There May Be Hope For Guillermo Del Toro's At The Mountains Of Madness Yet
While Guillermo Del Toro may have come from humble beginnings with his first few films in the '90s, the imaginative filmmaker has since exploded into one of the most admired and talked-about writer-directors in the film industry. Of course, Del Toro's profile has never been higher since his 2017 masterpiece "The Shape of Water" brought home four Oscars, including best picture and best director.
All the same, over the length and breadth of Del Toro's career, one project has been the director's white whale. Del Toro has focused mainly on the horror genre throughout his career, so it should come as no surprise that the filmmaker has an affinity for the works of legendary author H.P. Lovecraft. Still, it has been Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" that Del Toro has been hoping to adapt for most of his career (via IGN). Now, it looks like the visionary director might finally have his chance, albeit in a different format than fans might have expected.
Much like his take on Pinocchio, At the Mountains of Madness could be stop-motion
Hot off the heels of his critically lauded animated debut, "Pinocchio," Guillermo Del Toro spoke to Indie Wire about his passion for "At the Mountains of Madness," and the director also offered a glimmer of hope for fans who had hoped to see an adaptation of the story from the acclaimed Mexican filmmaker.
"I said it would be ideal to do 'Mountains of Madness' as stop-motion," Del Toro recalled after a conversation with stop-motion master Phil Tippett. "You watch the animation in a more rapturous way than live action. It's almost a hypnotic act, and the relationship to the story becomes more intimate in that way," he concluded.
While this might not be quite the announcement fans were hoping for with regard to the project, as many are likely holding on to hope that a live-action version of "At the Mountains of Madness" could still come to fruition, the prospect is no doubt much better than Del Toro's vision of the classic H.P. Lovecraft tale never coming to life at all.
With Del Toro's relationship with Netflix growing steadily on the back of his anthology series, "Cabinet of Curiosities," and his fresh new take on "Pinocchio," the streaming service seems like an ideal place for this project to come to life. Still, fans will have to wait and see if Del Toro is able to get the project onto Netflix's docket any time soon or whether it will show up somewhere else altogether.