Guillermo del Toro is hoping to lure actor Ron Perlman to H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness."

Having collaborated with the actor in such films as "Crono" and "Hellboy," del Toro said he's written a role in the Universal Pictures' 3D project specifically for Perlman.

"All I can tell you is if Ron Perlman is free, he will be in," del Toro said in an interview with MTV News. "He read it, and if everything falls in place, Ron Perlman has a role.

"Ron plays Larson, the sort of dog guy, the guy that cares for the dogs and the sled. ... It's a fantastic character. I really love him. He's sort of a pragmatic guy, doesn't care about science or the mythology or the cosmology. He just is a hard-boiled Nordic man."

"At the Mountains of Madness" unites del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth," "Blade II") with "Avatar" director James Cameron, who will produce the project.

For years del Toro has sought to create a big-budget spectacle based on the famous author's Cthulhu mythos novella. The tale appeared in a 1936 edition of "Astounding Stories" and followed a Miskatonic University expedition to Antarctica that discovered both wonder and madness on a foreboding mountain range.

The film will shoot in 2011, with Del Toro directing based on a script he wrote with Matthew Robbins ("Mimic," "Dragonslayer").