Sorry, another non-CAS related post, but there's some news announced re: At the Mountains of Madness film...

[www.slashfilm.com]

Basically James Cameron is on board as a producer and it looks like it's going to be in 3D. I've been in two minds about the fact that del Toro is directing this, but in 3D! This fills me with cosmic horror... and not in a good way!

What is your problem with 3D?

I've been thinking that recent high-tech movie effects would inspire a big budget Lovecraft film. I always assumed either Peter Jackson or Guillermo Del Toro would helm such a project and I think they're both capable. Personally, I would have assumed Hollywood would have chosen another HPL tale. Although there's a good chance the movie will be an upset, I'm going to wait it out and see. There's a chance it'll work.

Jojo Lapin X Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What is your problem with 3D?

To be honest, nothing... except I think it (and CGI in general) lends itself to making the worst kind of blockbuster nonsense cinema. Bur here I'm especially worried. Much of Mountains of Madness consists of the expedition wondering about looking at frescos and engravings and from them speculating upon the rise and fall of an alien civilization - none of which would seem to lend itself to making an engaging cinematic narrative. So what have we got? Antarctica. Aliens. Ruins. del Toro. James Cameron. 3D. I could be wrong by but to my mind that spells bug hunt in the snow. Don't get me wrong, I love Alien/s and The Thing, but I wouldn't like to see Lovecraft's greatest work reduced to a bug hunt. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is Hollywood we're talking about.

On the other hand we might see del Toro use 3D in some fractal Escher-like way to visualise HP's indescribable universe... I hope so! But I wouldn't overlook the possibility of a bug hunt minus the space marines.

I will watch anything involving cyclopean architecture in Antarctica. I even enjoyed ALIEN VS PREDATOR. So what if this project ends up nothing like Lovecraft's story? The latter remains safe on its shelf.

Jojo Lapin X Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I will watch anything involving cyclopean
> architecture in Antarctica. I even enjoyed ALIEN
> VS PREDATOR. So what if this project ends up
> nothing like Lovecraft's story? The latter remains
> safe on its shelf.

Ahhh... but you see, I won't watch anything - no matter what the architecture is like. I don't want to sully my mind with more rubbish than is already in there and I'd like to see a sympathetic adaptation, not necessarily a literal adaptation, of one of my favourite books rather than some rubbish action film that uses nothing but it's name and it's basic premise... In fairness, I doubt that it'll be a dumb action film, but, call me a nutter, I'd sooner it was good than bad (and hopefully it will be) and IMO Hollywood hasn't got a great recent track record of book adaptations. True, it doesn't taint Lovecraft's story, as you say it remains firmly on the shelf, but that doesn't mean I'm indifferent to the film... and lets face it the resulting media hype shit-storm will be hard to avoid no matter what.

Del Torro has brought S. T. Joshi on board as technical advisor, and knowing S. T. he will walk in a New York minute if he thinks this is turning into something like Conan the Barbarian: something that just takes the name and not the spirit of the work being translated from one medium to another. Also, several people that I know have read the script, and they say that Del Torro has hit the ten-ring. (Hitting the X may not be possible.)

Scott

Interesting. I could have sworn I read recently that del Toro had given up on getting this project on its feet any time soon.

Scott Connors Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Del Torro has brought S. T. Joshi on board as
> technical advisor, and knowing S. T. he will walk
> in a New York minute if he thinks this is turning
> into something like Conan the Barbarian: something
> that just takes the name and not the spirit of the
> work being translated from one medium to another.
> Also, several people that I know have read the
> script, and they say that Del Torro has hit the
> ten-ring. (Hitting the X may not be possible.)
>
> Scott

Well that is excellent news!

This all sounds very promising. I will not, however, watch it in 3-D; I've never been troubled by the lack of dimensionality in 2-D, provided the story and execution are up to snuff. My opinion is that if a film needs a gimmick like 3-D (and it is a gimmick) to succeed, it fails as a film.

That's what I thought until I saw AVATAR in 3D. Provided that the film is set up from the start to be in that format, 3D can be really effective.

Scott

I'm probably the only person who still hasn't seen Avatar (in any dimension), so I'll defer to your judgment, Scott!

I have not seen AVATAR either. I am interested in the 3D, but everything else about the film seems so offensive that I cannot bring myself to go see it.

I've not seen Avatar nor any of the new gen of 3D movies. Basically because they all look rubbish, although Avatar did look the best of the bunch - but still, not great.

I've just seen the Lovecraft documentary DVD with del Toro on it. I have to say that I feel much less trepidation having heard him talk about HP. He certainly seems to 'get' Lovecraft better than some of the commentators (Neil Gaimen's endless backhanded compliments and regurgitated generic observations did nothing for me). My only reservation, which kind of confirms my initial fears, is when he talks about filming Mountains of Madness in the Extras, where he seems to down play the cosmic backdrop of the story, then (in praise of 'Colour Out of Space') says he likes the idea of a family under siege of a cosmic catastrophe (or words to that effect), then mentions M. Night Shyamalan's turgid Signs as a good example! Hopefully this was an attempt at a joke.

I hope this is true! Del Toro has been chasing this film for years.

I thought for sure the Hobbit would finally make Hollywood open the purse-strings for him to be able to do this. I was really sad when he left the Hobbit both for that film and I figured he may never get the backing to do Madness.

But if ol Cameron is gonna throw in some cash and help produce, this has the potential to actually happen and be good.

In fact, only Del Toro could make this movie correctly!