More Mad Mountains

So, Doug's comment on my post re. the unmade Del Toro Lovecraft movie led me to some interesting links I wanted to share more prominently than in a comment on a comment; hence this follow-up post.

First, there's Doug's own posting on the Wormwoodiana blog, which I highly recommend:

http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2013/08/del-toros-at-mountains-of-madness.html

Essentially I agree with him: the film Del Toro wants to make owes more to THE THING than anything by Lovecraft.

Thanks to the links Doug provided in his post, I was able to find a draft of Del Toro's script for the proposed movie available online via the following site:

http://lovecraftzine.com/2013/08/20/read-guillermo-del-toros-at-the-mountains-of-madness-screenplay/

If you scroll down on that page, you can see a link to someone else's detailed critique of the film script. I agree with some of what that person says, except that he idolizes Lovecraft and this particular Lovecraft story beyond their deserts, or so I wd argue.

As for the script itself, it makes for some interesting reading:*

http://lovecraftzine.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/at-the-mountain-of-madness.pdf

My conclusion after reading it: Del Toro has essentially co-opted the framework of Lovecraft's story as the basis for his re-make of the John Carpenter version of THE THING.

re. David's comment: I don't know if Del Toro cd make a Tolkien movie or not, but what I've seen of his work suggests that's not a good match for him. I wd have thought Lovecraft wd be a better fit, but this script suggests otherwise. I confess I do wonder what he might be able to do with A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS.

re. Eosphoros' comment: 

It may be as you say; I just have to say that, based on my limited exposure to Del Toro's work, I don't think he'd be a good match for Tolkien. Guess now we'll never know.

--John R.