Writer-director-producer Guillermo del Toro deserves better.  He’s one of the most imaginative and creative filmmakers working today and he hasn’t gotten behind a camera since 2008′s Hellboy II: The Golden Army.  He left The Hobbit last May because there was no start date in sight and now, as some kind of cruel cosmic joke, The Hobbit is starting production (now with Peter Jackson at the helm) and del Toro may be stuck in a false start on his new project, At the Mountains of Madness.  As Universal stalls on del Toro’s dream project, Deadline reports that Legendary Pictures his trying to get del Toro to direct the PG-13 monster movie Pacific Rim.

You may recall Pacific Rim as the movie that was rumored to be the Godzilla reboot, but turned out not be  a non-Godzilla affiliated monster movie.  Del Toro was offered the project back in October, but responded that he was not involved with Godzilla, a fact which didn’t preclude his participation in Pacific Rim since it’s not the Godzilla reboot (that film is being handled by Monsters director Gareth Edwards).  Hit the jump for more on this tale of two del Toro projects.

Update: Steve here. I’ve been told that Universal killed At the Mountains of Madness on Friday and del Toro is going to take on Pacific Rim as his next film.  I’m sure this will all be worked out over the next few days.  I’m just sad that one of my favorite filmmakers is having so many problems getting a film made.