Archives: What’s Happening in HTG Town

Production on Scott Kessler and 21st Century Cat’s ultra-ambitious adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s classic horror tale The Call of Cthulhu came to a screeching halt this past week as the director stormed off the film’s Antarctic set and swore never to return. Rumors abound regarding the source of the dispute between writer/executive producer Scott Kessler and wunderkind director M. Night Shyamalan, but the bottom line reads like this: Shyamalan is off the project. The cast will remain the same (Sean Connery, Guy Pearce, Michael Keaton, Vincent Cassel and Mickey Rourke), as the actors have been contracted to complete the film. The real question remains: Who will direct the troubled film?

A few names have been thrown around…names like Spielberg, Raimi, Romero, Carpenter and Wachowski. Our sources assure us that none of the above will actually come on-board the seemingly haunted project. One name that does keep re-surfacing is none other than Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, but that is unconfirmed. I’m personally pulling for John Carpenter, whose In The Mouth of Madness is a near perfect homage to H.P.L’s horrifying works.

As things stand, the film is roughly halfway through production at this point and will not make the original December release date. The producers assure us that the film will be completed and released via 21CC…but when? 21CC and Siege Studios have suggested a Summer 2006 release for the film, but word on the streets of HTG Hollywood has it that the film will be re-shot from scratch. Shades of Exorcist 4? Perhaps, but it seems that C.o.C. has a much better chance at success than Paul Schrader and Renny Harlin’s attempts at that sequel.

The Call of Cthulhu revolves around the concept that nightmares spawned by a sleeping, power-mad demon god living beneath the sea are predicting his return, which will in turn signal the end of humankind. It seems to me that it might take the might of Cthulhu himself to get this project out of the doghouse.

Time will tell.