Directing Lovecraft

Finished “At the Mountains of Madness,” the longest story in my Lovecraft anthology, a few days ago. As I revisited the tale (my second reading in five years), I started to visualize it as I might see it on the big screen. A question kept nagging me: who would direct it? What Hollywood director could best lend his style to this story? (Which I reviewed somewhat in length, here.)

Turns out I kept circling about two names and couldn’t decided on either one. So it had to be some abominable admixture of the two. I chose Terry Gilliam (Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) for his weird, slightly-skewed, artificial-ish look at the world, and Ridley Scott for, well, the literal sliminess he brings to his movie monsters and his mastery of onscreen tension.

Then I read that “Mountains” has been in development hell for the past couple of years, with director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) the name most associated with it. In fact, if I recall correctly, the studio passed on del Toro’s Lovecraft proposal because

1) there’s no love story (H.P. doesn’t do female characters),

2) del Toro wanted a hard R rating and the studio wanted PG-13, and

3) the studio was more interested – alas! – in making Scott’s Prometheus.

Very interesting for a film buff like me. Hopefully del Toro will get “Mountains” made, with its incredible visuals and big ideas, made in the next few years, even if as a labor of love.