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

[MOVIELORD101]

100% agree with Blackman's post. Too risky with that kind of budget. That and Tom Cruise sucks nowadays.

 

[hippie_hunter]

so Universal who made a lot of risky movies in the last years that bombed should now again risk it and greenlight a 150 million R rated horror movie that is in no way written to be for the masses?

i want this movie now. but i understand why producers are not doing it.

Asides from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, what has Universal done that is quirky, risky, and unique? And bad marketing is what hurt Scott Pilgrim.

For the most part Universal has put out nothing but bland and generic films and that is why they have suffered. If they marketed Scott Pilgrim better and put it out at a better time, it probably would have been more successful.

Whatever happened to the studio that used to put out my favorite movies like Jurassic Park, E.T., and the Land Before Time? Actually now that I think about it, I do know....no Spielberg

 

[Project862006]

if a freaking wolfman movie that had a cast of BDT,Blunt,Weaving,Hopkins bombed what will this do for universal

 

[hippie_hunter]

Wolfman bombed because it looked dull and generic and again, like with Scott Pilgrim, it was scheduled poorly. Nobody wants to see a horror film around Valentine's Day. Everything regarding production of the film was a mess to the point that not even the cast couldn't save it.

 

[CrimsonMist]

Wolfman bombed because it looked dull and generic and again, like with Scott Pilgrim, it was scheduled poorly. Nobody wants to see a horror film around Valentine's Day. Everything regarding production of the film was a mess to the point that not even the cast couldn't save it.

I wouldn't go that far. The problem was 1. how they marketed it. They gave away the twist with Hopkins in the freaking trailers! 2. There was so much B.S. behind the scenes and most importantly 3. The story was lacking significantly. The director's cut is even more indicative of this. That whole scene with Max Von Sydow? Pointless. It was a plant, obviously, and set off a pay-off that would have been brilliant had they stuck to the original film's story. Instead it was a 5 minute pointless scene. Knowing the twist with Hopkins, all suspense went out the window. It's a fun little movie, with a narrative that destroys any chance it has of being any better than that. To use The Wolfman as an example of why Universal shouldn't take a chance with At The Mountains of Madness is a silly one. The Wolfman went wrong because of stupidity and an incredibly sub-par narrative, not because it was an R-rated $150 million horror film.

 

[CrimsonMist]

double post

 

[dark_b]

Asides from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, what has Universal done that is quirky, risky, and unique? And bad marketing is what hurt Scott Pilgrim.

For the most part Universal has put out nothing but bland and generic films and that is why they have suffered. If they marketed Scott Pilgrim better and put it out at a better time, it probably would have been more successful.

Whatever happened to the studio that used to put out my favorite movies like Jurassic Park, E.T., and the Land Before Time? Actually now that I think about it, I do know....no Spielberg

yes everytime a movie bombs it was the marketing. everytime a movie bombs it was the producers.

could it be that ScottPilgrim was not a movie for the masses? it was not and it will enver be. no matter how you promote Edgar's SP movie it would never never ever be popular with the general public.

please explain to me how would YOU promote a movie that LOOKS like this to the general public so that they would pay money to see it?

 

[dark_b]

Wolfman bombed because it looked dull and generic and again, like with Scott Pilgrim, it was scheduled poorly. Nobody wants to see a horror film around Valentine's Day. Everything regarding production of the film was a mess to the point that not even the cast couldn't save it.

come on. WOlfman ''looked'' bad? it looked bad? i thought that the story was the reason it failed ?

 

[Eelectro 2]

the recent wolfman is the best adaption of the character, ever. im not saying its the best film ever, i own it, but all im saying is its better than anything else out there with werewolves.

anyway, i was sorta looking forward to this even tho i didnt really kno much about it. i dont want to sound selfish, i kno guillermo has been having projects as of lately getting pulled out from under him, but i am hoping this means we are that much closer to a final hellboy film. ron perlman isnt getting any younger...

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

The original Wolfman was better, much better.

 

[dark_b]

i am scared that someoen else will make this movie.

does del Toro have it on paper that he will direct this movie?

 

[Donut]

i am scared that someoen else will make this movie.

does del Toro have it on paper that he will direct this movie?

The Asylum people

 

[Timstuff]

^ That's gonna happen, I guarantee it, but not unless there's a theatrical blockbuster version that they can piggyback it off of.

 

[dark_b]

http://www.slashfilm.com/guillermo-...controversy-pacific-rim-released-summer-2013/


NO NO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Lencho01]

yes everytime a movie bombs it was the marketing. everytime a movie bombs it was the producers.

could it be that ScottPilgrim was not a movie for the masses? it was not and it will enver be. no matter how you promote Edgar's SP movie it would never never ever be popular with the general public.

please explain to me how would YOU promote a movie that LOOKS like this to the general public so that they would pay money to see it?

Maybe give a real reason why Scott should've bothered fighting all those guys for one girl would've helped sell the films better. But, I still think the film was pretty niche. I'd say it was in same boat as Speed Racer, but not as extreme as far as looks go.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/qa-...after-at-the-mountains-of-madness-fell-apart/

Q&A: Guillermo Del Toro On Why He Will Next Direct 'Pacific Rim' After 'At The Mountains Of Madness' Fell Apart

By MIKE FLEMING | Wednesday March 9, 2011 @ 11:47am EST


EXCLUSIVE: As Deadline first revealed Monday, Guillermo del Toro’s plans to next direct Tom Cruise in the R-rated At the Mountains of Madness imploded, and he will instead direct Pacific Rim, a Travis Beacham-scripted monster movie that is fast coming together at Legendary Pictures with a PG-13 rating. The town and media have been buzzing since about the business implication of a rising star filmmaker being denied the chance to swing for the fences on his dream project at his home studio, even when it is god-fathered by 3D guru James Cameron. Here, Del Toro confirms he will next direct Pacific Rim for Legendary Pictures' Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni, and what prevented At The Mountains Of Madness from becoming reality for a June start at Universal.

DEADLINE: When I first wrote Monday about Universal suddenly balking at Mountains, studio insiders said they weren’t sure Tom Cruise was definitively in, and they couldn’t stomach a $150 million R rated film because few of those have grossed the $500 million or so needed for Universal to make money. What do you think of that?

DEL TORO: Definitely, closing Tom’s deal was in their hands. He was without a doubt, absolutely in favor of being in the movie. We met extensively, both in Canada and the U.S., dozens of times. Final polishes of the screenplay met with his approval. Closing the deal is not something that was in my hands. They needed to close it corporately. As far as the movie grossing that much, obviously I’m not impartial, but I have to believe that with 3D, Tom Cruise, Jim Cameron, the scope of Lovecraft’s novel that is one his best regarded and most widely known works, I would venture that it could absolutely have been done. I think the R should be worn like a badge of merit in promoting the movie. To say, this is not a gory movie, not a movie full of profanity or violence, but it’s a really intense movie. It’s all what you do with what you’re given. I had to believe right along that they were betting as much as I was. I was betting essentially everything I had, in terms of leverage, betting nine months of development when I was on The Hobbit. This was for me a do or die movie.



DEADLINE: You were supposed to have an answer from Donna Langley and Adam Fogelson by the end of last year. What caused the process to drag out and what changed at a studio that once seemed so excited about making Mountains?

DEL TORO: You may think I’m being glib, but I don’t know. Since the day of the decision, I haven’t had a face to face with them. We’ve exchanged a few phone calls. I my mind, we were given the parameters of a budget and screenplay, and I was given the chance by the studio to create a visual presentation. They were blown away by the visual presentation, they openly admitted to loving the screenplay, saying it was dead on. And we hit the target on the budget they gave us, not a figure I arrived at. This came after months and months of story boarding, haggling with VFX companies, and bringing down the budget number. The week before the decision, I was scouting in the border of Canada and Alaska. We were a week away from opening offices in Toronto. We were crewed up, and frankly, I am as puzzled as most people are. One of the biggest, biggest points for me with this movie was the scope and the R, going hand in hand.

DEADLINE: How hard did the studio try to get you to budge off the R rating?

DEL TORO: It was the subject of multiple conversations all the way through December. The definitive answer was known in December after a big meeting, when we were given the new parameters of budget and rewrites. We proceeded over the next few months to hit those parameters.



DEADLINE: I’d heard your reps and your producing partners tried to make this happen at Fox and other places. Why didn’t anyone else step up? Would Universal let it go?

DEL TORO: That is not a quick process. We would have needed first to get the formal terms of turnaround from Universal before we could formally get an answer from another studio. We were gauging interest and there was interest, very serious interest, but nothing that could happen before Universal names the terms in which they would allow us to try and set it up somewhere else. That is my hope right now that they just allow us to seek a home for this. It will remain a timely premise for years to come, so I don’t have to do it next month. I know it’s not an easy proposition. It is, if you have faith. I think a studio needs to fully believe in that. Certainly, in the last year, you can find movies of that scope or bigger that have been green lit on a wing and a prayer. We are part of show business, and it seems the business side takes more and more command of things, and the show part of the business seems to be dwindling. It’s a sign of the times, in a way.

DEADLINE: What does this blow do to your relationship with the studio and plans to godfather or direct several of their monster movie franchises?

DEL TORO: That’s still unknown. We have active projects where I’m a producer there and I’m still going to pursue my year and a half or two years I have left in my time with Universal. As disappointed and heartbroken as I am, for the studio, this is a business decision.



DEADLINE: What excites you about Pacific Rim, the picture you’ll do next?

DEL TORO: I can only say I was very happy to be able to develop it under the radar in many ways. People got it confused with the Godzilla movie a few months ago but we cleared that up. I can say the scope and imagination that have been outlined in it are absolutely appealing to me. I cannot say more, it’s not the time.

DEADLINE: After you spent so much time co-writing to direct The Hobbit and now going so far down the road on this project, how anxious are you to get back behind the camera and when will that happen?

DEL TORO: The idea is unequivocally to start shooting in September. The terms of that will become public very soon, but the idea is to get behind the camera this year. I miss it terribly. Unfortunately for me, I have passed discreetly on a number of high profile projects last year in order to save myself for a project that I’ve been shepherding. That was Mountains, and now it seems like it’s going to be Pacific Rim. In both instances, these are projects I am generating.

DEADLINE: I’m disappointed by this because how great is it to watch a filmmaker testing himself on all fronts with an ambitious dream project. Has it just become too hard to make a film this large without a branded tie-in, or one that isn’t a sequel, and what is this brand fixation doing to the quality of films?

DEL TORO: Even if you go back to the golden days of monster movies at Universal, some of the best ones were sequels. To me, Bride of Frankenstein is in many ways superior to Frankenstein. I don’t think that in principle, a sequel or a spinoff or a movie that comes something, or a remake, should be shunned. What is really dramatic to me is that most decisions are now being taken by comps, and charts, and target quadrants. All these marketing things we inherited from a completely different system, in the 80s, it has taken hold of the entire industry. Marketers and accountants seem to be running things and less and less of the decisions are in the hands of filmmakers. There are still some filmmakers that can push through. I will say though, I count my blessings. In my time, I’ve been able to make impossible things like a big superhero movie starring Ron Perlman. Frankly, I think we’ve come so close with Mountains that to me it’s an indicator of the great possibility we will get to make it, as soon as possible. As long as the idea stays fresh and no one beats me to it, in terms of the origins of the monsters, the scope and the aspect of Antarctica where these creatures are discovered, I will continue to press forward. I’m knocking on wood. I have great partners in Jim Cameron and Lightstorm, and Don Murphy and Susan Montford, great partners in this adventure who are not giving up and not letting me give up.



DEADLINE: So Pacific Rim next, At the Mountains of Madness next after that?

DEL TORO: I have learned in the last few years that God laughs as we make plans. The beauty of it is, in the last few days, I spoke to Tom, who has been incredibly supportive and who said, ‘Let’s keep going, let’s make this movie down the road.’ He’s definitely that interested and that happy where we were creatively. So we have good legs to travel on, if the time and the opportunity present itself. But we’re going to fight for that to happen. I’ve been offered four or five times at different studios the chance to make this movie in what I think was the wrong way. With $20 million or $30 million less than what I need, with a contractual PG-13, and I don’t want to do it that way.

DEADLINE: Why is that such a deal breaker for you?

DEL TORO: Ultimately, I think the MPAA could rule the movie PG-13 because the movie and the book are not gory. If that is the outcome, fine. But I don’t want to put the PG-13 on paper, for one reason. We created Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, thinking we would be safe looking for PG-13 because we had no profanity, no sex, no gore, but we made a very intense movie in a very classical mold. And the MPAA gave it an R. They said the movie was too intense for a PG-13. The only think I know about Mountains is, I do not want it to be bloody, I do not want it to be crass, but I want it to be as intense as possible. And those discussions were had in the open. Everyone knew this was my position, that I knew I was asking the chance for the movie to be what it needs to be. I don’t think it’s a good idea to relinquish that on paper.

 

[MadVillainy]

See the messed up part to me is that they waited so long. As he said they were scouting locations and about to set up office when they pulled the plug.

 

[ALP]

I've read that Universal is not in very good shape. They have not had a big hit in YEARS. Right now they are like the lowest of the major studios and have not had a tentpole in about a decade. If anything they just shouldn't have teased anyone in the first place. They knew the get go they were not able to take the risks of making Mt of Madness.

 

[dark_b]

i think in december they wanted to make the movie wit hthe budget and R. then in februar it changed.

 

[Zant]

I've read that Universal is not in very good shape. They have not had a big hit in YEARS. Right now they are like the lowest of the major studios and have not had a tentpole in about a decade. If anything they just shouldn't have teased anyone in the first place. They knew the get go they were not able to take the risks of making Mt of Madness.

Mama mia did very well plus they still have the Mummy and Jurassic Park

 

[Timstuff]

When Universal merged with NBC it was kind of like a consolidation of crap in the entertainment industry.

Universal was once a titan of the industry, but now they can't seem to get anything done.

 

[PWN3R]

As sad as I am for this project falling through, all I can think about is Hellboy.

Ron Perlman is 61 years old. Unless Del Torro is capable of shooting magic beams that slow down time out of his ass, production on Hellboy won't begin till '12, or late '13. That's pushing it. They'd have to do some CGI Perlman or something. Do not want.

 

[ALP]

Mama mia did very well plus they still have the Mummy and Jurassic Park

Mia did well but still wasn't a real tentpole film, I mean like big blockbusters. The last Mummy film was a flop and Universal is skeptical on Jurassic Park without Spielberg having a say. Look at the top grossers: Harry Potter, Batman, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Toy Story, etc. Universal has no summer tentpole blockbusters, Mummy was probably their last and they squandered that.

As sad as I am for this project falling through, all I can think about is Hellboy.

Ron Perlman is 61 years old. Unless Del Torro is capable of shooting magic beams that slow down time out of his ass, production on Hellboy won't begin till '12, or late '13. That's pushing it. They'd have to do some CGI Perlman or something. Do not want.

That's why I'd rather Hellboy III than his other mess Del Toro is fooling around with. However the schedule you propose I think would be fine. Perlman is 61 but Harrison Ford was Indy at 66 and look at all of the things Stallone does in his mid 60s. Lots of prosthetics so you don't have to worry about him looking old, as long as Ron Perlman is in good shape I'm sure he can pull off the role just fine. But yeah, if it's made they need to get a step on it!

 

[Sentinel X]

I got to admit. Universal is one of the more ballsy studios out there. They still spent a lot of money and time on the film...its understandable that they pulled the plug given their current economic situation. Im sure had they had more successful films over the past few years this would not be happening but....cest la vie. Hopefully they can earn more money so in the future they can make more riskier films like mountains. Kudos to Del Toro for being unyielding and keeping his vision

 

[Lencho01]

Universal playing it safe...

http://www.slashfilm.com/3d-reboot-doom-works/

Is Universal Attempting a 3D Reboot of ‘Doom’?

Posted on Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 by Angie Han



When a reboot of the Spider-Man franchise was announced a mere ten years after the first one was released, plenty of fans rolled their eyes. Now it seems the reboot cycle is getting even faster, with a 3D reboot of 2005′s Doom rumored to be in the works. Forget that movie ever existed? Yeah, so did I. Read more after the jump.


What’s Playing reports that Universal is “in the early stages of development” on a reboot of Doom, based on the popular video game series. According to their story, part of the reason the studio is so interested in doing another Doom film is the success of G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, which earned $300 million on a $175 budget.


It’s not surprising that someone would take another stab at making a successful Doom movie. The game is already a recognizable brand with a built-in fanbase, and as the first film wasn’t exactly beloved by fans there’s room to make a new one that is. Moreover, it’s a genre that lends itself well to 3D (and, I’m just guessing here but — IMAX) technology, and one that draws in plenty of those hyperactive young men that Hollywood seems so interested in attracting.

​

On the other hand… bleh. Video game adaptations have been notoriously difficult for Hollywood to do well, and with its 19% Tomatometer rating, Doom didn’t exactly buck the trend. Plot-wise, I’m not convinced that it’ll offer much that we haven’t already seen in countless sci-fi/horror action films. And as ScreenRant points out, the fact that the Doom remake is happening thanks to the success of the PG-13 G.I. Joe suggests that they may try to go to the PG-13 route with Doom as well — a surefire way to irk fans who love the intensity and goriness of the video game series.


In short, while there’s always the chance that this could defy expectations and become a genuinely enjoyable film, in my mind, there’s little to be optimistic about at this point. For that matter, as nothing’s officially been confirmed at this point, there’s also the possibility that the Doom reboot is just a rumor. Watch this space for more updates as the project develops (or doesn’t).

 

[Orb]

Yes, sure. why not? Lets not go to a bigger Lovercraft story of pure excellence and instead settle for a reboot of a failed adaptation in 3D. Fair deal.