Tom Cruise Still In The Running For Del Toro's AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS
With the days of Guillermo del Toro's time on The Hobbit now but a distant memory, everyone is eagerly awaiting the day when Universal finally gives the greenlight to the director's life long passion project, the estimated $130million adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. The del Toro & Matthew Robbins (Mimic) screenplay is said to be undergoing another re-drafting before Universal are ready to fully commit to the tentpole sized, 30s set, bleak Hard-R rated horror. It's definitely a gamble and the studio are understandably nervous at the price tag after a few large-scale risque disappointments over recent years such as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Land of the Lost.
So what can Del Toro do to stack the deck in his favour? Well he already has the might of James Cameron backing him up which clearly helped him get this far with Universal. Yup, it's not bad having the director of the two highest grossing movies of all time as your friend and producer. All he lacks now is a star lead, but thankfully the global mega star Tom Cruise remains linked to the project.
Yes, Del Toro has long been an admirer of the Cruiser (last summer he eyed him for a Van Helsing redo) and it seems he may be getting closer to landing his man. James Cameron, while speaking to MTV, offered a small update on how things are progessing;
"Tom does want to do the picture. I dont think we have a deal with him yet, but were hoping to get that closed soon. Guillermo is madly working on a new draft of the script. Hopefully well be shooting by June or July."
So, Jim sounds confident and if Cruise is clever he will bite their hand off at the opportunity. Recent years have seen his popularity decline with the average cinema-goer, seemingly tired of his grinning and all the pointless running. He should start opening himself up to these kinds of opportunities and to different audiences who have shyed away from his usual fare. The thought of Cruise in a straight up genre, albeit a mega budget tentpole, kind of appeals. What do you think?
Oh, and I'm not quite sure how we missed it but The New Yorker had a massive profile on Guillermo that ran this week. Perhaps, the greatest director interview of this century. READ IT.