Production of Cthulhu underway in Astoria OR. Akham Productions of Seattle is filming this indepent film on a budget of $500k. They are looking for extras for a scence with the monsters coming out of the sea on Oct. 28th if anyone is interested.

Check it out:

[www.dailyastorian.com]

Here is a link to the movie's site with a trailer

[www.cthulhuthemovie.com]

I strongly urge those of you who live close enough to Astoria to jump on this -
The phone contacts are on the website - I particularly urge Scott and Ron to contact the producer as your knowledge and insight into Lovecraft will be valuable - I called the production manager and gave her my son's phone # - he has done a few films and when I saw they needed monsters emerging from the sea, I naturally thought of him at once - several of you fellows have email names that might be suitable for the creatures as well - and that is meant as a compliment. Astoria is also where "Kindergarten cop" and "Short Circuit" were filmed - beautiful placr to vacation in late October.

The cult film The Goonies was also shot in Astoria.

I am surprised that the producers did not take the time to go to the recent Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, OR a couple of weeks ago. Another version of THE CALL OF CTHULHU, produced by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, premiered there and is now available on DVD. This is an outstanding 47m long _Silent_ film with orchestral score done as it might have been had a contemporary film version of the story been filmed, and on the whole it is quite marvelous.
Unfortunately, I am working Oct 28, and as I am taking a week off to attend the WFC in Madison, where I am participating in a panel on Arkham House :) , I can't change my schedule.
Scott

Actually I was at the HP Lovecraft film festival back in October, and the trailer for Cthulhu was shown right before Patty Smith went on. And I talked briefly with the writer/producer afterwards. He gave me the website and there's some cool stuff up there...www.cthulhuthemovie.com...There's a longer, better looking trailer than the one they showed at the festival.

henry VIII? Is this the esteem'd Henry Vester III? Or perhaps the shade of King Henry the VIII? Either way this is an auspicious occasion as I'm fairly certain this would be the first post from either of these notables on the Eldritch Dark.

I'll have to look up the website you've mentioned as I'm not really familiar with this movie trailer, but in the meanwhile a hearty 'welcome aboard' goes out to Henry Vester, a true devotee of CAS if there ever was one!

-Ron

henry VIII Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Actually I was at the HP Lovecraft film festival
> back in October, and the trailer for Cthulhu was
> shown right before Patty Smith went on. And I
> talked briefly with the writer/producer
> afterwards. He gave me the website and there's
> some cool stuff up
> there...www.cthulhuthemovie.com...There's a
> longer, better looking trailer than the one they
> showed at the festival.

Henry,
Where were you, bud? I was looking for you and Dan Clore, but the only person I saw from the WeirdCon crew there was Rob Preston!
Scott

Scott, Henry, and the mysterious Henry VIII: I've just heard from Henry Vester III and discovered that he did not make the previous post in question (though he does live in Oregon and did consider attending the HPL film festival) and that the spirit of King Henry VIII is undoubtedly the real author . . . Fascinating!
Sorry, my mistake!
-Ron

Cthulu The Movie? Well, yes. It is about time that there was a movie based on the infamous Cthulu. And of course, one can only assume that such a film would also feature beings from even further away in time and space. So far, it is only on this website, that I have found any information on the Cthulu film. It would be much appreciated if you readers could update me about this. I'm still a bit out of touch, having not used this excellent website for so long.

Has anyone seen a 2001 movie called "Dagon". Recently came across it perusig the Sci Fi Channel the other day. For a corny low-budget B horror movie, it was actually quite good, borrowing quite liberally from "The Shadows Over Innsmouth", have to admit it was actually surprisingly good - considering the budget. Corny but some parts were genuinely quite creepy - some real Lovecraftian moments there.

"Dagon" sounds interesting, devilchicken. But as you will know, "Dagon" is a very short story and would not be easy for anybody to adapt for the "big screen". You made the point that it is "genuinely quite creepy". If that is the case, then I would certainly like to give it a try. Sadly for me, I live in the UK and don't yet have access to many different TV stations. Hopefully, it will be shown on one of the channels to which I do have access; or released in DVD format quite soon. By the way, "The Shadows Over Innsmouth" is one of my favourite HP Lovecraft stories (atmospheric indeed).

Julian L Hawksworth

Any further news about this film, Noel (or anybody else)? It is sad that so few films have been based upon the works of HP Lovecraft. Then again, even fewer films (if any) have been inspired by the stories of Clark Ashton Smith.

Julian L Hawksworth

I'd certainly like to see the film when it is done, but from the information given on the two websites, above, I don't hold out much hope.

The first website, from The Daily Astorian, shows a picture of "actress Amy Minderhout", "Secured to a piling", where she "endures the chilly Columbia River during several takes for a scene in "Cthulhu."" A girl tied to a post? Not that I dislike traditional horror-film tropes like this, but it really has nothing to do with Lovecraft.

The second website describes the films plot as: "A Seattle history professor, drawn back to his estranged family on the Oregon coast to execute his late mother's estate, is reaquainted with his best friend from childhood, with whom he has a long-awaited tryst. Caught in an accelerating series of events, he discovers aspects of his father's New Age cult which take on a dangerous and apocalyptic significance."

Seattle? Oregon? New Age cult? Tryst? Are they sure this is an H. P. Lovecraft adaption?

But who knows, one can never really tell unless you've seen it.

Apparently the film Dagon (I still haven't seen it) was able to translate HPL's atmosphere rather well to the Spanish coast, but I still can't see why someone cannot set an HPL film in New England, perhaps filming it in Canada as The X-Files did in its early seasons, if costs are prohibitive, in order to get the proper "decayed" atmosphere.

Indeed, I really wish that Fox television would avail themselves of the opportunity to make a series of TV movies based on Lovecraft's works, especially given Fox's apparent preference for weird and unusual subject matter. The stories are in the public domain, so getting the rights would be no problem. There is already an established HPL fanbase, and his works are popularly known, assuring a wide viewing audience. And actors like Brent Spiner or Willam Dafoe would be, I think, excellent choices to portray a stodgy Lovecraftian-academic hero. And special effects could render the horrors seen at the end of "Mountains of Madness" quite wonderfully.

GDC



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10 May 06 | 02:31PM by Gavin Callaghan.

For anyone who's interested - Dagon is available on R1 DVD from Amazon.com, and is quite cheap.

[www.amazon.com]

The movie is cheap as well BTW, budget-wise at least but its quite well made - the cast plays it straight, and they do capture the paranoid uneasiness of Lovecraft. Its worth seeing just to see the crumbling Innsmouth (or Imboca as it is referred to in the movie) with its inhabitants in varying stages of degeneracy.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10 May 06 | 07:39PM by devilchicken.