(…) The concepts for a film adaptation of At The Mountains of Madness have been in Guillermo del Toro’s head for decades, with the acclaimed visual artist admitting to having an obsession with the story as far back as his childhood. A script was first penned by del Toro alongside frequent collaborator Matthew Robbins, who also aided the director with the writing of Pinnochio and Crimson Peak, as early as 2003. The screenplay was pitched by the pair to Warner Brothers multiple times, but the entertainment repeatedly turned it down, caught up on del Toro’s insistence on an R-rating. (…)
I’m not sure this kind of stuff was ever meant to be filmed. And maybe it better isn’t.
Of course not. It was written before “moving pictures” were a widespread thing.
And even more of course not, because Lovecraft usually writes in a way of: “if you see the thing, it’s so incomprehensible that you go mad knowing the thing is an actual reality”. There’s never a way to make a Lovecraftian film without it being disappointing in a way. Especially if you show the thing.
Exactly. Take “The Colour of of Space” - it talks about “colours never before seen by man” (quote from memory, there are several variants of that in the text). Now f-ing film a colour never before seen by man ;-)
That translates into film as “a shimmery pink” apparently (if you’ve seen the film).
Which is not what Lovecraft wrote. There has been a B&W movie adaption of that book; at least they could imagine that the “colour” was “out of space”.