'Game Of Thrones' Creators David Benioff And D.B. Weiss Are Developing A 'Lovecraft' Movie
Mere months after David Benioff and D.B. Weiss parted ways with Star Wars over "scheduling issues," the Game of Thrones co-creators have signed on to adapt the Vertigo graphic novel Lovecraft into a feature film for Warner Bros. The duo have signed on to produce the thus-far untitled thriller, but it is unknown if they will also direct the project.
Benioff and Weiss are trading a universe far, far away for some eldritch horror. Variety reports that the duo have signed on to produce the untitled thriller based on Keith Giffen's 2004 graphic novel Lovecraft, published by DC Comics imprint Vertigo. Benioff and Weiss have tapped Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi to pen the script, while Destroyer director Karyn Kusama is executive producer. No director has yet been named.
The Lovecraft graphic novel chronicles the life and works of H.P. Lovecraft, who was a seminal influence on sci-fi horror with stories like The Call of Cthulhu, The Rats in the Walls, At the Mountains if Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time. His influence was so large that his name has been used to describe that particular brand of cosmic horror of the unknown. The plot details of Benioff and Weiss' film are unknown, but Variety reports that the duo's take will "tackle the idea of Lovecraft's otherworldly creatures being real."
This news comes just two months after Benioff and Weiss walked away from the trilogy of Star Wars movies they were initially set to make for Disney's Lucasfilm. The duo blamed their commitment to their extensive Netflix deal for their departure, but with the two of them signing on to develop a feature film for Warner Bros., that is apparently not the case. It seems likely now that the backlash over the polarizing final season of Game of Thrones, for which Benioff and Weiss received the brunt of the criticism, played a part in the duo exiting Star Wars.
Benioff and Weiss remain a controversial set of creators in the aftermath of not just the final season of Game of Thrones (though many, including me, have been criticizing them since the early days of the HBO fantasy series), but in contentious choices they've made for other projects, including the alternate-history HBO project Confederate. The latter project drew the duo criticism for insensitively tackling race — which could potentially bring up some doubts about Benioff and Weiss' ability to adapt the stories of a notorious racist like Lovecraft.