10 Announced Horror Movies That Will Never Be Released
7. At the Mountains of Madness
Guillermo del Toro has more unrealised projects than he has actually completed films, and right at the top of the pile is an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's legendary cosmic horror novella At the Mountains of Madness.
The filmmaker was initially announced to be adapting the story in 2010 with James Cameron set to produce, yet within a matter of months del Toro expressed pessimism about it ever happening, due to Universal's anxiety about bankrolling a - in del Toro's words - "period-set, R-rated, tentpole movie with a tough ending and no love story."
Del Toro also cited 2012's Prometheus as stalling production due to its aesthetic and narrative similarities, and though word subsequently went mum on the film for close to a decade, in late 2022 he stated the possibility of resurrecting it as a stop-motion project in the vein of his recent Pinocchio film.
But At the Mountains of Madness is a tough sell for basically any studio considering its niche appeal, and if del Toro can't get it going with an outfit as permissive as Netflix - who funded both his Pinocchio and new Frankenstein adaptation - then there's sadly no hope for it at all.