Updated Again:
Oh, how apt my opening paragraph is. Criterion Cast emailed Del Toro, and he responded in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. At the Mountains of Madness is dead. Dead. Dead.
So will Pacific Rim be a go? We’ll see. Original story below.
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Sometimes you have to wait until the dust settles before you can even post the news.
Earlier today, our beloved Renn brought you news that In the Mountains of Madness had a start date of June. Then it didn’t.
Now it may not happen at all. Or it might. We don’t know!
Deadline is reporting that Del Toro is seriously considering directing Pacific Rim for Legendary Pictures instead of Mountains for Universal. Universal is balking at the budget costs for Mountains, which is frustrating Del Toro, who has seen his dream project delayed again and again. Ain’t It Cool News reports the real issue isn’t the budget, but the R rating, though it’s undoubtedly a combination of the two. Studios don’t like dumping lots of money on an R in the best of times, but certainly not these tried-and-true days.
This story has actually surfaced before. Latino Review reported Del Toro was offered Pacific Rim last October. The project really has Del Toro written all over it as it’s set “set in a future in which malevolent creatures threaten the earth, the planet must band together and use highly advanced technology to eradicate the growing menace.” The story was later denied, though LR stuck by it, and can now laugh at the rest of the Internet.
We’ll see how this shakes out, and what Del Toro actually signs to. You have to feel for the guy, though. If he walks off Mountain, it will be the second high profile project he’s lost in as many years. Will no one give the guy a big budget and a backlot to shoot it on?
12 comments
DAMMIT!
Just one flingin’ flangin’ second there Liz. Wasn’t it just recently we found out that in fact the new Godzilla remake was going to be based on the script Pacific Rim? If so what does this mean for Godzilla, are they separate projects now?
The Latino Review link up there explains it — there was some initial confusion by the source that Pacific Rim was the basis of / for a Godzilla project, but they are in fact two separate monster films.
Poor Del Toro. But what happened to James Cameron’s legendary Hollywood muscle? The self-proclamed King of the Universe couldn’t Mountains greenlit? This must be a blow for his ego as well.
Cameron AND Cruise couldn’t get this greenlit? What the fuck, huh? I mean, what the fucking fuck?
Goddamnit. GODDAMNIT! GOD! DAMN! IT! *sobs weakly into his bowl of cereal*
Somebody update the header. It’s depressing seeing “HAPPENING” in big bold letters up there.
Would reworking it into a hard PG-13 have made a difference? Or was it also the fact that it would be a stand alone, non-franchise starting movie? Disappointing news to say the least.
Liz – if you or anyone else can follow up on this to get specifics on why this is dead, that would be huge. I find it very strange that Cameron and Cruise combined can’t get a film greenlit. There has to be more to this story than just an ‘R’ rating killed it. And if it was killed just over the rating, what does that say about the state of Hollywood?
Please keep up the great work!
At the end of the day it’s money and not Del Toro’s money either, it’s the studio’s and ultimately the bank’s. As a film, it’s a risk and a big one so until it’s our money we don’t call the shots.
Del Toro may not have any money, but James Cameron sure does. Why couldn’t Cameron stump up half the cash? $75m is small potatoes for him after Avatar…maybe deep down he also knew the film wouldn’t be a huge hit?
…because it’s Cameron’s money and why would he give his own money for someone else’s studio-sized budget film rather than his own? Cameron uses other people’s money because he can, that’s why he’s loaded.
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