Last year, I was surprised to discover that writer Bruce Brown had scripted a trilogy of graphic novels that follow a young H.P. Lovecraft through various adventures. What drew my attention to these stories was the fact that Shout! Factory and Arcana Studios had teamed up on an animated feature based on the first of the novels, HOWARD LOVECRAFT AND THE FROZEN KINGDOM.
THE FROZEN KINGDOM was released on DVD and Blu-ray last fall, and was so well received that Shout! and Arcana are moving forward with an animated adaptation of the second graphic novel in Brown's series, HOWARD LOVECRAFT AND THE UNDERSEA KINGDOM.
Sean Patrick O'Reilly, who wrote and directed THE FROZEN KINGDOM, is returning to do the same on THE UNDERSEA KINGDOM, working from the story written by Brown and Dwight L. MacPherson. The sequel will follow
a young Howard Lovecraft and his friend ‘Spot’ on an adventure from the frozen wasteland to the depths of a mysterious ocean. The movie entwines new storytelling, actual events of H.P. Lovecraft’s life, iconic elements of his writings and literary characters that include Cthulhu and Shoggoth.
THE FROZEN KINGDOM voice actors Christopher Plummer and Doug Bradley will again be providing the voices for the chracters of Dr. Herbert West and Nyarlathotep. Joining them in the cast are Mark Hamill as Dr. Henry Armitage and Jeffrey Combs, who played a live action version of Herbert West in the RE-ANIMATOR trilogy (RE-ANIMATOR, BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR, BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR). Since the West role is already filled, Combs will be voicing the character King Abdul.
HOWARD LOVECRAFT AND THE UNDERSEA KINGDOM will be released sometime in late 2017.
Once THE UNDERSEA KINGDOM is completed, might we see an adaptation of the final Howard Lovecraft adventure, "The Kingdom of Madness", go into production? Time will tell.