At the Mountains of Madness - Guillermo Del Toro's Next Project!

[Electrix]

You have things mixed around.

The cliche thing is always putting in a love interest, even when it's not needed.

This is a movie based on an H.P. Lovecraft story, he doesn't tend to have love interests and his stories are really bleak.

Nobody said anything about a love interest.

It's a sad state of affairs when people just assume women are in films purely to be a mans bit on the side.

I know it is set in a time when men ruled the world, but they could add a female team member if they really wanted to.

 

[Watchman]

And, it really should be understood, that much of Lovecraft's work does need to be modified for the screen. Much of it is internal and about subjective impressions. And Lovecraft was never the creator of memorable characters and dialogue. The HPLHS's adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu is probably about as close as you'll get to a truly faithful adaptation of Lovecraft's work. And, really, do we want a movie where the main characters spend much of it reading hieroglyphics?

No, but it doesn't have to be a simple action movie that strips out the book's strengths, horror, and intelligence and aims for a lowest common denominator. According to the review the scripts seems to have ditch what made Lovecraft's work memorable in the first place. All this and they're tacking on a happy Hollywood ending.

It's like making Don Quixote into a swashbuckling adventurer. You're missing the point to appeal to a different crowd that couldn't care about it in the first place.

 

[Watchman]

Nobody said anything about a love interest.

It's a sad state of affairs when people just assume women are in films purely to be mans bit on the side.

I know it is set in a time when men ruled the world, but they could add a female team member if they really wanted to.

If the story doesn't call for a female character the story doesn't need a female character. The Thing works fine without any female characters.

 

[Evil Twin]

Lovecraft rarely put woemen in his stories at all, and if they were they're they were completly grotesque. Id actually be disapointed if they did superimpose a female character into this. Also if theyre doing this as a period peice or something it makes it even less likely that a woman would be included in the expedition anyways.

I'm trying to remember if there's a significant female character in Lovecraft's solo work in anything other than The Thing on the Doorstep and The Dreams in the Witch House. There's a minor female character in The Dunwich Horror and The Cats of Ulthar. And I've seen it theorized that the narrator of The Horror of Martin's Beach is female, which would make sense as it was co-written with Sonia Greene and the narrator doesn't help in the rescue that all the strong men attempt. Poetry of the Gods as well.

But, yes, Lovecraft is notable for his lack of female characters. Perhaps it's because he was writing for the pulps. Perhaps it's because he was trying to avoid the trappings of the Gothics. Perhaps it's merely a product of the times and the characters Lovecraft tended to write about, academics and explorers, were predominantly male to begin with.

 

[Electrix]

I understand some stories don't include female characters and 'all male' films and 'all female' films work fine. I was just correcting the sexist assumptions.

 

[Electrix]

Looking at the character list on Wikipedia there is nothing about most of the characters that specifically requires them to be male (other than the fact Lovecraft wrote them as male).

Professor Atwood - A member of the Miskatonic University physics department, and also a meteorologist. He is part of the Lake sub-expedition and is also butchered by the Elder Things.

This could easily be a female. I'm not suggesting they should or must, just that it could be done if they wanted to.

 

[Figs]

Nobody said anything about a love interest.

It's a sad state of affairs when people just assume women are in films purely to be a mans bit on the side.

I know it is set in a time when men ruled the world, but they could add a female team member if they really wanted to.

Sorry, don't give me **** for it, trying to act like i'm sexist. Give Hollywood **** since most of the time that's what females tend to be put in movies for. If they made her a team member I would be fine with that but if this film is trying to be accurate and takes place in the time the story was set, then I don't see a woman being allowed on an expedition like that and it would just be Hollywood trying to shove in something just as a selling point for women.

 

[Evil Twin]

No, but it doesn't have to be a simple action movie that strips out the book's strengths, horror, and intelligence and aims for a lowest common denominator. According to the review the scripts seems to have ditch what made Lovecraft's work memorable in the first place. All this and they're tacking on a happy Hollywood ending.

It's like making Don Quixote into a swashbuckling adventurer. You're missing the point to appeal to a different crowd that couldn't care about it in the first place.

I have a copy of the script. I don't recall a happy, Hollywood ending.

Mind you, I'd prefer something like ALIEN as well. A slow boil at first where these explorers find a lot more than they were expecting. OTOH, I totally understand the idea of stranding characters in an isolated, alien place and unleashing hell. That's Lovecraft as well.

And, in any event, I think it's wise to not prejudge how it explores Lovecraft until we see more. I expect a strong visual component to go along with the script. I expect that the script for ALIEN isn't as impressive without the Giger designs to go with it.

 

[Figs]

Those who perceive Lovecraft merely as an eccentric who wrote about some cool mega-monsters with lots of tentacles and slimy orifices are in for a treat here. Because that's ALL of Lovecraft they're gonna get. Those who expect a certain meaning and symbolism behind those "monsters" – those who expect philosophy – cosmic horror – loads of atmosphere, suspense, build-up... Well, not much of that, sadly.

Kind of a bummer reading that. Especially when Del Toro hyped it up making it sound like he wanted to do the book/Lovecraft justice. I'm sure i'll still enjoy it because I do like monster movies but it's kind of disappointing.

This being a classic, I guess there's no need for going too much into details, you know the plot.

It's funny how he assumes most people know H.P. Lovecraft when that couldn't be farther from the truth. You may meet a lot of people who know of him but in regards to reading his work, that's a whole other story.

 

[Doctor Jones]

What's this talk about a Hollywood happy ending? There is no happy ending. It's dark as they get.

There is no need for female characters in this at all. Please tell me why there should be one. What is the significance? Not every film needs a female character for the sake of it, which happens alot.

 

[Evil Twin]

I suppose for those that haven't read At the Mountains of Madness, a link would be appropriate.

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/mm.asp

 

[Watchman]

I have a copy of the script. I don't recall a happy, Hollywood ending.

My mistake. I just took this: "Don't expect the same ending as in the novel. Expect a more predictable one" for something else.

Mind you, I'd prefer something like ALIEN as well. A slow boil at first where these explorers find a lot more than they were expecting. OTOH, I totally understand the idea of stranding characters in an isolated, alien place and unleashing hell. That's Lovecraft as well.

And, in any event, I think it's wise to not prejudge how it explores Lovecraft until we see more. I expect a strong visual component to go along with the script. I expect that the script for ALIEN isn't as impressive without the Giger designs to go with it.

Agree. Although, I would have preferred Alien to Aliens but I'm still excited for the movie and Del Toro's vision.

 

[dark_b]

the movie can not be slow since it is big budget.

if you want a slow movie then the budget needs to be small. i dont have a problem with this.

 

[Crockett]

One thing though that I wouldn't complain if they change, is when [BLACKOUT]Professor Lake found the fossils, in the book that chapter was devoted to Lake examining and explaining about the fossils to the other party[/BLACKOUT] so maybe in the adaptation they could speed up that process just a little since it would also slow the pace down for the film for awhile.

 

[redhawk23]

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/08/31...ally-scaled-horror-along-the-lines-of-aliens/

Cameron mentions a couple of things about his role on the film. the thing is he can't descirbe a project or compliment another filmmaker without mentioning one of his own films lol.

 

[tecnowraith]

The movie The Mist was King story similar to Lovecraft (which King himself said Lovercraft was inspiration on his stories) and felt very Lovecraft to very end and I enjoyed it cause it a lot Lovercraftian elements like unknown horrors, isolation and people going mad or loosing their sanity.

 

[redhawk23]

Looking at the character list on Wikipedia there is nothing about most of the characters that specifically requires them to be male (other than the fact Lovecraft wrote them as male).


This could easily be a female. I'm not suggesting they should or must, just that it could be done if they wanted to.

you have to take it in context of the man behind the writing. There were very few woemen in his life, especially his adult life. Lovecraft was also considered to be asexual and completly ambivilant towards women. Imposing a female character into his work would be contrived.

 

[CrimsonMist]

EDIT. Nevermind.

 

[CrimsonMist]

you have to take it in context of the man behind the writing. There were very few woemen in his life, especially his adult life. Lovecraft was also considered to be asexual and completly ambivilant towards women. Imposing a female character into his work would be contrived.

Factor in that the first woman to step foot on Antarctica wasn't until 1935, 4 years after Lovecraft wrote At The Mountains of Madness, and the first woman to actually winter in Antarctica wasn't until 1947, well after Lovecraft had died.

Also add to that, the attitudes towards women at that time. It was felt that the dangers of Antarctica and the travel itself was too much for women and they were therefore kept from partaking in expeditions. Factor in also Lovecraft's general disdain of women, which weren't all that shocking given the time period.

Also consider the amazing amount of research Lovecraft did in order to be faithful to procedures of the time period, and the fact that he had an incredible fascination with Antarctica since he was a child. If he was going to include a woman in the story, maybe he would have, but the fact of the matter is that he had a general disdain of women, regardless of his marriage and at the time of the the story's writing, no woman had stepped foot on the continent.

To include a woman in the film would not only be historically inaccurate, but spit in the face of Lovecraft's research and historical detail of his writing. Not to mention, it would feel incredibly shoe-horned in.

 

[Doctor Jones]

He disdained women and was married? Yeesh.

 

[Figs]

He disdained women and was married? Yeesh.

I'm not exactly surprised though given the era he lived in. Women were still put in their place in those times. It's ****ed up but that's how things were sadly.

 

[CrimsonMist]

He disdained women and was married? Yeesh.

The marriage didn't last very long, though it's understood it was a happy marriage.

He was also raised by his mother and 2 aunts, which may have had some influence on his view of women. I think he was more freaked out than anything, not that he didn't like him.

 

[matrix_ghost]

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/08/31...ally-scaled-horror-along-the-lines-of-aliens/

Cameron mentions a couple of things about his role on the film. the thing is he can't descirbe a project or compliment another filmmaker without mentioning one of his own films lol.

If Cameron keeps up this attitude , it won't take long for the Southpark guys to tear him a new one

Edit :
He has a point though. It's been quite a long time since we've had a big budget R rated horror movie. If Aliens were made today , it would've cost more then 100 million to make. Honestly have there been horror movies that have cost that much lately. ? And i'm not talking about movies where the budget grew due to unforseen planning like The Wolfman.

 

[dark_b]

but Del Toro would never made an action packed R rated Mountain of Madness.

it will be more fast paced since its a big budget. but i expect 100% atmosphere and tension every 5-10 minutes.

i expect a good horror movie where it will not be about jumping things in the camera but really about something more.

 

[TruerToTheCore]

I'm not exactly surprised though given the era he lived in. Women were still put in their place in those times. It's ****ed up but that's how things were sadly.

This "those times" thing is usually exaggerated. But yeah, there are also people who think "Mad Men" is historically accurate. Fact is, that Lovecraft's misogynism and racism goes far beyond of the average guy of that era. This is a guy who, afterall, was heavily distorted when he found out that his great-great-grandmother was of Celtic not Germanic stock.