Tom Cruise Wants To Explore At The Mountains of Madness

Full disclosure: At the Mountains of Madness is sitting on my to-read pile. I’m not nearly as familiar with H.P. Lovecraft as I should be. I beg your patience on that, and also your commentary on this.

According to MTV News and James Cameron, Tom Cruise is interested in joining Guillermo del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness. No deal has been signed, but they are hoping to close one soon. According to Cameron, Cruise “does want to do the picture” and they hope to shoot in June or July.

I assume Cruise wants to play the role of William Dyer, the geologist who makes the horrifying discovery in Antarctica.

The world has made Cruise a punching bag (and I’ve made those jokes too), but I can’t say I hate this casting. Again, I’ve only glanced at the first pages of this, but Dyer and his team are supposed to be normal American scientists. It’s their normalcy that makes their discovery all the more horrifying and twisted. You can’t exactly cast Crispin Glover. An expedition into horror can’t begin with faces that immediately make you uncomfortable.

Seeing all-American Cruise pitted against the Elder Things might be exactly what this story requires. All this requires of him is tricks and wiles to escape — and he’s good at dodging stuff — and an ability to look absolutely aghast. I think this might be all right.

I trust del Toro. He knows how to cast.

But I’ll hand this over to you, though. I imagine you have a Dyer in mind, whereas I only know him from a brief look and eager retellings by the Lovecraft fans I know.