Alec Baldwin and Richard Stanley Consider Lovecraft Movie
In the most recent episode of the Alec Baldwin hosted podcast Here’s the Thing, (which you can find here) the actor interviewed Richard Stanley, who is the visionary writer and director of Hardware (1990) and the 2019 sci-fi mind-bender Color Out of Space.
During the fascinating interview, Stanley discusses his youthful adventures tricking his way into war-ravaged Afghanistan, and his relationship to the doomed film adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, from which he was fired after three days following a tropical storm.
However, it is the very end of their discussion that will likely pique the interest of cinephiles, and those with an interest in weird horror. Following a brief description of the process of making the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, Color out of Space, Stanley reveals that his newest script, is another Lovecraft related work called Dunwich, and that he would like Baldwin to be in it, as the lead.
Tantalisingly Stanley describes Dunwich as the best goddamn thing he’s ever written and the moment his whole life has been leading up to. From what Stanley reveals it would appear that his Dunwich script is a sequel to Lovecraft’s 1929 novella, The Dunwich Horror. Alternatively, it might be a modern re-telling.
When asked if he would like to do a Lovecraft movie, Baldwin’s response is an enthusiastic “Yes! This is ending on a note I only dreamed of!” He tells Stanley how much he admires him and offers to play a butler ringing the dinner bell. Stanley, however, is more interested in him playing the plum role of Professor Armitage, who he compares to the film’s version of Richard Dawkins.
The interviews ends with nothing but enthusiasm for the proposed project as Baldwin calls Stanley an amazing filmmaker who he would love to work with. While Stanley, replies that he would love to work with Baldwin, who he considers a “super-fine actor.”
The original Lovecraft novella, The Dunwich Horror, concerns the misadventures of a malformed albino called Wilbur Whateley, who attempts to gain the missing pages of the Necronomicon from Miskatonic university in Arkham, to open a door and release the Old Ones. He is thwarted by Henry Armitage, but in doing so, Armitage inadvertently releases a destructive presence on the unfortunate village of Dunwich.
Intriguingly, the role that Baldwin has been offered also has the surname Armitage, so if Stanley’s script takes place after Lovecraft’s novella, presumably there must be a familial connection between the characters.
Despite the tragedy that Baldwin has lately been at the centre of, one hopes that this exciting project can find the necessary traction to get made. Certainly, Color Out of Space was a critical success, and seems already to have gained a foothold towards become a cult movie. The world needs more Richard Stanley movies, and Baldwin should be allowed to ply his trade. He is indeed a super-fine actor.
