At the Mountains of Madness, Guillermo del Toro’s long-delayed film that most fans assumed would never happen, is not completely dead yet. In fact, the filmmaker is apparently considering the possibility of releasing it as a stop-motion animated feature instead. According to IndieWire, del Toro has recently chatted with VFX veteran Phil Tippett about the possibility of adapting the H.P Lovecraft tale into the style of his new Netflix Pinocchio movie.
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To make that a reality, del Toro would need to spend years on it, and he would need the backing of a studio who sees the upside. That’s easier for Pinocchio, which has been retold numerous times, and has been profitable in several of those outings, than for something more niche like At the Mountains of Madness, but it certainly is not impossible. Following the success of del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix, if Pinocchio turns out to be a hit, Netflix would be his obvious starting point.
“I said it would be ideal to do ‘Mountains of Madness’ as stop-motion,” he said. “You watch the animation in a more rapturous way than live action. It’s almost a hypnotic act, and the relationship to the story becomes more intimate in that way.”
At the Mountains of Madness has been in and out of development a few times since 2011, when it had its most promising start. Originally set to star Tom Cruise, the project was halted when Universal didn’t want to spend that kind of money on an R-rated movie.
At the Mountains of Madness is a novella by Lovecraft, originally serialized in the February, March, and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories. It centers on a 1930s expedition to Antarctica, in which a group of explorers led by a scientist encounter the remnants of an ancient civilization. The framing device of the story centers on the main scientist, Dr. William Dyer, trying to discourage the potential next group of explorers from heading to the South Pole.
