Guillermo Del Toro readies At the Mountains of Madness for next summer

One of the best things about Guillermo Del Toro is the passion and excitement he has for everything he works on. There are certain filmmakers that you can sense their enthusiasm everytime they speak about a film they're making, and it inevitably shows up on the screen. I count Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, and James Cameron as being part of that group as well. So when the Hellboy director starts talking about At the Mountains of Madness, a film he's wanted to make his entire life, it's hard for me not to get jazzed about it.

Speaking with the LA Times, he reveals that he's already involved, or has he puts it "actively engaged" on the project, which sports James Cameron as a producer. In fact, Del Toro made it clear that Cameron has had significant input already....

Del Toro: In his subtle style he said to me, ‘I have a few notes, but I have one fatal flaw [that I see in the script].’ He pointed out one thing that was big. I’ve been thinking about this for 35 years, and he pointed out something I’d never seen.

A meeting with Universal took place recently, in which Del Toro revealed to them a completed script for the film, based on a novella by H.P. Lovecraft. The hope is to begin shooting in June of next year.

At the Mountains of Madness was originally written back in 1931, published in 1936 in the science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. It involves a scientific expedition to Antarctica, which unearths a never before found city inhabited by evil, super evolved creatures.

It's always a treat when Del Toro gets behind the director's chair, but it doesn't happen nearly often enough. His last film was 2008's Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and he's spent the bulk of his time since producing or writing. Of course he was supposed to direct The Hobbit, but we all know how that turned out. It sounds like he's got a whole new perspective on his career and the jobs he'll undertake, and I for one am all for it:

Del Toro: I’m putting all the chips I have accumulated in 20 years as a director, betting them on a single number.  This is not just a movie and then move on to the next. It’s do or die time for me. Cameron does his movies like that every time and I find it surprising the way people judge success in retrospect, like, of course, I would have done that. Avatar was the largest gamble, again, so were Titanic and Terminator 2. I love that type of filmmaker, with those gigantic stainless steel balls, Alec Baldwin-style in Glengarry Glen Ross, fucking clanking together. You can’t explain success in retrospect.