit in promoting the movie. To say, this is not a gory movie, not a movie full of profanity or violence, but it’s a really intense movie. It’s all what you do with what you’re given. I had to believe right along that they were betting as much as I was. I was betting essentially everything I had, in terms of leverage, betting nine months of development when I was on The Hobbit. This was for me a do or die movie.

DEADLINE: You were supposed to have an answer from Donna Langley and Adam Fogelson by the end of last year. What caused the process to drag out and what changed at a studio that once seemed so excited about making Mountains?

DEL TORO: You may think I’m being glib, but I don’t know. Since the day of the decision, I haven’t had a face to face with them. We’ve exchanged a few phone calls. I my mind, we were given the parameters of a budget and screenplay, and I was given the chance by the studio to create a visual presentation. They were blown away by the visual presentation, they openly admitted to loving the screenplay, saying it was dead on. And we hit the target on the budget they gave us, not a figure I arrived at. This came after months and months of story boarding, haggling with VFX companies, and bringing down the budget number. The week before the decision, I was scouting in the border of Canada and Alaska. We were a week away from opening offices in Toronto. We were crewed up, and frankly, I am as puzzled as most people are. One of the biggest, biggest points for me with this movie was the scope and the R, going hand in hand.

DEADLINE: How hard did the studio try to get you to budge off the R rating?

DEL TORO: It was the subject of multiple conversations all the way through December. The definitive answer was known in December after a big meeting, when we were given the new parameters of budget and rewrites. We proceeded over the next few months to hit those parameters.

DEADLINE: I’d heard your reps and your producing partners tried to make this happen at Fox and other places. Why didn’t anyone else step up? Would Universal let it go?

DEL TORO: That is not a quick process. We would have needed first to get the formal terms of turnaround from Universal before we could formally get an answer from another studio. We were gauging interest and there was interest, very serious interest, but nothing that could happen before Universal names the terms in which they would allow us to try and set it up somewhere else. That is my hope right now that they just allow us to seek a home for this. It will remain a timely premise for years to come, so I don’t have to do it next month. I know it’s not an easy proposition. It is, if you have faith. I think a studio needs to fully believe in that. Certainly, in the last year, you can find movies of that scope or bigger that have been green lit on a wing and a prayer. We are part of show business, and it seems the business side takes more and more command of things, and the show part of the business seems to be dwindling. It’s a sign of the times, in a way.

DEADLINE: What does this blow do to your relationship with the studio and plans to godfather or direct several of their monster movie franchises?

DEL TORO: That’s still unknown. We have active projects where I’m a producer there and I’m still going to pursue my year and a half or two years I have left in my time with Universal. As disappointed and heartbroken as I am, for the studio, this is a business decision.

DEADLINE: What excites you about Pacific Rim, the picture you’ll do next?

DEL TORO: I can only say I was very happy to be able to develop it under the radar in many ways. People got it confused with the Godzilla movie a few months ago but we cleared that up. I can say the scope and imagination that have been outlined in it are absolutely appealing to me. I cannot say more, it’s not the time.

DEADLINE: After you spent so much time co-writing to direct The Hobbit and now going so far down the road on this project, how anxious are you to get back behind the camera and when will that happen?

DEL TORO: The idea is unequivocally to start shooting in September. The terms of that will become public very soon, but the idea is to get behind the camera this year. I miss it terribly. Unfortunately for me, I have passed discreetly on a number of high profile projects last year in order to save myself for a project that I’ve been shepherding. That was Mountains, and now it seems like it’s going to be Pacific Rim. In both instances, these are projects I am generating.

DEADLINE: I’m disappointed by this because how great is it to watch a filmmaker testing himself on all fronts with an ambitious dream project. Has it just become too hard to make a film this large without a branded tie-in, or one that isn’t a sequel, and what is this brand fixation doing to the quality of films?

DEL TORO: Even if you go back to the golden days of monster movies at Universal, some of the best ones were sequels. To me, Bride of Frankenstein is in many ways superior to Frankenstein. I don’t think that in principle, a sequel or a spinoff or a movie that comes something, or a remake, should be shunned. What is really dramatic to me is that most decisions are now being taken by comps, and charts, and target quadrants. All these marketing things we inherited from a completely different system, in the 80s, it has taken hold of the entire industry. Marketers and accountants seem to be running things and less and less of the decisions are in the hands of filmmakers. There are still some filmmakers that can push through. I will say though, I count my blessings. In my time, I’ve been able to make impossible things like a big superhero movie starring Ron Perlman. Frankly, I think we’ve come so close with Mountains that to me it’s an indicator of the great possibility we will get to make it, as soon as possible. As long as the idea stays fresh and no one beats me to it, in terms of the origins of the monsters, the scope and the aspect of Antarctica where these creatures are discovered, I will continue to press forward. I’m knocking on wood. I have great partners in Jim Cameron and Lightstorm, and Don Murphy and Susan Montford, great partners in this adventure who are not giving up and not letting me give up.

DEADLINE: So Pacific Rim next, At the Mountains of Madness next after that?

DEL TORO: I have learned in the last few years that God laughs as we make plans. The beauty of it is, in the last few days, I spoke to Tom, who has been incredibly supportive and who said, ‘Let’s keep going, let’s make this movie down the road.’ He’s definitely that interested and that happy where we were creatively. So we have good legs to travel on, if the time and the opportunity present itself. But we’re going to fight for that to happen. I’ve been offered four or five times at different studios the chance to make this movie in what I think was the wrong way. With $20 million or $30 million less than what I need, with a contractual PG-13, and I don’t want to do it that way.

DEADLINE: Why is that such a deal breaker for you?

DEL TORO: Ultimately, I think the MPAA could rule the movie PG-13 because the movie and the book are not gory. If that is the outcome, fine. But I don’t want to put the PG-13 on paper, for one reason. We created Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, thinking we would be safe looking for PG-13 because we had no profanity, no sex, no gore, but we made a very intense movie in a very classical mold. And the MPAA gave it an R. They said the movie was too intense for a PG-13. The only think I know about Mountains is, I do not want it to be bloody, I do not want it to be crass, but I want it to be as intense as possible. And those discussions were had in the open. Everyone knew this was my position, that I knew I was asking the chance for the movie to be what it needs to be. I don’t think it’s a good idea to relinquish that on paper.
http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/qa-guil ... ell-apart/
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

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i missed this article from january this year...
FirstShowing wrote:Del Toro Will Try 'Mountains of Madness' Again, Cruise Still Attached

It was a sad day when Universal pulled the plug on Guillermo del Toro's passion project film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness in 2011. The Hellboy director went on to direct Pacific Rim instead (which hits theaters this year), but right before Ridley Scott's Prometheus came out, he said the similarities it shares with Lovecraft might kill any future attempt to bring At the Mountains of Madness to life. Thankfully, in a new interview with The Playlist, del Toro has changed his mind, and he also revealed that Tom Cruise is still attached to lead the project, which he hopes to get going again soon. More below!

When it was announced that the haunted house film Crimson Peak would be del Toro's next directorial effort (not to be confused with the Disney remake of The Haunted Mansion that's reportedly still in the works), we found out that the visionary director was hoping that Legendary Pictures might step up and finance/produce At the Mountains of Madness depending on the success of Pacific Rim. But in this new interview with The Playlist, he says that he's actually casting a wider net to search for a home for the film:
"I'm going to try it one more time. Once more into the dark abyss. We're gonna do a big presentation of the project again at the start of the year and see if any [studio's] interested...Yeah, Tom [Cruise] is still attached. I think it would be so fantastic to make it with him. He's been such a great ally of the project."
We're not going to get ahead of ourselves and get too excited for this just yet, but it's undoubtedly a good sign that del Toro has a new pitch ready and is giving studios another opportunity to get involved with this. Hopefully with the good buzz coming from Pacific Rim (another project that's huge in scope) and the consistent support from sites like ours that we actually do want to see At the Mountains of Madness, maybe someone will actually give the man a chance to direct his dream film and complete a movie he's been wanting to make for decades. And having Tom Cruise still on board throwing his weight around can't hurt.

As for that pesky Prometheus comparison, del Toro doesn't seem bothered by it anymore after seeing film:
"I saw it finally and.. yes, there are things in common, but, you know, screw it. Lovecraft was there first."
Glad to hear that the jovial director has regained some confidence and momentum after a few underwhelming years. Based on how well Pacific Rim is tracking (at least with the buzz I've been hearing), it seems likely that Warner Bros. and Legendary will be the ones who end up financing this adaptation. I could easily see this being a "one for them, one for me" type of relationship with the studio, and if Pacific Rim - a movie that del Toro himself said was the "best experience [he's] ever had making a movie - is the "one for them," then this could be an awesome partnership that produces some truly epic films from del Toro.
found that today after seeing these images from Del Toro's notebook for ATMoM...
atmom.jpg
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DH wrote:"Mountains of Madness" Revived As PG-13?

Every filmmaker has at least one 'dream project', a movie they've been trying to make for years but aren't able to get off the ground for one reason or another. For filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, that project has been his long-awaited adaptation of horror icon H.P. Lovecraft's atmospheric 1931 story "At the Mountains of Madness".

The story follows explorers in Antarctica who uncover the remains of highly evolved creatures neither plant or animal. Investigating a gigantic mountain range, they come upon an abandoned ancient city. Their explorations underground causes something to stir from its slumber.

The film has started and stopped again over the years at various studios. Things seemed to be gathering steam three years ago when the project was at Universal Pictures. James Cameron was slated to produce and Tom Cruise was linked as a possible star, but the film's $150 million budget and R rating meant the studio wasn't keen on green lighting it and ultimately pulled the plug.

Del Toro then went on to make "Pacific Rim" and the upcoming "Crimson Peak" with Legendary Pictures. Now, with Universal and Legendary in bed together, talk of 'Mountains' has come back around and del Toro is hopeful he has the chance to make it for both of them. He's also realised that the need for an R rating isn't as necessary anymore with PG-13 being more relaxed these days. He tells The Wall Street Journal:
"That's exactly what I discussed with them. I said to them, that's the movie that I would really love to do one day, and it's still expensive, it's still… 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. 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. I think there's a really strong possibility we can do it at Legendary because now they are at Universal, and Universal, you may remember, almost greenlit the movie.

The fact that we now have two studios together that love the material, and if they support each other, they are risking a lot less. It would be great to do it, but I've understood that you don't plan your career, it just happens... Hopefully it'll happen. It's certainly one of the movies I would love to do."

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Bloody Disgusting wrote:‘At the Mountains of Madness’ – Guillermo del Toro Shares Never-Seen CGI Test for Unmade Movie

As most are aware, Guillermo del Toro was at one point knee deep in a film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1931 novella At the Mountains of Madness, which of course never came to fruition. The project’s origins date back to 2006, and the plan was for the film to be a rated R affair with a big budget and both Tom Cruise and James Cameron on board to produce.

The would-be H.P. Lovecraft adaptation essentially tells of a disastrous Antarctic expedition that encounters unspeakable horrors after discovering ancient ruins.

Several studios ultimately ended up passing on the big-budget project, spelling the end of del Toro’s Lovecraftian dreams. But we’re still asking ourselves… what could have been?

We may never know, but Guillermo del Toro has at least taken to his just-launched Instagram account this week to share some never-before-seen test footage from the project!

Del Toro captions the footage, “All CGI test for a rig – ILM [Industrial Light & Magic] for At the Mountains of Madness (a decade ago) never-before-seen.”

The footage runs 25-seconds long and shows an explorer in the mountains (of madness) being attacked by a tentacled beast, and it can certainly be described as “Lovecraftian.” The monster splits open and reveals a humanoid form within, before unleashing its long tentacles and swallowing up the doomed explorer. It’s a small but delicious taste of GDT going full HPL.

At the Mountains of Madness may be no closer to reality but Guillermo del Toro has brushed up against H.P. Lovecraft in his new Netflix series “Cabinet of Curiosities,” which features two Lovecraft adaptations. A few of the other episodes are of the Lovecraftian variety as well, particularly the Panos Cosmatos-directed “The Viewing,” which will totally melt your mind.

In his most recent comments about the At the Mountains of Madness project, del Toro had noted that his vision has evolved over the years, and a new script would have to be written.

goddamn. now i'm back to really hoping he can eventually do this.