Why Guillermo Del Toro's Dream Horror Movie Will Probably Never Be Made

Guillermo del Toro's unmade projects are the stuff of legends. From a "Justice League Dark" movie to a remake of "Fantastic Voyage" and even a "Wind in the Willows" adaptation for Disney (one that he bailed on after the studio asked that he give the Toad character a skateboard and have him say "radical dude" things — good call, Guillermo!), the list of films del Toro hasn't made is almost as audacious as the one he has. And at the top of that index? Without question, his take on H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness."

To quickly recap, Lovecraft's original sci-fi horror novella (which was published in 1936) centers on a group of explorers who find the remains of an ancient civilization in Antarctica. In doing so, however, they also learn the dark truth about humanity's origins, bringing them face to face with unfathomable horrors from beyond our world. In addition to being highly influential, "At the Mountains of Madness" features many of the things del Toro does best as a storyteller (monsters; grisly, bizarro horror; an in-depth look at the often messy relationship between creators and their creations). Hence, when he revealed he was adapting it into a big-budget tentpole in 2010, his fans broke out into squeals of joy.

Alas, it was too good to be true, and the project was ultimately canceled. Why? It didn't help that Ridley Scott's "Alien" prequel, "Prometheus," came together around the same time, with the pair having a lot in common. But there are other reasons the film hasn't been revived since then. As del Toro told Inverse, it's a "complicated movie" and a difficult sell to mainstream audiences, what with its bleak subject matter and decidedly unhappy ending. More importantly, he's not sure he even wants to make it anymore.

Prepare to clutch your pearls, fellow del Toro enthusiasts, but I'm sorta glad he didn't make his initial version of "At the Mountains of Madness." In a previous video, YouTube creator Matt Draper analyzed the script draft that del Toro and his frequent co-writer, Matthew Robbins, penned for the film in the late 2000s. Cutting to the chase, I agree with Draper that it reads less like Lovecraft and more like John Carpenter's "The Thing," only more spectacle-heavy and otherwise commercially friendly than Carpenter's chilling classic.

That doesn't necessarily mean it would've been bad; the "At the Mountains of Madness" test footage that del Toro shared in 2022 is certainly promising. But at this stage in his career, it risks feeling like more of the same. Thankfully, del Toro agrees, especially now that he's finally made "Frankenstein," his other notorious white whale. "This movie closes the cycle," he told Empire. "If you look at the lineage [of my films], from 'Cronos' to 'The Devil's Backbone,' to 'Pan's Labyrinth' to 'Crimson Peak' to this, this is an evolution of a certain type of aesthetic, and a certain type of rhythm, and a certain type of empathy." Indeed, with its Gothic, romanticized sensibilities, "Frankenstein" comes across as the capstone of del Toro's filmography to date.

Driving the point home, he later added, "And to be completely candid, I don't know that I want to do ['At the Mountains of Madness'] after this."

Of course, should he change his mind (a definite possibility, he admitted), it seems del Toro would turn "At the Mountains of Madness" into a very different movie — one that's "more esoteric, weirder, smaller," as he told Fangoria back in 2021. Now that I'd like to see.