There’s been some chatter on the airwaves about Ron Howard, the director of Willow, Splash and Backdraft (just to name the big ones), taking on the cult-hit comic-to-film-adaptation, The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft.
According to the website devoted to the comic, it tells the story of a generally pitiful and sad pulp-horror writer (name provided in the title) who suffers unrequited love, lack of professional esteem, etc… until he one day comes across a book that somehow brings the bad guys from his worst nightmares into the real world – and only he has the power to destroy them! If you don’t know, H.P. Lovecraft WAS an actual fantasy and horror writer in the U.S. during the early part of the 20th century: he wrote deeply pessimistic tales in which his protagonists get a brief glimpse at the horror of reality.
Huh. Guess that (sort of) explains the header image…
The Strange Adventure of H.P. Lovecraft was originally published by Image Comics. /Film tells us (through our daily game of telephone) that Howard had the following to say about the project:
“…it’s challenging, but if we get it right, it could be really original and psychologically interesting and scary in a great way.”
Who doesn’t love a “underdog has to make a stand” storyline? Spidey‘s done alright with it. I’ll throw out a guess that the above quote from Howard references the story’s exploration of inadequacy Lovecraft endures (he apparently is also suffering from writer’s block). The aforementioned Lovecraft fan website lists Mac Carter (a commercial director who has taken home a Bronze Lion from Cannes for his work), Adam Byrne (one-time lead animator for the studio that produces The Simpsons and King of the Hill) and Tony Salmons (who’s surely a very nice man, but doesn’t list specific projects in his bio) among the creative team behind Lovecraft. This is kind of movie would be a leap from Howard’s recent offerings, but the director mentioned that he’s got a lot of stuff competing for his time these days:
“So I’ve got literally half-a-dozen projects where essentially I’m waiting for drafts to come in, and there’s something I love about all of these ideas. We’ll just have to wait to see what comes to fruition.”
Will Howard push forward on Lovecraft and make a film that buries the hatchet between me and him for Angels & Demons? Who knows? Or better yet – how do you think Howard would handle the darker content and themes of The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft? I for one would be curious about a film that deals with a creative mind’s struggles, mixed with ghoulish beat-downs.
No word on when such a film would be released, put into production or otherwise exist anywhere outside of your imagination. For more quotes from Howard about all of this, check out /Film.
Source: /Film
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