Earlier this week, SpectreVision released a first look at its upcoming H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color out of Space. Speaking with ComingSoon, founders Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah revealed that they want to continue to adapt Lovecraft’s works, and are planning to “build out a Lovecraft universe.”
According to the pair, they’re in in the early development stage for an adaptation of Lovecraft’s story “The Dunwich Horror,” which appeared in Weird Tales magazine in 1929. Set in the town of Dunwich Massachusetts, the story is about Wilbur Whateley, who grows up abnormally quickly, and who assists his sorcerer grandfather with a strange project involving an invisible entity that continues to grow in their barn.
Noah and Wood noted that while Lovecraft’s stories have been adapted over the years, there’s never really been a good, faithful adaptation of his stories. Should Color Out of Space do well, the trio hopes that they can make at least three films. Noah pointed out that when they read Stanley’s script for Color Out Of Space, they were excited at the prospect of adapting Lovecraft as faithfully as possible. “When you see this film, you’ll see that there are all kinds of little references that are allusions to other Lovecraft stories.”
Color Out Of Space director Richard Stanley told ComingSoon in 2015 that he had wanted to work on an adaptation The Dunwich Horror, describing it as “a kind of proper backwoods degenerate, Great God Pan crossed with the Texas Chainsaw family” type of project.
While Lovecraft is an enormously influential (and flawed) horror author, there haven’t been a ton of high-profile adaptations of his works. If Noah and Wood have their way, it looks as though they’re well on their way to putting together a cinematic universe that’s faithful to the author’s stories. That’s an approach that’s worked for major studios, and it would sit well with Lovecraft’s works, which often set in the same shared world. If done right, those works could support one another. But, cinematic universes are difficult projects to put together, and until Color Out of Space hits theaters, it remains to be seen whether or not such a franchise is something that audiences are clamoring for.
Dear SpectreVision, please give Guillermo del Toro a shitload of money and ask him to make At the Mountains of Madness. His way.
Say the pair whose Color movie converts the subsistence farmers of the story into yuppies…
Alan Moore’s PROVIDENCE would make one hell of a miniseries…….
Mountains of Madness, by all means!
Also please consider Ruthanna Emry’s Innsmouth Legacy series!
And Charlie Stross’ Laundry series!
And Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of Londons series!
And ponies, ponies, PONIES! Tentacled ponies for EVERYONE!
They would have gotten off to a better start had they not hired Nic Cage. Why do people hire Nic Cage? He isn’t popular enough to “open” a movie. And I’d bet that he’s expensive.
Exciting :)
@5 – I don’t think Cage is that expensive anymore. He’s starred in some really low-budget nonsense just to pay the bills. I’d offer a few titles, but IMDB/Amazon went and ruined BoxOfficeMojo so I can’t even look him up anymore.
Say the pair whose Color movie converts the subsistence farmers of the story into yuppies…
He’s starred in some really low-budget . Say the pair whose Color movie converts the subsistence farmers of the story into yuppies…
Bill Reynolds watch Joe, Mandy, and Mom and Dad. They might change your mind about Cage being castes in this film. Mandy in particular shows Lovecraft stories may have been the kind of movies Cage was born to play in. Lovecraft stories require being able to display madness, and nobody can go mad better than Nicholas Cage. But he also has the dramatic chops too when he is reigned in.
@7 an in-law of mine who worked for the Coppolas said the thing with Cage is that he’s really bad with money, so sometimes he’s just got to take whatever comes along. I think he is one of those actors like Brian Blessed whose dramatic persona has grown to skirt the line between the ridiculous and the utterly awesome. Carefully deployed, his brand of batshit insanity can be really effective. I think Lovecraft’s world is the right kind of high level crazy for him.
Saw this at a film festival in Auckland last night and expecting very, very little, was pleasantly surprised. A remarkably faithful adaptation. Recommended for Lovecraft fans, monster movie fans, and anyone who‘s always wished Nicholas Cage could be slightly more spittleflecked and unhinged, preferably about alpacas.
i’m just getting into this recently![.](//s04.flagcounter.com/mini/Jkzv/bg_FFFFFF/txt_DEDEDE/border_FFFFFF/flags_0/" width="1"/>)
Some aspects of the story need to be changed if the movie will be set in the present-day. It’s inherent.
MoM by GDT ! ! !
Please consider making movies on Cthulhu himself (Call of Cthulhu), Flying Polyps and the Great race of Yith (The Shadow out of Time) and Hastur, the King in Yellow (Whisperer in Darkness) and Dagon and the deep ones (Shadow over Innsmouth).