Yesterday I have finally read Guillermo Del Toro's leaked screenplay for "At the Mountains of Madness" from 2010. For a long time I didn't want to, so that I might experience the movie unspoiled, but sadly it doesn't look like we're getting to see this in cinemas soon or ever.
I agree with Dejan Ognjanovic 's
review of the script:
http://templeofghoul.blogspot.de/2010/08/at-mountains-of-madness-script-review.html
It would have been an action-packed creature feature in the style of "The Thing" with lots of effects and gore but not much focus on characters or Lovecraftian philosophy. It feels pulpy and cliché quite often, but it's also very entertaining and epic. A big-budget dark summer blockbuster with a unique setting - I really would love to see this on screen with Del Toro's trademark visual style and deep affection for monsters.
I can also see though, why Universal got the jitters and pulled back. 150 mio. USD is risky with R-rated stuff like this, and a script that doesn't really have a theme. It is only trying to scare us with the existence of evil creatures lurking under Antarctican ice and the realization that humanity was created by aliens out of fun and boredom. "Prometheus" had a similar thing going on and it didn't really work out there, too. I appreciate the effort, since we don't have a lot of movies dealing with that, but to be really scary it's just not enough. For religious people it might be, but for everyone with a scientific mindset it's not a huge shock. From a philosophical point of view it doesn't matter who created us and why. Be it by random coincidence or by a superior species what created us - it doesn't change much for me as a human being.
H.P. Lovecraft wrote "At the Mountains of Madness" in 1931 when humanity had a much more anthropocentric view on things than today. We know a lot more about the evolution of life, the solar system and the universe now. Still a lot of open questions but much more stuff makes sense than 90 years ago.
So what would be really Lovecraftian then today?
Not stories questioning our biological origin, stories that question ourselves.
Our way of thinking, our emotions, senses, instincts, values,
conceptions of reality. A story tackling that can become Lovecraftian in
a modern way.
So I agree with a lot of Lovecraft fans that it has become nearly impossible nowaydays to make an authentic adaptation of "At the Mountains of Madness". I think it would have to take place in the world of today and should really shatter contemporary science to have a similar impact. And that's really tough when science has become so much more solid - plus: most people do not really care about current scientific discussions. It has become a detached field for experts only.
Quantum physics is scary and it is a real thing. How can you beat that?