Here we are again, ruminating on Guillermo del Toro’s much-anticipated horror epic AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. The flick has had a June start date in its sights for a while now, and though del Toro and producer James Cameron have talked up a blue streak, getting us psyched about the project (which I think most of us still genuinely are), it turns out that MADNESS still lacks the green light it requires to go into production.
It’s at the end of a truly in-depth and fascinating article profiling del Toro in the New Yorker that the news is revealed. Read this excerpt, which kicks off with a quote from one of Universal’s top execs, Adam Fogelson: Fogelson was impressed with the presentation. “The sense of scope, the sense of danger, and just the sheer popcorn commercial appeal of the creatures that he was presenting to us were a sight to behold,” he told me. “At each step, he wowed us, and, to be candid, he knew— and we all knew—that a ‘wow’ was required to keep this movie moving forward. It’s a big bet.” Still, Universal wasn’t quite ready to give the project a green light. Del Toro went to another meeting, and then another. As of late January, the project remained potential energy. Del Toro was confident that his creatures would one day roam the multiplex, but I remembered that he had called Hollywood “the Land of the Slow No.”
Though he and his team have been hard at work for months now, with seed money given to them by Universal, it still appears as though the massive budget required (reportedly the budget has a ceiling of $125 million, which may not be enough to cut it), combined with the fact that del Toro won’t budge on an R rating, is preventing MADNESS from taking flight in earnest.
The full piece is really filled with wonderful descriptions of del Toro and his design team’s work on MADNESS, with some vivid details regarding the elaborate aliens at the center of the tale. (“… a Shoggoth whose tentacles were surging from what resembled a long, retracting foreskin. The creature had dozens of eyes, randomly placed, like those on a potato.”) That said, the entire article – appropriately titled “Show the Monster” – is worth reading if you’re interested in what makes the man tick.
Head on over HERE for the beginning of the AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS section (which commences after the HOBBIT section).