Correlating the Contents of the Bicameral Mind.

I both did and did not want to be involved with NaNoWriMo. I just have too much crap going on right now to worry about a consistent word count. So instead, I thought I’d try my own little experiment that wouldn’t be contingent on finishing by a specified day. After reviewing the material that’s out there, I’ve decided to attempt an adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu.

There are a few reasons for this. Despite having multiple stories now adapted into the movie/video medium, I still feel like no filmmaker has treated the source material with the respect it deserves. It’s too easy to go cheap with horror; to show ridiculous monsters, and tits, and let that fill the holes in the story you didn’t quite tell. Lovecraft’s works aren’t about things jumping in from the edges of the frame (accompanied by grating sound effects), or teenagers having sex. It’s not about cheap scares. His horror is something more akin to atmospheric dread, as if just below the surface of everything lies the evidence of something you know just shouldn’t be. So the main drive for me, whether or not I’m a capable enough writer to rise to the challenge, is to attempt to write a serious, feature-length adaptation of Lovecraft’s most well known work.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lovecraft, you can read a little bit more about the man at his wikipedia page and check out a few of his stories over at manybooks.net.

The experiment is that I’m going to do this as a public process. I’m going to blog about initial ideas, planning, brainstorms, and actual draft pages. The script I’ll post in ten page increments as I finish them.

For the curious – I’m not an established writer. I’ve never made any sales. The closest I’ve ever come to any recognition is winning a couple of scholarships and placing in a few competitions. So this isn’t an attempt to educate the public on how to write screenplays; I’m not in a position to teach anyone anything. This is writing just for the hell of it. That being said, I hope to do the material justice.

And yes, I am aware that Guillermo del Toro is set to direct an adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness for release in 2010. If all goes right, it should be the first big budget, serious Hollywood adaptation of one of Lovecraft’s works. I look forward to watching it.