Updated: Forthcoming Terrors: Big budget Lovecraft...

Below you will find brief overviews of several big budget Lovecraft inspired films that might really benefit from Universal and Imagine Entertainment's adaptation of The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft. Especially if Ron Howard directs...

Update: I've added two more projects to the list, both being developed by Hans Rodionoff (Lovecraft and Mnemovore). Notice how two of the following projects (three counting The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft) contain Lovecraft as a main character...


The Arcanum

Production company: Scott Niemeyer, Norm Waitt and Gold Circle Films
Director: Randall Wallace
Writer: Thomas Wheeler
Cast: TBA
Plot: Adapted from Thomas Wheeler's novel, the story, set in 1919, follows Arthur Conan Doyle as he leads a secret society known as the Arcanum (whose members include magician Harry Houdini, voodoo priestess Marie Laveau and horror writer H.P. Lovecraft) against a powerful supernatural force that threatens the world...
Release date: TBA
Website: NA
IMDb: NA
Source: various sources


At the Mountains of Madness

Production company: Universal Pictures
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Ron Perlman
Plot: Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft...
Release date: TBA
Website: NA
IMDb: NA
Source: various sources

Lovecraft

Production company: TBA
Directed by: TBA
Written by: Hans Rodionoff
Cast: TBA
Plot: When young H. P. Lovecraft becomes the reluctant guardian of the Necronomicon, an accursed book that is the doorway to the beyond, his life veers into strange territory. From an odd upbringing through his later success as a weaver of "weird" tales, Lovecraft maintains a tenuous balance between reality and the bizarre nightmares of his "fictional" horror. Based on the screenplay that was published as a graphic novel by Vertigo...

Release date: TBA
Website: NA
IMDb: NA
Source: various sources

Mnemovore

Production company: Guillermo del Toro, Don Murphy and Susan Montford.
Directed by: Hans Rodionoff
Written by: Hans Rodionoff
Cast: Kristen Bell (as Kaley Markowic) and Michael Biehn (as her therapist) were featured in a 10-minute sample reel but have not signed on for the film...
Plot: Based on the Vertigo comic (which ran for six issues in 2005) of the same name. The story focuses on Kaley Markowic, a young snowboarder who suffers a career-ending head injury during a competition, and loses part of her memory. While trying to recuperate from her head trauma, she discovers that the memories of others are being consumed by an ancient monster known as the Mnemovore. Kaley's amnesia leaves her immune to the monster's attacks, and the only one who can stop it...
Release date: TBA
Website: NA
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104095/
Source: various sources

Sacrilege

Production company: Rogue Pictures
Director: Neil Marshall
Writer: Neil Marshall
Cast: TBA
Plot: Set during the Gold Rush, a time remembered for incidents like the Donner Party. It is meant to be a pitch-black, gritty, period horror movie. This is Unforgiven by way of H.P. Lovecraft, with that grim, gritty setting and a horror element nobody has seen before...
Release date: 2010
Website: NA
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201160/
Source: various sources

(Thanks to a variety of sources)

Altitude one-sheet...

The Escape Factory has released some early poster art for Darclight's upcoming Lovecraftian feature Altitude. Kaare Andrews directs a Paul Birkett script and Jessica Lowndes stars...

About the film: Lost in a mysterious cloudbank, a rookie pilot and her four teenage friends must contend with a freak mechanical failure that first sends their small plane climbing to an impossible height, and then plummeting through endless mist.

After regaining control, the survivors are confronted with a horrifying realization - the very ground beneath them has vanished and a malevolent force lurking in the clouds wants them dead...

Check out an early promo teaser (not film footage) here...

(Thanks to www.bloody-disgusting.com)

Creature update...

Bloody-disgusting.com spoke with director Breck Eisner (on the set of The Crazies remake), and he updated them on the status of the Creature from the Black Lagoon remake that he hopes to start after The Crazies...

When asked if the Gary Ross scripted Creature will be his next film, Eisner said, "I don't know. We turned in another script. I think they are probably going to see how Wolf Man does and then we'll probably know from there."

"I haven't really been on top of it for a month," he added. "I've been in Georgia making [The Crazies]. But I'm hoping. We've been on it for two years. We're all very excited. We came so close to going. We were in prep before the Writer's Strike."

Although he didn't reveal much about the creatures look, Eisner did reveal the methods of it's creation, "The creature design is done. McQuarrie did the designs. It's a combo [of CG and man-in-suit]. For close-up, [it will be] suit work, for moving shots, wide and underwater stuff its probably going to be CG. We're still R & D'ing the CG stuff of the underwater, but it's definitely both. Some of the underwater movement of the character can't be done by a guy in the suit."

He also admitted that the project could join the current 3D craze, "We weren't [considering 3-D] before, but the landscape in the last year has changed. You expect it to be. People have forgotten the original is, but they'll remember it once the next one comes out."

I guess we'll see what surfaces...


(Thanks to www.bloody-disgusting.com)

Evil Dead: The Musical in 3D...

Another Cinema Wasteland has come and gone, and while I was visiting Tom Sullivan's Movie Memorabilia Museum, I overheard Bookbinder of the Dead and Evil Dead Historian Pat Reese mention something that I hadn't heard of before...

...a film based on Evil Dead: The Musical! Tom Sullivan confirmed that a 3D Evil Dead: The Musical movie is indeed in the works, and that Sam Raimi has given his blessings. The film will be produced by Don Carmody (an investor in theatrical version), Bill Franzblau and Jeffrey Latimer (both of whom produced the musical) and helmed by the theatrical production's director. The choreographer and several original cast members are also on board. "Serious rights issues" have to be resolved before the project moves forward, but Carmody hopes to begin filming this spring...

(Thanks to Pat Reese, Tom Sullivan and en.wikipedia.org)

Cinema Wasteland...

I will be attending the Cinema Wasteland Movie and Memorabilia Expo tomorrow (Sunday, April 5th), so if you see me, please stop and say hi! I'll be wearing an Unfilmable Films shirt with my trademark 'squid reel' logo on it...

FX legend, artist and Unfilmable.com film reviewer Tom Sullivan will be there all weekend, so make sure you drop by his Evil Dead museum! Tell him Unfilmable.com sent you...


Hope to see some of you there...

Craig Mullins
webmaster

Lovecraft spotted on "North 40"...

Wildstorm will release a new Lovecraftian comic titled "North 40" in July, written by Aaron Williams and inked by Fiona Staples...

Writer Aaron Williams spoke with CBR about the project, ""North 40" is basically what happens when you take a small backwoods county in the Midwest and drop H.P. Lovecraft on it. An old spellbook, belonging to a witch who practiced the odd incantation or two, was opened and as a result, plunged Conover County into a C'thuloid nightmare. Many of the residents are changed, often for the worse, and those who are still "normal" pretty much find places to hole up and hope for things to improve. A select few gained more extraordinary abilities, and they become some of the book's heroes. Managing the whole mess is Conover County's venerable Sheriff Morgan, dispenser of wisdom and .45 slugs, if the need arises."

Head over to Comic Book Resources for the full scoop...


(Thanks to www.bloody-disgusting.com)

Studi Lovecraftiani: Lovecraft Cinema...

From what I gather (all the information I've collected is in Italian and Babel Fish only works so well), issue #9 of the Italian Lovecraft journal Studi Lovecraftiani is devoted to films inspired by H.P. Lovecraft...

Articles include Lovecraft and the cinema, films based on The Colour out of Space, Lovecraft and John Carpenter (In the Mouth of Madness), an interview with Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, Dagon), a Sean Branney (Call of Cthulhu) interview, Lovecraftian elements in Joon-ho Bong's The Host, a Lovecraftian filmography and more...

Click here for further details...


(Thanks to studilovecraftiani.blogspot.com)

Dunwich Horror review...

Head over to Monsters and Critics.com for a "preview review" of Leigh Scott's The Dunwich Horror, starring Jeffrey Combs (as Wilbur Whateley) and Dean Stockwell (Wilbur Whateley in the 1970 version, Dr. Henry Armitage here). The film screened at last years HPLFF and will debut on the Sci Fi Channel later in the year, with a DVD release to follow...

"With his [Leigh Scott] new spin on The Dunwich Horror, he may well be on his way to small budget film greatness."

- Monsters and Critics


(Thanks to www.monstersandcritics.com)

Creature from the Black Lagoon the musical...

Dread Central reports some old but interesting news regarding Universal Studios Hollywood's Creature from the Black Lagoon stage musical...

From the Universal press release:

"Drawn from Universal's crypt of classic monsters and updated with spectacular Broadway production values and special effects, "Creature from the Black Lagoon—The Musical," will rise, live, on stage at Universal Studios Hollywood beginning spring, 2009.

With state-of-the-art stagecraft, acrobatic choreography and hilarious, toe-tapping music, the Creature will be brought to life in a story based on the original screenplay, updated to emphasize the element of romance and just a bit of comic relief. Original new music and dazzling production numbers will keep the attraction contemporary and lively.

Audiences will be immersed in the ominous environment of the deepest Amazon, enveloped by the exotic sounds and scents of the jungle. And from the production's first moments, they'll be thrust into an unexpectedly outrageous, strangely romantic, frequently melodic and often hilarious adventure as a monster classic is re-imagined for the 21st Century.

"Creature from the Black Lagoon—The Musical," will be staged as an attraction within the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. Admission will be included in the price of theme park tickets and annual passes."

(Thanks to Dread Central)

Cthulhu DVD reviews...

A couple more DVD reviews for Dan Gildark's Cthulhu have appeared online, courtesy of News Blaze and blogcritics.org...


(Thanks to newsblaze.com and blogcritics.org)