Ron Howard to Direct H.P. Lovecraft Bio Film?!
Variety is reporting that Universal Studios just purchased the film rights to Image Comics' The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft as a potential directing vehicle for Ron Howard. For several reasons, I can't say this news fills me with joy.
Primarily, of course -- Ron Howard?! Seriously? Let's face it, the feel-good-even-when-he's-trying-to-make-you-feel-bad filmmaker has come to represent middlebrow American entertainment at its most compromised, even as he tries to make something high-minded. But when the edgiest film you've made in the last twenty-five years is The Da Vinci Code, well, dare I say you just might not be all that well-suited to depict the life of the twentieth century's weirdest dreamer?
Additionally, the comic takes a Shakespeare in Love approach to its fictional account of Lovecraft's life story, as it shows the legendary scribe "inspired" by "real" supernatural occurences. This may work fine for a graphic novel, but for a major film that many will regard as the definitive account of Lovecraft's life? I'm not so sure. The truth is there should be a good bio film about Lovecraft (as there was for his contemporary Robert E. Howard in The Whole Wide World). And it wouldn't be all that diffcult to do. But Lovecraft was an odd enough duck (with more phobias and hang-ups than an all-day Sundance Channel marathon's worth) that one needn't lace his tale with fantasy in order to sell tickets. The truth is that if Howard played it straight he might just find in Lovecraft's life the makings of another Oscar-baiting drama. (The man's mental illness probably rivaled that of Russell Crowe's mathematician in A Beautiful Mind.)
Variety further reports that the comic, which was created by Mac Carter and Jeff Blitz, will have its screenplay adapt written by Carter (who's also a director of TV commericals); both gentlemen will serve as executive producers. Howard will co-produce along with his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer (he of the Heat Miser hair).
Here's the interesting thing about all this... Althought I greatly admire his work, I'm not really a true diehard Lovecraft fan. But they are out there -- hordes of 'em. In fact, outside of the vampire junkies, Lovecraft fandom may be the single biggest cult in horror, with its own conventions, magazines, lame inside jokes and all the other trappings that only the largest subcultures acquire. Lovecraft fans also have some... let's say quite strong opinions about how their hero is represented in mainstream media. So Ron, Brian, please take my advice -- when you find out what an Elder God is, start begging it immediately to spare you from these people!
