Now that’s a suggestion that intrigues me – vaguely. Soderbergh was incapable of handling Kafka, but Lovecraft isn’t as complex. He may be able to handle it. I watched a number of Lovecraft films not too long ago (I’m quite an HPL fan) and I’m sorry to report that they are all garbage – with the exception of The Call of Cthulhu (2005), which was pretty decent. Frankly I would love to direct HPL, as I am fully confident I could do it justice. I have this extensive fantasy about doing a full version of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, which I think has the potential to be an outstanding horror film. I have VHS copy of Dan O’Bannon’s The Resurrected, and it is a tolerable adaptation, but never comes close to exceeding B-level material (John Terry, from Full Metal Jacket, is an interesting lead choice, relatively speaking).
What would a Soderbergh adaptation of Lovecraft look like? Who knows. But now that I think about it, Soderbergh is almost too self-aware for any project that isn’t meant to be so… I like him very much, but I don’t know if he’s right for such a project.
For a Lovecraft film, what is required is an exceptional genre director. Very much. That’s not Soderbergh… it was Kubrick! The greatest of genre directors! These days?… it’s… well hell, you know Von Trier would have fun with it. Yes, that would be tasty. Hell, or Lynch! Somebody extremely delicate is required.
I thought Soderbergh did a fine job fine on Kafka.
Hmm, it’ll take a lot to convince me of Soderbergh’s ability to adapt something like Lovecraft. Lovecraft has never really been successfully adapted to screen by anyone (yet), though John Carpenter has probably channeled Lovecraft best (In the Mouth of Madness, The Thing, even Prince of Darkness to a certain degree – none of these are actual Lovecraft adaptations, but they’re very spiritually related), and Stuart Gordon’s Re-animator (not to mention From Beyond, Castle Freak, Dreams in the Witchhouse, etc.) is a nice loose adaptation.
I’m excited to hear about Del Toro possibly doing At the Mountains of Madness, but I’m not entirely sure that will turn out right either. I have yet to see a ‘masterpiece’ by Del Toro. For me, his previous films have shown an incredible amount of potential, but they’re never cohesive – he’s more of an art director, than a ‘director.’ But getting back to Soderbergh, I’m not a huge fan of his Kafka film which was a major disappointment for me. Soderbergh is just too concerned with over-stylizing everything, it really gets on my nerves. So could he pull off a Lovecraft adaptation? I’m extremely doubtful.
I don’t think Lynch would be a fit either for Lovecraft. And Kubrick has been mentioned, but even though he did a fantastic job with The Shining, King and Lovecraft are too VERY different horror writers, and I don’t think even Kubrick would be able to do Lovecraft justice. As you say, it’ll take an “exceptional genre director” – which is why my vote goes to John Carpenter as the best-suited living director that might be able to pull off such an adaptation.
I think if anybody should direct Lovecraft, it should be Roger Corman, Terry Gilliam or David Cronenberg. I haven’t seen many Soderbergh films, though, so I can’t really say.
Maybe Carpenter 20 years ago could’ve pulled it off, but these days the evidence for his capability to make quality films simply isn’t there. It would have to be an exceptional script, as Carpenter is incapable of distinguishing good writing from bad. He got lucky with The Thing, IMO, every other project of his has very serious flaws.
I would love love love to see Cronenberg tackle HPL, I would have full confidence in that!
I’m with Cronenberg. I think a lot of it’s already there in the mix.
I think there’s a definite element of realism which is absent from Lovecraft that I don’t think Cronenberg would ever touch. Cronenberg’s subjects for his films have always dealt with “body horror,” but that’s all done within the context of some element of realism. The only Cronenberg films that kinda comes close to Lovecraft are Dead Ringers and Videodrome, but even those bare little resemblance to the typical Lovecraftian tale. Filmmakers that deal with the “unknown” and are heavy in dream imagery are prime candidates for Lovecraftian adaptation … so, I see where the Lynch connection came from earlier … but I still don’t think he could pull it off, heh.
RaySquirrel
This came to my mind a few days ago. A lot of people have been anticipating Guillermo del Toro’s proposed adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness for some time now. He is one of the more obvious choices to direct Lovecraft. After catching an airing of Ocean’s 13 a few nights ago, and listening to the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast (thanks Ryan) that got me to thinking. Soderberg is known for making low-tone movies about men and women engaged in deep psychological mind games. But what would a Soderberg adaptation of a Lovecraft story look like?