H.P. Lovecraft Biopic

[ER]

Why isn't there one? I know writing is about "the tale, not he who tells it" but was HPL's life truly too boring for film?  Were his personal views really such that people can't get past them? (If he was such a bigot why'd he marry a Jew, you know?) If Robert E. Howard's sheltered life could be turned into a surprisingly good film (The Whole Wide World), surely by letting CGI enter his imagination Lovecraft's longer existence could be squeezed for 120 minutes. I know I'd go see it.

[Alex]

I couldn't say if Lovecraft had a thing against Jews (he might have, I honestly haven't seen any special mention of them), although I know he had a problem with people of a different colour to him.

I wonder what he made of ginger-haired people?

I did find it interesting that despite the usual excuse made that "It was back then and everyone thought like that", that many of Lovecraft's friends found his race views rather distasteful. For myself, I think the guy was mentally ill and not just because of his large collection of phobia's (fish, low temperatures, non-whites and so on). It was also these fears however that helped make his writing what it was though.

Anyway, I digress. I too would like to see a film based on his life. I've heard rumours of a TV show called Lovecraft County. I have no idea if this is connected to the book of the same name about his life, or if it is something entirely different.

[chefzombie]

lovecraft country is upcoming on HBO, which i don't have, and i haven't read the book yet, so...we'll see what comes of it. THIS time i'm waiting to read the book AFTER i see the series.

[Archivist]

Lovecraft was a very complex and flawed person, and I'm not sure how a director/writer would portray him in a sympathetic light in today's PC world. He had many mental issues along with his phobias and racist beliefs, not to mention his reclusiveness and penchant for writing and speaking like someone from the previous century. Perhaps some universal things might apply, like the death of his mother, his odd relationships, his continual struggle for recognition, as well as his prodigious letter writing.

I'm imagining Benedict Cumberbatch as Lovecraft, sputtering with rage and disgust but deeply generous and helpful with his letters. If you were to add a fantasy element, you could have him appear as both Lovecraft, as as his own dream character of Randolph Carter in his stories, or witness to the unspeakable jungle rites of his unnamed cults. When he 'returns' from his mental journeys, he commits them to paper and sends off the manuscript to August Derleth or whoever. Now that I give it some thought, it could be a really good film as long as it was written and directed properly. There's the opportunity to tie the contents of his work to his life circumstances and personal history. He was something of a prodigy, reading at the age of three; writing poems at the age of seven, and greatly interested in astronomy and chemistry.

The more I think of it, the more this seems like a Good Idea. But it needs a lot of writing and fleshing out to be something really viable.

[Olivia Bauer]

I couldn't say if Lovecraft had a thing against Jews (he might have, I honestly haven't seen any special mention of them), although I know he had a problem with people of a different colour to him.

From what I've heard he absolutely despised them. He was married to a Jewish woman. When she asked why he doesn't hate her he pulled some mental gymnastic bulls**t to say that she's not a Jew anymore.

[chainsaw midget]

I'm not sure how a director/writer would portray him in a sympathetic light in today's PC world.

You can't even mention Lovecraft's writing in today's PC world without people jumping up and down to yell about how he was suck a horrible racist person that was racist and how he wrote nothing but racist stories about being racist. 

[claws]

I think to remember Marilyn Manson wanting to tackle a Lovecraft Bio of sorts in the 2000s, but a google search brought up nothing. Might have been another singer.

[Gabriel Knight]

I'm not sure how a director/writer would portray him in a sympathetic light in today's PC world.

You can't even mention Lovecraft's writing in today's PC world without people jumping up and down to yell about how he was suck a horrible racist person that was racist and how he wrote nothing but racist stories about being racist. 

*with tentacles.

[Olivia Bauer]

I'm not sure how a director/writer would portray him in a sympathetic light in today's PC world.

You can't even mention Lovecraft's writing in today's PC world without people jumping up and down to yell about how he was suck a horrible racist person that was racist and how he wrote nothing but racist stories about being racist. 

John Lennon beat his wife, Martin Luther King Jr. was homophobic, and Gandhi was a racist.

You gotta take the bad with the good and separate the art from the artist.

[Archivist]

Tom Cruise is in the same boat. Regardless of what you think of his personal life and beliefs, he's been in some darn good entertaining movies.

As for Lovecraft, the biopic movie is forming in my mind and I'd love to see something like it made. Using a kind of crossover between his dream life and physical life, beginning with his interests and nightmares as a child, showing the conflict between his skepticism but his immensely detailed stories of cosmic horror, it would be really cool. You'd see him as Randolph Carter in the dream world, and a quite different person in real life.

I'm just not sure how the movie would end; would we go right to his death from cancer, or would it end on a high note when something major is accepted and published? Personally, I'd love it if the movie ended with him passing away from illness, but waking up in the dream world as a young Randolph Carter again, and he passes through the gate of the Silver Key.

[frank]

lovecraft country is upcoming on HBO, which i don't have, and i haven't read the book yet, so...we'll see what comes of it. THIS time i'm waiting to read the book AFTER i see the series.

Fantastic book. I'd like to see what they made of it on screen...

[chefzombie]

archivist, i think you should start writing a script, i REALLY like your concept.
  frank, i'll  probably get a month of HBO from hulu once it's done so i can see it, i'll be sure to post about it for you!