I have to start off by saying that I've never read any Lovecraft.  I know that I lose a lot of geek cred when I say that and I feel ashamed about it.  I do, however, know a little bit about Lovecraft and Cthulhu thanks to liking geeky stuff and watching some of the movie adaptations based off of his work.

There are currently a couple of Lovecraft adaptations out there that are in the works and one of these is a big-budget adaptation of the Image comic book mini series, "The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft", which will be directed by Ron Howard.  The academy award winning director might be doing this film next and he recently had a chance to talk up this interesting project.  To hear what he had to say, just hit the jump.

Ron Howard recently talked to The L.A. Time's Hero Complex Blog and even though it's hard to read emotions from text, he sounds pretty enthusiastic about the project.  The director is quoted as saying: "Look, it's challenging, but if we get it right, it could be really original and psychologically interesting and scary in a great way. And it's a graphic novel, this is new territory for me."

The comic book miniseries follows a young H.P. Lovecraft as an ancient curse transforms his darkest nightmares into reality.  The timid writer then becomes both an unwitting god of destruction and the only person who can battle the evil he's unleashed into the world.  The mini series is also described as being one part biography, one part horror pulp,  and one part fugitive thriller. I've never heard of this comic book series but this sounds pretty cool to me.

I know Ron Howard gets a ton of hate and I can kind of see why.  I can count the number of Ron Howard films that I like on one hand and it's mainly because of this that I don't know what to think of Ron Howard directing a dark "H.P. Lovecraft fights monsters" movie.  I want all of my monster films to be fun and bad ass, but I just don't see Howard stepping out of his comfort zone to deliver something truly epic.  Yet, this is the same reason why I'm very interested in seeing where this is going.  It's definitely something new and exciting for the director who likes to keep it safe most of the time.

Then again, this might not be the next film that Howard decides to tackle next since he's quoted as saying: "I've got literally half-a-dozen projects where essentially I'm waiting for [script] drafts to come in, and there's something I love about all of these ideas.  We'll just have to wait to see what comes to fruition. I sort of can't bear the thought of letting any of them go. So maybe I've got the next five years spoken for."

But yet a couple of quotes later Howard does say: "You just never know, development is a minefield or a high-wire act or whatever you want to call it, but yeah, hopefully that it moves along and I will be directing that one."  So it does look as if Howard will try to direct this Lovecraft adaptation next.  I don't really know what else Howard has planned or coming up, but I bet nothing sounds as cool as this project. As always, we'll keep you updated as we hear it.