It could have been something really amazing.
Horror movies, in general, are cheap.
Saving a fortune on lighting alone, they’re usually made up of actors you’ve never heard of before, maybe one of them has a mask and a knife, and maybe they’re hanging out in a scary place.
None of this really requires a lot of money to be successful. In terms of pure horror movies, it’s hard to think of one that could have required a lot of actual budget.
World War Z was as much an action movie as it was a horror movie, so that doesn’t really matter. So maybe… this year’s Nope? It cost $68 million to produce before any promotion, which may well be the most expensive horror film ever made.
Of course, if Oscar-winning director Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley) succeeded, it wouldn’t, as he planned to make a $100 million adaptation of the classic horror novel. To the mountains of madness.
Circa 2012, between Hellboy II and Pacific Rim, this was next on GDT’s to-do list, based on HP Lovecraft’s still chilling 1936 story of an expedition to Antarctica in which a group of explorers discover a new form of life.
This week, the director posted the first scene of the film, in which someone crosses paths with this life form…
Del Toro planned for Tom Cruise to be the main character in his version of the story, which would also have been produced by none other than James Cameron.
Its price has disabled both Warner Bros. and Universal at the time, especially when Del Toro planned to keep it aimed at adults with the violence and horror.
Plus, the film’s plot similarities to 2012’s Prometheus basically put the whole thing on ice.
However, Del Toro now has a very active relationship with Netflix – a few weeks ago he released his Cabinet of Curiosities, while December will see his version of Pinocchio arrive on the streaming service – and there’s a chance that this be the new home for her (now smaller) horror.
He said Collider the following about the adaptation potential on Netflix:
“Guess what the first projects I pitched were, you know? I searched the closet and found ‘Monte Cristo’ and ‘Mountains of Madness.’ These are some of the ones I introduced first.”
Crossed fingers!
