Tom Cruise and James McAvoy circling At The Mountains Of Madness?

With Guillermo del Toro and Universal moving forward with At The Mountains Of Madness one of their first priorities will be to get a cast together. There are 5 characters in total, all male, and with del Toro aiming for an R-rated “epically scaled horror film” some well known faces may be appearing to help bring in the crowds.

Well Collider is reporting that “Universal wants James McAvoy to play the lead in the film, but del Toro wants Tom Cruise to star. Chris Pine’s name was also being tossed around, but his busy schedule may be too packed.” Usually you would expect the studio wanting a movie star involved, however del Toro was apparently talking to Cruise about that Van Helsing movie we heard about, so he may still be inching to work with him.

The lead role in question in that of William Dyer, the narrator of At the Mountains of Madness. He is a professor of geology at Miskatonic University and leader of the disastrous Pabodie Expedition to Antarctica in 1930–31 in which the team discovers alien specimens hibernating.

There is also a meaty role for the second lead. Danforth is a graduate student at Miskatonic University and as part of the Pabodie Expedition he accompanies Dyer on a survey flight over the “Plateau of Leng” and goes mad after seeing something. He is described as “a great reader of bizarre material”. If Cruise lands the Dyer role I can see McAvoy playing Danforth, but I can’t imagine Cruise would want to play second in command so it would be all or nothing for him.

Both actors should be free as shooting isn’t expected to start for another year. Cruise will be filming the next Mission Impossible film later this year and McAvoy if just staring his first week on X-Men: First Class as Charles Xavier, so they have time to clear their plans should they sign on.

Who do you want to lead At The Mountains Of Madness? I think a Cruise/McAvoy combo would be great.