Guillermo del Toro has confirmed that Universal Pictures will not green light the highly anticipated R-rated 3D adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness: [via The New Yorker]
After three months of deliberation, Universal Pictures, the studio that gave del Toro money for pre-production creature designs, has remained unwilling to give the director a greenlight, citing concerns over the film’s budget and likely R rating. On Monday, del Toro withdrew from the negotiations, and that night at ten-thirty he sent me a short, mournful e-mail:
Madness has gone dark. The ‘R’ did us in.
In addition to the project’s high cost, del Toro said Universal also wanted the film to be rated PG-13, something he would never be in support of:
“Madness,” as he imagined it, would not be particularly gory, but he insisted that he needed the artistic freedom “to make it really, really uncomfortable and nasty.”
With Universal turning the project down, Del Toro may present it to another studio.
