Del Toro Left Cruise's 'Van Helsing' For 'Madness'

One of the big headlines of the past week was Guillermo del Toro and James Cameron teaming up on an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, a dream project of del Toro's for years. It'll be 3-D and Cameron will produce and everybody's happy. Everyone except Tom Cruise, it appears. A project that del Toro has left behind - not that I blame him - is a new Van Helsing movie that Cruise is looking at producing. Vulture claims he was/is also considering starring in the film. Both movies are Universal properties, and although we hadn't heard anything about the Van Helsing movie before, it shouldn't be surprising; da U is revisiting its treasure trove of monster movies and it was the studio that distributed the awful 2004 summer starter with Hugh Jackman as the vampire hunter. However, this is not supposed to be a reboot, although what else could it be, really? Is it Van Helsing going to Vegas with his buddies for a bachelor party they won't remember? Probably not. So maybe, in an effort to create a little distance, Universal will return to the same Dracula story and do something different with it. Better change that name, though. Cruise is reportedly still attached even with del Toro's defection but we don't know when the studio is planning on going forward with this movie. The loss of the director, the less-than-profound impact Tom Cruise has on movies these days, and the sluggish Wolf Man might not keep this on the front burner for long.

Comments

[Will]

I have no opinion on this. I mean, GDT is all talk and no stock if you ask me. Still, I'm glad to see that he finally won the staring contest with that fox... It was really starting to worry me.