Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell

"Underground filmmaker Carlos Atanes has been trying to make a movie about Aleister Crowley and his Magick for more than ten years. He started in 2002 shooting two crowleyesque feature length films, Ian Perplexed and Perdurabo. They were both unfinished. On the way he made two non-crowleyesque movies, FAQ and PROXIMA.

In the beginning of 2007 this was the third and last attempt of the deal with Magick: In the Mouth of Hell. Atanes wrote it for two years, until the end of 2008. This script is structured in the reverse order of the Major Arcana of Crowley’s Tarot. The plot describes the mystical trip of Crowley through the Duat –the egyptian underworld–, the encounters with significant characters in his real life –people as Hanni Jaegger, Fernando Pessoa, Leila Wadell, Victor Neuburg, Raoul Loveday– and the confrontation with the demon Choronzon, his old adversary.

Atanes’ intention was to shoot it in Spanish with his flagship actor Manuel Solàs playing the mature Crowley. While he was looking for fundings he was shooting another two apparently non-crowleyesque feature movies, Maximum Shame and Gallino, the Chicken System –although this one contains clear references to Sexual Magick.

In the Mouth of Hell was a complex and expensive project, and it was not conceived for everybody but just for curious, informed and/or initiated audiences, which means an added difficulty to attract producers and investors’ interest. After four years of search, finally fundings didn’t arrive and Atanes threw in the towel. He decided to shelve the matter. But he also thought it would be a pity to bury a text that could be interesting for all of those who were waiting for this film for a decade. This way people could watch the film and recall in their heads.

This is the screenplay such as it was written and never filmed."

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closrapexa said:

Seems interesting. Not interesting enough to buy at this stage, but still interesting.

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Aeon418 said:

It couldn't possibly be worse than, A Chemical Wedding. What a waste of a great opportunity that was.

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Spiffo said:

I wonder that in our age of permissiveness AC is still a figure who embodies such ambivalence.

And I don't know why but I've always thought Kevin Spacey could make a good AC.

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closrapexa said:

I think we are far less permissive than you give us credit for, but that's another story

Problem is, Crowley has too much emotional baggage for any good film to be made of him, I feel.

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