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.
