There’s been a lot of confusion in the last 24 hours over what Guillermo Del Toro may be directing next and when. First it seemed, due to a comment by producer Don Murphy over at io9, that the film was greenlit, Tom Cruise would star and it would begin filming in June. However Hitfix quickly got some clarification from Murphy that “We are all trying to get Mountains up and running with Tom and Jim and everybody but no start date has been set AT ALL.
Then came news that before Mountains Of Madness, Del Toro may be slotting in Pacific Rim. Deadline reports that Legendary Pictures is rushing to get Guillermo del Toro behind the lens on the film, which is a PG-13 tent pole-sized potential summer blockbuster about giant monsters and the creation of a new world. There’s a good chance it will be Guillermo del Toro next assignment as a director, but he’s not set yet.
While Deadline suggested it could be that Del Toro simply slots in Pacific Rim before his HP Lovecraft adaptation, it appears the director may be considering it because Universal has killed his passion project. It was known that despite having Del Toro directing and James Cameron producing Mountains Of Madness, the studio was very wary of spending $150 million on an R-rated flick of a book which has defired adaptation for decades. The director apparently wanted an answer from Universal by the end of play yesterday or he was moving on, and it seems he hasn’t got the greenlight, as Critierion Cast asked him by e-mail if it had gotten the go ahead, and Del Toro shot them back this reply: ‘The opposite- Dead. G.’
It seems then that it’s all over for the much hyped project, although there’s always the chance Universal will change their mind or that another studio will jump in quickly and pick up the project, but it appears a Del Toro directed At The Mountains Of Madness may never happen. At least there’s the possibility of Pacific Rim, as with The Hobbit debacle, it’s getting ridiculous that one of the most talented filmmakers around can’t actually get a film shot.