Lost Carcosa

Stuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs make a great pair in the movie industry.  At least I seem to think so.  They do a great job creating entertaining movies together, but it looks like Combs has turned down playing a part in Gordon’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Thing at the Doorstep”.

Stuart was like, ‘Yeah, I know, being in bed with beautiful women all day, it sounds tough, and I went, ‘You know, Stuart, actually, it is. I’m married, and I don’t wanna do that.’ It’s not part of my world. It was just too much, it was like, ‘And then they’re writhing, and then they’re humping some more, and then they build to a climax, and then they climax, and sweat…” I wish him all the best with that one, but not every project’s right for me.  

~Combs

You can read Comb’s thoughts over at Arrow in the Head News.

Comic Book Resources has just interviewed cover illustrator J.K. Woodward and interior artist Andrew Ritchie about BOOM! Comics’ upcoming “Necronomicon”.  Issue #1 is set for an August release.  To read what Woodward and Ritchie have to say about drawing for this Lovecraftian comic, a little about what they’ve worked on before, and to see some of the artwork, head on over to Comic Book Resources.

For those of you who are excited at the idea of Cthulhu holding the staring role in the upcoming movie “Cloverfield”, or any role for that matter, you’ll be sadly disappointed. Personally, I was of the opinion that the movie was going to be too “mainstream” to be good for Cthulhu any way. He deserves a movie that can wield horror like Alfred Hitchcock could, not a gigantic beast rippping up cities in a Godzilla sort of way. Not that theres anything wrong with a good giant-monster-about-to-eat-your-ass movie, but Cthulhu has so much more to offer than that to be belittling himself to such a role.

“Was the monster in the film inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu?

It was not. Here’s the thing—there’s been a lot of speculation, but J.J. has already answered the question. What really happened was that during Mission Impossible 3, J.J. took his son to Japan for the premiere. While they were there, they visited a toy store in Tokyo. They saw shelf after shelf, row after row, of Godzilla toys. Just this huge toy store filled with toys. The image was really striking to J.J. He said, “Look at this. This is like a national monster.” He started thinking, “You know, we need our own national monster.” Obviously King Kong is kind of a national monster but not really in that way. That’s a great movie and he’s a legendary figure in film lore, but it’s not really the same thing. So the way that Godzilla was sort of a metaphor for the time, and for that place, the idea of creating a new monster for this time and place came about. It’s an original monster, and a monster that was inspired, really, by Godzilla.”

…What?… You don’t sit down and say “we need an original national icon” then “borrow” someone else’s. Lets see…. Giant monster comes out of the sea and destroys Tokyo New York… Original! What we’re going to have here is Godzilla in a different costume… If we want something new, then create something new. You want something American, give us Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, or Yog-Sothoth. Give us the Deep-Ones rising up from Y’ha-nthlei and the other sunken cities. Don’t just make Godzilla not-really-Godzilla and call it original.

OK. I’m done ranting. Don’t get me wrong; it looks like its going to be a fun and entertaining movie. I just had an issue with that bit. Read on at ScandalousCandice, and click further to the full interview.

Under Vhoorl’s Shadow has some shots of some awesome Lovecraftian artwork.

Grim Reviews, ever the amazing source for horror and lovecraft news, has news of a new Poe based movie starring Viggo Mortensen and Sylvester Stallone.

And Yog-Sothoth.com, the award winning Lovecraft and Role-playing site, has up a video interview with Mike Mason of The Whisperer and The Kult of Keepers.

Wow!  Thats like three great links!  I could have made this into three different posts spreading three days, but I thought to myself, “What would my readers want?  They should be treated to such goodies!”  So there you go!  The readers have spoken through my thoughts, and I have answered… All two of you will now be happy!

Bits of News has up a nice article including a short explanation of H.P. Lovecraft as a man, some words from Guillermo Del Toro, a video of Neil Gaiman talking about HPL, and the trailer for the excellent HPLHS silent film “The Call of Cthulhu”.

“You need to create the character dynamics and the arc of the story, which is not in the book,” says del Toro. “Also, the horror in the book is only ambiguous and it’s kept open at the end. And you can still capture that atmosphere, but then you have to take it and go to a climax [in the movie]. Which in the book is really a climax by almost using negative space in the narrative; it’s what you don’t see that makes it. That essentially goes against the very essence of show business, because you don’t show anything. I think that what we’re doing is good and it’s as good as we can [do when] adapting Lovecraft. But it’s a project that’s been with us for several years now. It’s not an easy project to set up.”

So hoist up a Union Jack, and head on over to Bits of News!

ABC News has up an interview they did with Australian author and Adelaide award winner David Conyers.  Here, David talks about book, “The Spiraling Worm”, an adventure pitting the wits of two government agents against the might of the Cthulhu Mythos.

“Lastly, I’m a science fiction author at heart, and what I like about the Cthulhu Mythos setting is that at its core it is horror science fiction. I can take ideas from modern theoretical science, manipulate them in truly bizarre and weird ways, and remain true to the Cthulhu Mythos vision.”

Check out the interview at ABC News.

Time Out London has an interview with Stuart Gordon, famed director of the Re-Animator series!  While its not a hard-hitting, lengthy interview packed with deep seeking questions and answers, it has a confirmation that might be of interest to you Re-Animator fans!

Check it out at TimeOut.com

Under Vhoorl’s Shadow has posted up some video interviews of Neil Gaiman and his thoughts on H.P. Lovecraft, The Necronomicon, and HPL’s stories!  Good find!

Check it out at Under Vhoorl’s Shadow!