Guillermo del Toro’s Biggest Tom Cruise Team-Up Just Got Axed After 15 Years

I wish this one had a happier update. Guillermo del Toro has been chasing H.P. Lovecraft's 'At the Mountains of Madness' for ages, and he just admitted the movie still is not happening. It is the white whale of prestige horror: massive, uncompromising, and apparently impossible to sell in the current studio climate.

What del Toro is saying now

'I don’t think so, I would hope so. It depends, it’s a big movie. It’s a complicated movie to shoot. It is R-rated. So I don’t think people are lining up to do it.'

Short version: he wants to make it, but studios keep balking.

Why the project keeps stalling

• It is a big, expensive, technically gnarly shoot, and del Toro wants to stick close to Lovecraft rather than sand off the edges.
• The story is bleak cosmic horror with no tidy bow at the end and no central romance. That makes it a tough sell for a four-quadrant blockbuster.
• It is R-rated, which shrinks the audience for something that would cost a fortune.
• Post-COVID box office math makes huge R-rated gambles a lot harder to justify, even when the results can be artistically great.
• This has been in development limbo for nearly two decades. At one point, Tom Cruise was attached to star. Still no go.
• Universal previously walked away over budget concerns, and del Toro's latest comments imply Netflix is cautious too.

What the story actually is

If you have never cracked the novella: an Antarctic expedition stumbles onto a civilization older than humanity. The real horror is not monsters jumping out of the dark; it is the queasy feeling that humans are a cosmic footnote. It is more existential dread than catharsis, which is thrilling on the page and incredibly risky at $100M-plus on a movie screen.

The Netflix angle (and a little hope)

Del Toro has a multi-year deal with Netflix, and when that started, 'Mountains' was one of the first titles he pitched alongside 'Monte Cristo.' He even said:

'Take a wild guess which were the first projects I presented... Monte Cristo, Mountains of Madness. Those were a couple of the ones I presented first.'

Right now, though, his read is that Netflix is not rushing to make it either. The glimmer of hope: his long-awaited 'Frankenstein' is landing strong early buzz, which could give the streamer a reason to take another look if awards chatter heats up.

The Cruise of it all

Tom Cruise was once in line to lead this thing. If his schedule is looser without being fully handcuffed to the next 'Mission: Impossible' lap, a reunion with del Toro is not impossible. Distant? Definitely. Impossible? No.

Where things stand

For now, 'At the Mountains of Madness' is not moving forward. Del Toro still wants to make it, but the money, rating, and tone keep scaring off backers.

Meanwhile, 'Frankenstein' is doing its part to change minds. Snapshot:

- Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
- IMDb: 7.3
- Runtime: 149 minutes

'Frankenstein' is currently playing in limited U.S. theaters and hits Netflix on November 7.