Did Prometheus steal the fire from The Mountains of Madness?

It would seem that Guillermo Del Toro has just gone and got his mojo stolen. The Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy director has long been labouring to bring horror writer extraordinaire HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness to the big screen. The film was shelved by Universal Studios in 2011 due to budgetary concerns, but that hadn’t dampered his passion for the project at all. Unfortunately that passion has now just about been snuffed out completely by none other than Ridley Scott.

As Del Toro revealed on the message board for his films, Scott’s next big sci-fi opus, Prometheus, would just have hit a little too close for comfort.

“I have been interviewed about this lately and wanted to post my two cents about this:

Prometheus started filming a while ago – right at the time we were in preproduction on PACIFIC RIM. The title itself gave me pause – knowing that ALIEN was heavily influenced by Lovecraft and his novella.

This time, decades later with the budget and place Ridley Scott occupied, I assumed the greek metaphor alluded at the creation aspects of the HPL book. I believe I am right and if so, as a fan, I am delighted to see a new RS science fiction film, but this will probably mark a long pause – if not the demise – of ATMOM.

The sad part is – I have been pursuing ATMOM for over a decade now – and, well, after Hellboy II two projects I dearly loved were not brought to fruition for me.

The good part is: One project [Pacific Rim] did… And I am loving it and grateful for the blessings I have received.”

In response to some further prodding from fans, he later added:

“Same premise. Scenes that would be almost identical.”

“Both movies seem to share identical set pieces and the exact same BIG REVELATION (twist) at the end. I won’t spoil it.”

Having never read At The Mountains of Madness, I have no idea as to which big revelation he is referring to. And on the off chance that he is correct (I am assuming that he has some inside knowledge of Scott’s script), I will not be looking it up either, in fear of inadvertently spoiling Prometheus for myself. For the rest of you that don’t care about such things though, go ahead and Wiki that sucker.

I absolutely loved virtually every weird and disturbing frame of Pan’s Labyrinth. And although I felt that narratively he dropped the ball a bit with his Hellboy work, Del Toro still showed that he has a visual imagination that is nearly without peer in Hollywood. To have seen him take on a Lovecraftian tale would certainly have been a delight. Well, as much of a delight as the screaming, soaked sheets nightmare inducing visions he would certainly have conjured up could possibly be.

Last Updated: May 8, 2012