# Guillermo del Toro's Lovecraft adaptation cancelled **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 9, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001 "2011-03-09T02:26:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/41 "2011-03-09T23:13:06Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Of course, the other problem, that he doesn’t address, is that budgets are way too high. A $150 million dollar movie shouldn’t really cost that much, it’s just the premium rate Hollywood charges. Have to agree there. Say what you will about the script and acting in Skyline, but visually it had the look of a much more expensive film, and they managed to make it for 10-20 mil. And District 9 which had much better acting and story, also looked fantastic for 30 mil with more range for their on location footage. So we know it can be done cheaper - why isn’t it? And this movie is hit with the double whammy of the R rating, which brings in less money, and also being in the horror genre, which except for the rare outlier that does very well, tends to bring in less than 50 mil per film. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/42 "2011-03-09T23:36:05Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > But you said “The Thing” was rated R in response to the question “Can you really get an R rating through mature concepts with no boobs or blood?” I’d certainly interpret that question to refer to current movies & ratings, so referencing the rating of a movie that was released before the PG-13 rating existed isn’t really great evidence. Unless you’re taking the position that every movie that was rated R before PG-13 existed would still be rated R, and not PG-13, under the current guidelines. The PG-13 rating was not invented to give a softer rating to otherwise R-rated films. It was specifically created to give a harder rating to films that previously would have been rated PG. This occurred at a time when there was a strong backlash in American culture against violent media, particularly media intended for children. There is absolutely no way an R-rated film released between (say) 1979 and 1984 would have been considered for the PG-13 rating. That’s entirely counter to the social trends of the time that led to the creation of the PG-13 rating in the first place. This is especially true in conjunction with John Carpenter’s _The Thing_, which is an \*extraordinarily \*gory film. The fact that a significant portion (though not, by any means, all) of the gore comes from characters that are, per the story, no longer human, is entirely irrelevant: what you’re seeing on screen is a succession of apparent humans being dismembered and grossly distorted in a particularly revolting fashion. The only way this film could ever have not received an R rating (or equivalent) would be if it had been released before they started rating movies at all. Which would have been sometime around 1920, give or take. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/43 "2011-03-09T23:40:37Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > :eek: Are you insane? The Thing is probably the goriest movie I’ve ever seen. Honestly, if the exact same movie were released today I’d imagine that Carpenter would have to fight with the MPAA to rate it R instead of NC-17. It’s not that gory compared to some movies, but it is definitely an R movie. Terminator 2, though, is clearly a PG-13. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/44 "2011-03-09T23:47:04Z")
Pint for pint, _The Shining_ is probably the goriest movie ever made, just for the elevator scene alone. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/45 "2011-03-10T00:04:03Z")
> [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](#): > > Marley23: I think both \*The Case of Charles Dexter Ward \*and _The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath_ are longer than _At the Mountains of Madness_. I haven’t read Dream Quest. In my not particularly ancient or eldritch tome, Dexter Ward is about 117 pages and Mountains is 93 pages. So Mountains isn’t his longest, but it’s not a short story. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/46 "2011-03-10T00:11:36Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > So we know it can be done cheaper - why isn’t it? There may be a change in this diection as “amateur” filmmaking becomes even easier and cheaper to make. Pro-level equipment is now off-the-shelf affordable, and all they need is a budget numbering in the low millions (5m - 15m) to get a great movie out of it. As it is they struggle with only a tenth of that amount, which isn’t enough to do their movies justice. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/47 "2011-03-10T00:21:13Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > [Re-Animator](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-Animator) and [Dagon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagon_(film)) in particular. I deduct points from each for including a love-interest, however unnatural and blasphemous. Sex is a basic, healthy human drive. Love is optimistic, an affirmation of the value of life. Neither belongs in a Cosmic Horror story. Characters who **enjoy their food** do not belong in a Cosmic Horror story. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/48 "2011-03-10T00:26:29Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I haven’t read Dream Quest. In my not particularly ancient or eldritch tome, Dexter Ward is about 117 pages and Mountains is 93 pages. So Mountains isn’t his longest, but it’s not a short story. Just for the hell of it, I grabbed the text of all three stories off the internet and pasted them into Word, so they’d all have the same font size and formatting. _Dream Quest_ clocked in at a hair over 71 pages, _Mountains of Madness_ at 74, and _Charles Dexter Ward_ at a whopping 94. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/49 "2011-03-10T00:29:14Z")
I have heard some rumors of a secretive consortium that is willing to put up $150 million to get this film made. But, as they offered it in the form of a collection of disquietingly greenish-tinged golden artifacts of an unknown artistic tradition, apparently rather nautical in its esthetic focus, and bearing inscriptions unrecognizable to linguists, and curious figures grotesquely combining characteristics anthropoid, piscine and batrachian, there have been some complications. ---
**Author:** ![that\_darn\_cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@that\_darn\_cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/that_darn_cat)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/50 "2011-03-10T00:40:23Z")
My favorite " not really Lovecraft" movie is John Carpenter’s “In the Mouth of Madness” with Sam Neil. Great at the brooding terror and insanity, while never really showing the whole of the horrors. Bonus points for making a horror writer the conduit for the evil. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001/51 "2011-03-10T00:40:44Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Pint for pint, _The Shining_ is probably the goriest movie ever made, just for the elevator scene alone. [You ain’t kidding!](http://comixed.memebase.com/2011/03/03/koma-comic-strip-that-time-of-the-month-loving/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guillermo-del-toros-lovecraft-adaptation-cancelled/574001.md?page=2)