The Most Infamous Horror Movie In Development Hell Gets an Update 15 Years After it Was Announced

Movie fans often get at ease from Hollywood filmmakers about upcoming projects that take a long time to finally materialize. James Cameron’s Avatar was something the director had been working on even in the 1990s before its eventual 2009 premiere, while Mad Max: Fury Road was another one that took over 10 years to finally get made. One filmmaker, a little notorious for telling fans about dream projects that have ended up not quite happening, is Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro, so much so that “Guillermo del Toro’s unrealized projects” has its own Wikipedia page. This year, though, del Toro will check off one of his longstanding films, and now the director has a tease for another.

Speaking with Empire magazine for his upcoming Frankenstein, set to premiere on Netflix in a few weeks, del Toro noted that the new film and his previous animated movie, Pinochio, were two films from his “all-time bucket list.” Now, only one film remains on the list, his long-awaited adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At The Mountains Of Madness. Del Toro however, seems to believe that this movie, which he has developed and spoken about since 2003, will likely never see the light of day.

“The one that’s on the bucket list that I think is gonna stay there is Mountains,” del Toro revealed to the outlet. “It’s too big, too crazy, too R-rated, I guess. And to be completely candid, I don’t know that I want to do it after this.”

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Why Guillermo del Toro’s At the Mountains Of Madness Won’t Happen

Del Toro went on to note that his reasoning to put the film away is one that he arrived at after looking at himself as an artist, adding, “This film closes the cycle. If you look at the lineage, from Cronos to The Devil’s Backbone, to Pan’s Labyrinth to Crimson Peak to (Frankenstein), this is an evolution of a certain type of aesthetic, and a certain type of rhythm, and a certain type of empathy. I feel like I need a change.”

Lovecraft’s story was originally published back in 1936, detailing the story of explorers from Miskatonic University who went into the tundra of Antarctica and the wild secrets they discovered buried in the ice, from ancient beasts to the reveal of an ancient race that predates humanity.

As noted by del Toro himself, At the Mountains of Madness has long been talked about by the director, with every indicator being that it would be an expensive blockbuster that couldn’t be any rating but “R.” The filmmaker previously revealed a never-before-seen VFX test a few years ago, which showed off how extensive some of the creature effects would likely be in the film. For horror fans, it was just a taste of the project they hoped would finally see the light of day, one that now seems to be sleeping forever. You can find the video below.

Previous attempts by Guillermo del Toro to get the film made started in the 2000s, with pitstops at Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures. Not only has the film been in the works for extensive stretches, but Tom Cruise was attached to star in it for some of that time as well. When his first-look deal at Netflix began, del Toro confirmed that it was one of the first projects he brought to the streamer.

As del Toro himself noted, however, this is a project that cannot be done cheaply. From the extensive animatronics that would be needed to create the monsters, to the vast sets that would likely need to be constructed, and, naturally, the visual effects, it’s a film that would easily reach blockbuster levels of cost. That combination, a budget of over $100 million and an R rating that limits the size of the audience, is a combo that unfortunately sends up a red flag for every studio in Hollywood.

With bad news can come good news, though. Del Toro has spoken about releasing all of the pre-production and development art that was made for the film in interviews, with the above CGI video just a piece of it. Though the film itself may never get made, del Toro probably has a book of material to reveal to fans about what might have been.