All Eldritch, All The Time: H.P. Lovecraft Video Channel Planned
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Innovativ Media Group announced today their plans to launch a premium online video channel featuring media based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
The channel, HPLovecraft.TV, will be integrated into the online Lovecraft e-zine site lovecraftzine.com. Few details have been given as yet, but it is known that their first programming will be a 30-part animated series based on Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness, currently in post-production.
No real word on what other media they have in mind so far, but there are some intriguing possibilities. Lovecraft’s works have inspired any number of stories, and the elements of his Cthulhu Mythos have been popular mix-ins for other authors across multiple genres. However, there haven’t really been that many movies directly based on his world. Not enough, arguably, to sustain a pay channel.
There have been a few studio-scale adaptations: The Dunwich Horror got the Roger Corman treatment in 1970, with predictable results. Herbert West – Reanimator wound up getting turned into a series of cult films in 1985. Also, the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has created adaptations of The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness. These two films are generally regarded quite highly despite not being big-budget productions due to the meticulous care and dedication to the source material evinced by the creators.
(Our own Tim Harvey and Jason Hunt have even dabbled in the world of Lovecraft, adapting The Statement of Randolph Carter as a short film.)
More common are the “pastiche” films: films not necessarily based on a specific work but on various elements or characters. The Unnamable (1988) takes the short story of the same name and basically turns it into a slasher film. John Carpenter’s In The Mouth of Madness, probably the high-water mark for this class of film, is something of a mix between the worlds of Lovecraft and Stephen King. There is also a case to be made for The Thing, another of Carpenter’s “apocalypse” movies.
Innovativ have indicated that they intend to create additional Lovecraft-inspired material with the participation and input of their subscribers. This is all very well, but to get those subscribers in the first place, they are going to need a fair amount of initial content to be getting on with. Whether they’re willing to bring in outside material, at least at the beginning, is a fair question. Still, the company has not (as yet) committed to a launch date, so perhaps the plan is to accumulate sufficient material to justify a subscription model.
(Kelly Luck is still holding out for that big-budget Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath adaptation. Her other SciFi4Me work can be read here.)
