Guillermo del Toro is on record saying he would love to someday make H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness,” but that no studio was about to give him money for that project. But he happened to be living in New Zealand for a while during James Cameron’s work there on big 3D project “Avatar.” (You might have heard of it.) It is pretty easy to imagine the two of them sitting around with Peter Jackson discussing dream projects and things that are difficult to get studio approval for. Cameron has faced that prospect himself a time or two. Deadline.com is reporting that the pair will now be working together on GDT’s dream project, with Cameron lending his name and clout to the project as a producer.
While it wasn’t good news to have Guillermo del Toro leave ‘The Hobbit’, it was at least a little soothing to consider that he might tackle some other great projects including perhaps his take on the gothic romance “Frankenstien”. But even then ‘Mountain’ seemed a little out of reach but with the self titled King of the World who is also the undisputed King of the Boxoffice, Universal is willing to take the plunge.
GDT is free to do whatever he wants, and he will likely do it well and will definitely do it with passion, but as a film fan his Comic-Con news of “Haunted Mansion” just wasn’t enough of a trade for losing him from Middle-earth. In conversations with TheOneRing.net at the world’s biggest popular culture celebration, he was tight lipped on what his next project would be but this previously impossible project is a fantastic gain for film fans in the wake of ‘The Hobbit’ loss.
Universal made a Hellboy sequel with del Toro and wants to establish a long relationship with the director but Cameron’s name on the 3D project is a probably a big reason why the studio agreed to the potentially big-budget horror project. Creature design and on-screen realization, which the Mexican-born director has do doubt been thinking about for years, will play a vital role in the film’s success. It does seem a perfect marriage of material and director.
