by Seth Metoyer

Most everyone is now aware that Guillermo del Toro has dropped the reigns as director of the upcoming Hobbit movie.

Though there are many projects available to concentrate on next, the mastermind behind such critically acclaimed films as Pans Labyrinth and the cult comic fan favorite Hellboy, del Toro talks about his love of H.P. Lovecraft. Specifically that of an adaptation of the 1931 novella At The Mountains of Madness.

This film has been a passion of del Toro's for years, and he's often discussed the possibility of production happening by 2017. He unveiled this idea back in 2008 as part of what he called his "Roadmap to 2017". Aint it Cool News recently discussed the project with del Toro in an interview.

Although it doesn't seem that the movie will see the light of day (or night) anytime soon, he did reveal some very exciting possibilities and unveiled his passion for the Lovecraft literary movie rendering. "I have exactly the set of tools that I need to be brave on Mountains," he said, answering a question about whether or not he feels "brave" enough to take on the project. "Mountains is exactly the movie I would like to do; it would push buttons, and it's extreme in many areas. It's a hard R-rated, big production tentpole in the genre of horror."

Del Toro also went on to discuss how he misses the good tentpole horror movies of past and why At the Mountains of Madness would be a return to that genre of film. "What I love about tentpole horror - which is not done much anymore, if at all - is that there was a time when you could see something like Alien or The Shining or The Thing. Movies that came not as a B-movie product of a studio, but as an A, tentpole, big release, high-end production like The Exorcist, and so on and so forth. And what I would love with Mountains is for it to have all the luster and the scope of a tentpole horror movie, but be R-rated. Not because I want to do gore for gore's sake, but because it is a very adult movie, and the consequences of things are really deep and disturbing. Hopefully, one day, I will have the clout to do it. But no, I am equipped with the exact bravery to go crazy on all the movies I make."

Those statements mirror the ones del Toro made back in 2007 about the same project, stating: "I think that big-scale horror, big tentpole horror, which you used to have with Alien, The Shining, The Exorcist before everyone thought horror needs to be this or that and pre-conceptualized, I think big tentpole like that should be back at some point in life, so I'm patiently waiting my turn."

We all hope this movie happens sooner than later, but it doesn't seem like will be next for him. Lovecraft fans, including myself, have been waiting for a large budget big screen storytelling of some of Lovecraft's work. This one will definitely be worth the wait especially if someone like del Toro unleashes his passion and creativity on it!

If you aren't familiar with the story "At the Mountains of Madness", it is part of the Cthulu Mythos and one of H.P. Lovecraft's novella horror stories, first printed in 1936 in Astounding Stories. The story surrounds an expedition to Antarctica, lead by William Dyer, a professor from Miskatonic University, in which various manners of terror and creatures are discovered. Its been described as "representing the decisive 'demythology' of the Cthulhu Mythos by reinterpreting Lovecraft's earlier supernatural stories in a science fiction paradigm." Essentially, the expedition finds the Cthulhu monster up in Antarctica and said utter terror ensues.

Firstshowing.net, aintitcool.com and wikipedia.org contributed information to this article. You can contact Seth Metoyer at seth@morehorror.com.