Monsterpocalypse Movie Update

As director Guillermo del Toro continues to reveal awesome details about his giant monsters vs. giant robots movie Pacific Rim, I've been wondering more and more about the status of Monsterpocalypse.

It was announced back in 2010 that the collectible miniatures game from Privateer Press would be adapted into a 3D movie  directed by Tim Burton, from a screenplay by John August, with special effects legend Ken Ralston handling the visual design.

L to R: Burton, August, Ralston

According to Screen Rant:

The plot of the Monsterpocalypse movie begins with an early battle between humanity and giant, other-worldly monsters that attack Earth.  Although the monsters are seemingly defeated, it is eventually revealed that the creatures have instead buried deep within the layers of the Earth and sent out a distress signal to rally their allies for a future attack on the planet.

The human characters respond to this impending threat by constructing a league of skyscraper-sized robots that they control and run directly – like they would any sort of regular vehicle.  Most of the film will revolve around the fight between the mechanical warriors and their extraterrestrial opponents.

Which sounds an awful lot like Pacific Rim. Nothing much in the way of updates has been forthcoming since 2010, and on his screenwriting website, John August hasn't mentioned working on the project since October 2011. So today I decided to go to the source, and sent a couple of tweets his way:

@johnaugust It looks like you haven't mentioned Monsterpocalypse since October. Is it still a thing, and if so, are you still involved? Thx.

Really looking forward to Pacific Rim from Guillermo del Toro, but the world still needs Monsterpocalypse from Tim Burton and @JohnAugust!

 To which Mr. August replied:

@roadkillbuddha Your second tweet explains why the object of your first tweet hasn't progressed.

 I took that to mean:

@johnaugust So progress on one will depend on the box office success of the other? I'm hoping for a kaiju movie renaissance! Thanks again!

And he didn't correct me, so I'm assuming that if Pacific Rim makes a lot money, Dreamworks will get Monsterpocalypse moving again.

So it seems that essentially, just as Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness is held up by Ridley Scott's Prometheus, Tim Burton's Monsterpocalypse is being held up by del Toro's Pacific Rim.

Not a lot to go on, but at least we know the project isn't dead. And as a long-time reader of John August's blog, I was psyched just to get a response from him.

I'd love to see what Tim Burton's vision of a Godzilla-style film would be, and really hope that Monsterpocalypse escapes development hell (though I won't be holding my breath). In the meantime, here's a fanfilm by Team Covenant: