Exclusive: Richard Stanley to direct Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror

Exclusive: Richard Stanley to direct Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror

January 20th 2020, 1:25pm

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Recently I had the chance to sit down and chat with HARDWARE and DUST DEVIL director Richard Stanley about his new film, COLOR OUT OF SPACE, an adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft short story starring Nicolas Cage. And during the interview, Stanley let me know that he already has his next film in line, a new adaptation of Lovecraft's THE DUNWICH HORROR.

He tells AITH:

I'm pleased to say that SpectreVision has greenlit me to go forward with two further Lovecraft adaptations. So COLOR OUT OF SPACE will be the first of a trilogy. I have already started prepping on the second movie which is going to be a new adaptation of THE DUNWICH HORROR. It will take us back to Miskatonic University for the first time since RE-ANIMATOR. And it will also give us a chance to deal directly with the Necronomicon, the black book that lies at the center of the Lovecraft universe.

And the third movie?

I can't tell you. For all kinds of reasons. But I will say that 2020 is set to be the year of The Old Ones. For whatever reason, everyone seems to be developing a Lovecraft project. The GAME OF THRONES guys are doing their Lovecraft movie. Jordan Peele's LOVECRAFT COUNTRY is about to hit. And I think we're going to be seeing a lot of Lovecraft adaptations in the next two to three years, being that the great man's work is now in the public domain. So that means we've got to be a little strategic in how much talking we do about where this trajectory is heading.

THE DUNWICH HORROR begins in the degenerate, unpopular backwater of Dunwich, where Wilbur Whately, a most unusual child, is born. Of unnatural parentage, he grows at an uncanny pace to an unsettling height, but the boy’s arrival simply precedes that of a true horror — One of the Old Ones, that forces the people of the town to hole up by night, fearing for their lives, only able to trace the wreckage wrought by the gigantic, unseen monster by the bright light of day. In his classic style, H. P. Lovecraft weaves unearthly fantasies of creatures beyond conception — existing between the dimensions that we know. BUY IT HERE.

Richard Stanley's new film, an adaptation of RE-ANIMATOR author H.P. Lovecraft's COLOR OUT OF SPACE starring Nicolas Cage will be hitting theaters on January 24, 2020, and then 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD via RLJE Films on February 25, 2020. PRE-ORDER HERE