Del Toro Will Try 'Mountains of Madness' Again, Cruise Still Attached

It was a sad day when Universal pulled the plug on Guillermo del Toro's passion project film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness in 2011. The Hellboy director went on to direct Pacific Rim instead (which hits theaters this year), but right before Ridley Scott's Prometheus came out, he said the similarities it shares with Lovecraft might kill any future attempt to bring At the Mountains of Madness to life. Thankfully, in a new interview with The Playlist, del Toro has changed his mind, and he also revealed that Tom Cruise is still attached to lead the project, which he hopes to get going again soon. More below!

When it was announced that the haunted house film Crimson Peak would be del Toro's next directorial effort (not to be confused with the Disney remake of The Haunted Mansion that's reportedly still in the works), we found out that the visionary director was hoping that Legendary Pictures might step up and finance/produce At the Mountains of Madness depending on the success of Pacific Rim. But in this new interview with The Playlist, he says that he's actually casting a wider net to search for a home for the film:

"I'm going to try it one more time. Once more into the dark abyss. We're gonna do a big presentation of the project again at the start of the year and see if any [studio's] interested…Yeah, Tom [Cruise] is still attached. I think it would be so fantastic to make it with him. He's been such a great ally of the project."

We're not going to get ahead of ourselves and get too excited for this just yet, but it's undoubtedly a good sign that del Toro has a new pitch ready and is giving studios another opportunity to get involved with this. Hopefully with the good buzz coming from Pacific Rim (another project that's huge in scope) and the consistent support from sites like ours that we actually do want to see At the Mountains of Madness, maybe someone will actually give the man a chance to direct his dream film and complete a movie he's been wanting to make for decades. And having Tom Cruise still on board throwing his weight around can't hurt.

As for that pesky Prometheus comparison, del Toro doesn't seem bothered by it anymore after seeing film:

"I saw it finally and.. yes, there are things in common, but, you know, screw it. Lovecraft was there first."

Glad to hear that the jovial director has regained some confidence and momentum after a few underwhelming years. Based on how well Pacific Rim is tracking (at least with the buzz I've been hearing), it seems likely that Warner Bros. and Legendary will be the ones who end up financing this adaptation. I could easily see this being a "one for them, one for me" type of relationship with the studio, and if Pacific Rim - a movie that del Toro himself said was the "best experience [he's] ever had making a movie - is the "one for them," then this could be an awesome partnership that produces some truly epic films from del Toro.

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