Is there a film version of ‘At The Mountains of Madness?’ – YES and you can buy it here!

At The Mountains Of Madness’ is horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous and chilling story – and when it comes to chilling and unknowable horror – Lovecraft is one of the genre’s masters.  Has the story ever been made into a film?  Yes, it has.

Lots and lots of filmmakers have attempted to change the story into a film, including James Cameron and more recently Guillermo del Toro who tried to get NetFlix to finance a version featuring Tom Cruise.    But neither Del Torro or Cameron could get the film finance together and both of their versions of the famous story withered on the filmmaking vine.

The only version of the film that made it to production is a low budget, arty black and white indie horror directed by Matthew Cooper (your’s truly) and starring Tony Coughlan, Ashe Russell and Gary Geeson. 

At The Mountain of Madness – feature film

The film was made in 2020/21 during the height of the Covid Pandemic, on a budget below £10,000 and was mostly shot in and around Yorkshire in the UK – although you wouldn’t be able to tell from the snowy wastelands on screen.

You can also buy At the Mountains of Madness on VOD here or for the DVD click here.

The same team of filmmakers made Markham which was released in 2020  and are currently in post production on When the Earth Gives up the Dead (2022) both of which are also inspired by H.P. Lovecraft stories.

All three films are great additions to the Lovecraft cannon – and no matter what you make of the low budget version of At The Mountains Of Madness’ – at least these filmmakers made it – which is a step further than Del Toro or Cameron ever managed.

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

When the Earth Gives Up the Dead (2022)

This is just a quick update to let regular readers know that as of next week I’m in full production of my third feature film as a director. ‘When the Earth Gives Up the Dead’ which is being shot in Yorkshire and Lancashire and will be released in 2022.

This is the final film in the low budget ‘Lovecraft Trilogy’ and is once again being produced through Warehouse Transmedia.

The film will star Tony Coughlan and Ashe Russell and is based on The Dunwich Horror by author H.P. Lovecraft.

Keep checking back for more info.

Matthew Cooper has been a scriptwriter for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

At The Mountains of Madness (2021) – Horror Feature film – Buy on DVD or VOD

‘At the Mountains of Madness’ is one of horror author H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous tales of terror. It was said to be one of the great un-filmable novels.  Well, not anymore…

In 2021 scriptwriter and director Matthew Cooper, released  his take on the tale of terror and madness.

Finally, somebody had managed to film ‘At The Mountains of Madness’

Watch ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ (2021)

You can watch the film now on VOD below or buy the DVD on the director’s website.

At The Mountains of Madness (2021) from Matthew Cooper on Vimeo.

Matthew Cooper has been a scriptwriter for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ will be released in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

Wrapped – At The Mountains of Madness – Matthew Cooper Director

Boom, about a week ago we wrapped shooting on my new feature length horror film – ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ – which is based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft.  This is the second film (after ‘Markham released August 2020) in a trilogy of micro budget Lovecraft adaptations.

Unlike Markham, we had a pretty solid script for this production although my actors Tony Coughlan, Ashe Russell and Gary Geeson still had plenty of room to improvise and play with their characters.  

The main shoot was completed in two intense weeks, where at times, we had to be really creative to get the scares and required atmosphere on a tiny budget.

ATMOM had exteriors shot in Greenland and Alaska, but the majority of the film was done on custom built sets in a studio environment.  Like Markham, ATMOM will be black and white and some of the film is shot on Super 8mm.  The most fun I had on the shoot involved fake snow and a snow machine – which resulted in me nearly breaking ankle – but hey, the shots looked great.

I’m looking forward to diving head first into post production, and the film will hopefully be released online in April 2021.

Obviously, Covid-19 made shooting the film a challenge and at all times we stuck to the Covid-19 film industry guidelines.

Keep checking back over the next few months as I detail the post production process and start releasing a few images and trailers from the film.

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire, UK Script editor  and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer. His UK script coverage service, Script reading service and script development service are highly sought after.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

The cinematographers who influenced me…

The best cinematographers are German, or were Dutch and worked in the new German cinema of the 70s.

As a freelance film director for hire, I think I’ve been influenced by cinematographers almost as much as I have been influenced by directors.

Certainly two cameraman had a very big impact on my visual style – these guys both started their careers in the new German cinema of the 70s and 80s and both guys finished their careers working in or around Hollywood.

Both guys have passed on now, but their work is still celebrated.  They are Robby Muller and Michael Ballhause.

Muller, to me, had a style so cinematic it taught me to see – his German films with Wim Wenders are famous for their imagery. But later in his career, his work with directors like Alex Cox, William Freidkin and Jim Jarmusch showed he could fit into American films, and see America like no other cameraman.

Ballhause started his career with Fassbinder in Germany, working fast, on low budgets with strong visual ideas, but he ended his career in the USA, and added amazing cinematic style and imagery to the worlds of Martin Scorsese – certainly Ballhause’s work on Goodfellas, and The Color of Money showcase some of the most stylistic camerawork from that era in American films.  

When I took on the camera work in my own low budget film debut as director Markham , the work of Ballhause and Muller was always on my mind.

Below are two videos celebrating these maestros…

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire, UK Script editor  and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer. His UK script coverage service, Script reading service and script development service are highly sought after.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can contact Matthew directly to purchase his ebook The UK Soap Opera Script Writers Handbook.

Markham – notes on making a zero budget horror film

My feature debut as a director Markham is all but finished as of today.  It’s been around two years in the making.  With no budget and no script Markham has been an experiment to see if we could actually pull of a film of any worth, starting from scratch.

Well we did. Markham is a tight, arty, experimental little horror film, with a cool look, cool music, some very good acting and some great locations. 

It’s Grindhouse in a way as well, parts where shot on film, it’s experimental, and wouldn’t be out of place alongside a lot of Shameless films  or  Arrow films releases

But what have I learned from making a zero budget horror film?

Okay, when Peter Jackson made Bad Taste, he did it, in a style similar to how we made Markham.  Shooting on a part-time basis as and when cast and crew where available, without much of a script to go along with – it took Peter Jackson FOUR years to complete the film, and now I know why (it’s taken nearly two years to complete Markham).

When I started shooting Markham I thought it might take six months.

Working without a script is a crackers idea, especially in low to zero budget filmmaking.  Initially when we started out, me and the actors just shot scenes that were interesting visually and we improvised the characters, and narrative, eventually a fitting plot emerged. This is an interesting and creative way to work (Kubrick worked like this sometimes).  But, it means it will take years to finish and you never know (as a director) what you’ll need – from a simple coverage POV – right up to major scenes that are required that only become apparent later.

The first lesson for next time, is to write a script and stick to what’s written.  There’s always room for experimentation but have the blueprint in script form first.

Another thing I’ve learned never to ignore is sound, especially when shooting on location.  A lot of ADR work was required in post production that would have been better avoided with more attention to paid to the sound recording on location, although admittedly recording dialogue on the open sea, in a raging storm is always going to be hard. 

Difficult locations is another point of learning. We picked some spectacular coastal locations to use in Markham.  But we didn’t consider how difficult they were going to be to get there, or actually shoot in these out of the way, and often dangerous places. 

The locations look great, but I should have considered the impact on production of where we shot.   We filmed in places never used in productions before – these were startling virgin locations for UK film.  But there were reasons why nobody had shot there, and they became clear to us as we used the often dangerous locations ourselves…

Finally one of the main things I’d say I learned at this stage is that IT’S COMPLETELY feasible to now shoot a low budget film, post produce it and edit for very little money and have an end product that’s completely serviceable.   The film is going to be released on DVD and on VIMEO at the end of August, but I could easily in future put the film on AMAZON PRIME myself.

The whole process has been a massive learning experience for me.  And I can’t wait to do it all again…

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

Scoring Markham – All killer – no filler

This morning I’m due to sit down and watch the latest cut of my feature film debut as a director Markham.

Markham is a zero budget horror film, which was shot in Staithes in North Yorkshire, and a few other locations up and down the Yorkshire coast.

One thing I can firmly say about Markham is that it pretty atmospheric. Partly thanks to the moody locations and stark black and white photography. But, the music has added an extra dimension too.

I commissioned the score from LA based composer Mariella Nelson Renaud, and gave her free reign to come back with a horror soundtrack which would befit the movie.  She did an amazing job.

Music makes such a big difference in film, and especially in horror cinema. The score can make or break a movie. Watching Markham with all the cues in place makes such a difference to the experience.

Working with composers is one thing directors rarely consider. Directors happily work with writers, actors and technical crew – we speak the same language, but how do you work with a composer, musician or someone from a discipline that’s different from film, and who might not speak the same language? With Mariella, I gave pretty specific examples of scores that I like, and that I considered a ‘type’ that would work with Markham.

Mariella took these examples, ran with them and added her own unique style and personality.

The score feels like a cross between Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind’s work on Kubrick’s  ‘The Shining’, Carpenter and the late great Ennio Morricone’s work on ‘The Thing’ and Giorgio Moroder’s music for Paul Shrader’s Cat People (1982) – a personal favourite amongst all these great works. These are great scores to be compared to by Mariella’s work really warrants the comparison.

When I heard the score the first time I was over the moon.  If anything comes from Markham at all, it should be that Mariella Nelson Renaud’s work should be recognised.  She’s a really talented film composer with a great work ethic and ability to interpret what’s on screen in music; she was also a pleasure to work with.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

Markham (2020) shooting the Yorkshire Coast

Pretty soon my feature film directing debut Markham (2020) will be available to buy and to stream. We’re still putting the final touches to the film and next week we’ll be shooting even more material, which will mean another trip to the Yorkshire coast next week from our Leeds base.

Shooting at the coast brings up lots of challenges.  Most of Markham was shot in winter time, and that meant battling very cold temperatures. I remember shooting one day at Staithes in January (on what turned out to be the coldest day of 2019). It was a day when we needed to shoot a few sequences in the North Sea – and it was so cold that I began to lose feeling in my fingers, which meant starting and stopping the various cameras we were using became a big problem.

Other challenges included the howling wind rolling in off the North Sea making much of the dialogue tracks we shot in some sequences unusable. In some scenes, shot next to the sea, I used a small lapel mike on actors when I could, this worked well, but it couldn’t be utilised all the time. Anything using a boom, even with various types of wind covers really struggled with the persistent winter gale. Sometimes the sound of mad seagulls, especially the seagulls at Staithes, who make some fittingly odd song, became an issue too – lots of wild track needed to be recorded for continuity.

Of course, all shooting days on the coast needed to be organised around the tides, especially when shooting sequences on the beach.  Sequence to sequence the tides need to match what was shot before. This can become a bit of a logistical nightmare day –to-day, and it was my responsibility as director to look at the tide tables and decide what was suitable to shoot and when.  

I’ll admit that on occasion I did get it wrong, and on one day scheduled for shooting in Staithes we had to give up when I got the tides mixed up. On that day we managed to move up the coast to Skinningrove, a small village further up north, and luckily we could shoot some pick up shots and other material that meant the day wasn’t a total right off (we couldn’t wait at Staithes for the tides, because the correct level wouldn’t have arrived until late at night).

Other challenges included general health and safety. The beach at Staithes is surrounded by some cliffs that have regular rock falls (which can, and have killed people, tragically).  Shooting any sort of action sequence with people running on wet rock, near water is always a worry. On top of all this, the aforementioned tides, which can change quickly, are always a danger, you don’t want to get your crew cut off and stranded from safety as the North Sea rolls in.

Luckily, the shoot went well from a safety point of view, but the challenges of shooting on the Yorkshire coast in winter are very real.  Markham was shot for a tiny budget with a tiny crew; clearer thinking in pre-production would have considered some of the issues we faced more seriously. On a positive note, the beach scenes shot at Staithes add massive production value and startling imagery to the film; much of where we shot is not normally used by film and TV crews, probably due to the issues I’ve mentioned.  That means, Markham was shot where no other crews dared to go – at times it looks like the moon, but was a tiny bit easier to get to.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

Markham is coming…

Just wanted to add a really quick update to say that Markham, my feature film debut is on its way, and will hopefully be released by the end of this month (July 2020).

Next week I should be able to complete the final cut, with the ADR, music and final special effects sequences locked and loaded.

It goes without saying that this has been a huge effort, to produce a fully independent feature film from scratch, on a very low budget.

Keep an eye on this website and UK script consultant over the coming weeks, I’ll tell you when the film is released for sale, and much more about the making of Markham.

Matthew Cooper has been directing drama films since the early 90s, starting on super 8mm cine film and movie into video, long before it became digital.  His feature film directorial debut Markham was released in 2020.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

And… Action

Matthew Cooper Director

Hi, and thanks for visiting my new website.

For those of you who don’t know, my name is Matthew Cooper and this website is dedicated to my work as an independent filmmaker and director.

I’ve a long career as a UK script consultant and script writer for hire and I have a separate website for that facet of my career. Have a look at matcoop.co.uk if you like.

I’ve started this website because I’m just about to launch a career as a director; with my feature length horror film ‘Markham’ about to be released (you can buy it on DVD on this website very soon).

So, I thought I’d put together some sort of manifesto for my first blogpost, set out what I intend to do and how I intend to do it. So here we go…

I’m going to attempt to shoot one low budget horror film every year, for the next fifteen years. I intend to finance the films myself, and retain as much control of the films as possible, from pre-production right through to the release.

I’m going to, as much as possible document this, and how I do it, on this website.  And starting next week I’m going to be blogging about how we made Markham, prior to it’s release…

So, please keep checking back, and take care in these odd covid crazy times.

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire, UK Script editor  and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer. His UK script coverage service and script development service are highly sought after.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham will be released in 2020. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can get in touch with Matthew on matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk.