Tom Cruise’s WB Deal Should Revive Guillermo del Toro’s Greatest Movie That Has Not Been Made for More Than 20 Years Now

SUMMARY

• Guillermo del Toro's long delayed project might finally have a ray of hope as Tom Cruise signed a new deal with WB.
• The actor was in talks for At the Mountains of Madness, directed by del Toro and produced by James Cameron.
• Guillermo del Toro might be the best director in Hollywood today to adapt an H.P. Lovecraft story.

What do you get when you take one of Hollywood’s last remaining superstars, a director known for his horror, fantasy, and science fiction chops, a producer responsible for the biggest box office revenue ever, and the technology that went with the latter?

Guillermo del Toro | image: Instagram/@gdtreal

You get a film that has been delayed for 20 years and counting.

Guillermo del Toro has been trying to get an At the Mountains of Madness production for the past two decades, but even with the help of James Cameron, the project has yet to see the light of day.

Could Tom Cruise’s deal with WB revive At the Mountains of Madness?

Tom Cruise in American Made || Credits: Universal Pictures

At the Mountains of Madness, written by H.P Lovecraft, first entered into talks for an adaption over at DreamWorks way back in 2004, which would then cycle through a slew of projects, before ending up in the hands of James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment. This iteration of the production was set to star Tom Cruise in the lead role.

As of 2024, Tom Cruise and Warner Bros. have entered a new deal, under which the studio is set to produce a slew of franchise films and original content with Tom Cruise onboard. Given the studio’s relationship with the actor, Guillermo del Toro’s film might finally get an earnest shot at being produced.

H.P. Lovecraft has been known as one of the biggest names in horror fiction, and del Toro might be one of the few people in Hollywood who could actually do his stories justice on the big screen.

Guillermo del Toro gets monsters like no other creator

Credits: Guillermo del Toro via CBS News

There have been a number of industry heavyweights that are known for their association with monsters. Guillermo del Toro has found himself among these ranks, thanks to how he understands mystical creatures.

Be it the supernatural horror of Pan’s Labyrinth, the personal tragedy of the creature from The Shape of Water, or the incredibly mammoth and terrifying kaiju from Pacific Rim, few in the industry can make such diverse monsters speak to the audience. Del Toro does this by making the monsters mean something in the narrative, along with having a brilliant design that catches the eye of the viewers.

Further, this is exactly the kind of vision that a project like At the Mountains of Madness would merit, given that the particular kind of horror is very difficult to film the kind of horror written by H.P. Lovecraft, which relies on the fear of the unknown over everything else.

Written by Anuraag Chatterjee

Articles Published: 1223

Anuraag Chatterjee, Web Content Writer
With a passion for writing fiction and non fiction content, Anuraag is a Media Science graduate with 2 year's experience with Marketing and Content, with 3 published poetry anthologies. Anuraag holds a Bacherlor's degree in Arts with a focus on Communication and Media Studies.