Sometimes studios make baffling decisions. Like the one Universal made back in 2011, when they decided not to move forward with an epic adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness, which Guillermo del Toro was going to direct with Tom Cruise in the lead role and James Cameron producing. The problem: del Toro intended to make an R-rated film. Universal wanted a PG-13. So the movie wasn’t made at all. Over the years, del Toro has held on to the hope that he can get a different version of At the Mountains of Madness off the ground at some point – a version that would be smaller and weirder. While we wait to see if that’s ever going to happen, the filmmaker decided to share some CGI test footage that was created for the scrapped version of At the Mountains of Madness, footage that gives an idea of what a creature attack moment would have looked like in the film:
It looks very cool, and makes me even more disappointed that the 2011 version of At the Mountains of Madness didn’t make it into production.
Lovecraft’s novella (pick up a copy HERE) tells the story of a disastrous expedition to the Antarctic continent in September 1930, and what was found there by a group of explorers led by the narrator, Dr. William Dyer of Miskatonic University. Throughout the story, Dyer details a series of previously untold events in the hope of deterring another group of explorers who wish to return to the continent. Throughout the course of his explanation, Dyer relates how he led a group of scholars from Miskatonic University on a previous expedition to Antarctica, during which they discovered ancient ruins and a dangerous secret, beyond a range of mountains higher than the Himalayas.
Do you want to see Guillermo del Toro get an adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness made someday, somehow, somewhere? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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