Back in 2023, James Wan revealed that an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s seminal cosmic horror story The Call of Cthulhu was not only his dream project, but one that he’s been slowly working on for years.
Speaking with ScreenRant, Wan confirmed the film is still in development and is one “I’ve been wanting to do for a while.”
The master of horror noted that the project is facing a major hurdle: Lovecraftian films “are not cheap movies” and are “very hard to try and get them off the ground.”
Nevertheless, Wan concluded by assuring, “I’m just going to keep chipping away at it.”
First published in the February 1928 issue of Weird Tales, The Call of Cthulhu is a harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world.
Consisting of three interconnected parts, the story is presented as notes belonging to Francis Thurston, a Boston resident investigating the ancient deity Cthulhu.
This isn’t the first time budgetary concerns have prevented a hotly anticipated Lovecraft passion project, as Guillermo del Toro was unable to get his long-gestating At the Mountains of Madness adaptation off the ground.
