Guillermo Del Toro's At The Mountains Of Madness: Officially Dead After 15 Years

After a decade of speculation, it seems that one of Guillermo del Toro‘s most eagerly awaited movie concepts is finally, officially dead. The Oscar-winning director has just released his movie adaptation of Frankenstein, another project he has been planning on doing for a long time. However, it seems that his At the Mountains of Madness movie is never to be.

Del Toro officially announced his At the Mountains of Madness movie in 2010, while reporting that he had been working on the script for years before that point. H.P. Lovecraft’s sci-fi horror novella recounts an expedition to Antarctica and the discovery of a civilization that predates the human race, meant to warn others not to attempt the same mission.

However, Del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness was reportedly rejected or fell through multiple times, mainly due to the director’s insistence on it having an R-rating, among other factors. He seemingly started to consider toning it down to PG-13 after moving to Legendary Pictures and making 2013’s Pacific Rim, which was a huge success.

But even after this, At the Mountains of Madness never got off the ground. While del Toro brought it up again, suggesting he might return to it, following his Pinocchio (2022), he has just provided the most definitive update yet — saying that he doesn’t think it’s happening. Del Toro said to Inverse about At the Mountains of Madness being greenlit:

I don’t think so, I would hope so. It depends, it’s a big movie. It’s a complicated movie to shoot. It is R-rated. So I don’t think people are lining up to do it.

This will come as a disappointment to many del Toro fans who were still holding out hope that the Pan’s Labyrinth director would get around to his long-dormant passion project. It might have even seemed fitting that he would tackle At the Mountains of Madness after Frankenstein, another classic literary piece that del Toro pondered for years.

Frankenstein may be the culmination of del Toro’s career, as Mary Shelley clearly influenced other monster movies throughout his career. It is even rated R, suggesting that the director would be able to secure the resources needed to produce another R-rated horror at his discretion. However, the more nebulous and less famous plot may still be too risky for studios.

Things could still change for At the Mountains of Madness, but it has been in development hell for so long that many have simply moved on. It would take the sheer commitment of Guillermo del Toro to make it happen now, and the filmmaker has multiple other upcoming projects that may force At the Mountains of Madness to remain an unrealized dream.