Director Guillermo del Toro may walk away from the director’s chair for the big-screen version of “At The Mountains of Madness.”
According to Deadline, Universal Studios is wary of spending $150 million on what they perceive as a horror film. Add to it that del Toro wants to direct and adapt “Madness” for an R-rating and the studio could be getting cold feet. Studio executives think that going for an R-rating in the film could keep teenagers out of theaters and make it harder for the studio to earn back the investment.
Del Toro has repeatedly stated that in order to be done right, “Mountains” would have to be R-rated.
The project apparently has the interest of Tom Cruise. But even the apparent one-two punch of del Toro and Cruise isn’t enough to convince Universal to pony up the money for the film.
Del Toro is now thinking of bailing on his baby and directing a film called “Pacific Rim”. The movie is being produced by Legendary Pictures—the people behind “The Dark Knight”, among others—and is said to be a large-scale alien invasion film written by screenwriter Travis Beacham, with whom Del Toro almost worked on previous projects
That is one of the problem with a lot of movies, the studios interfere with the creative processes in the name of profit margins and consequently an inferior product is put on the market, that still loses money in the long run. If something is done well the people will come… The first Paranomal Activity for an example.