Poll: Lost Guillermo del Toro movies

[judderman]

Remember way back, when Guillermo del Toro was about to direct pretty much everything? It breaks the heart to imagine all the lost classics sacrificed in the name of studio cowardice, leaving us with Pacific Rim. Of course, that could still be good, and we may still see some of these some day, but I have to wonder when...

[Al Shut]

I went with Domu, the comic is glorious but I could see it benefiting from the tweaks that come with a movie adaptation.

Note that with del Toro I'm more curious about the outcome than convinced it will be good.

[TheButcher]

STYD EXCL: Guillermo del Toro Developing Beauty and the Beast With Potter Star

[Fried Gold]

Isn't The Hobbit also technically a lost Del Toro movie now?

[so sorry]

STYD EXCL: Guillermo del Toro Developing Beauty and the Beast With Potter Star

I wouldn't mind seeing more of Emma Watson.

[TheButcher]

From Collider:
Comic-Con 2011: The Visionaries Panel Recap – Guillermo del Toro and Jon Favreau Talk MAGIC KINGDOM, HAUNTED MANSION, COWBOYS & ALIENS, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, and Much More

Del Toro addressed the litany of projects he’s attached to. He said the perception that he’s working on a million things is a virtue of the 24-hour news cycle where more is made out of projects that may be in extremely early stages. He said things are prematurely announced, and mentioned in passing that The Haunted Mansion is on the second or third draft of the screenplay.

[TheButcher]

EMPIRE Exclusive:
CC: Guillermo Del Toro Talks Hellboy 3 - Video with the director

[TheButcher]

From The Playlist:
Disney-fied: Jon Favreau Talks ‘Magic Kingdom’ & Guillermo Del Toro Discusses ‘Haunted Mansion’

Comic-Con ‘11: Del Toro Says He “Wishes” He Was Making Marvel’s ‘Dr. Strange,’ Plus Talk On ‘Pinocchio,’ ‘Pacific Rim’ & More

[TheButcher]

From The New Yorker February 7, 2011:
Show The Monster - Guillermo del Toro’s quest to get amazing creatures onscreen.

Before decamping to New Zealand, del Toro checked in on another monster—a new version of Frankenstein’s Creature. Since childhood, he had dreamed of adapting Mary Shelley’s novel, which he considers a founding text of modern monster mythology. “Monsters exist only if the pretense of reason exists,” del Toro had told me. “Before the Age of Reason, you cannot generally claim monsters as an unnatural force. There were dragons on the map—as much of a fact as sunrise.” For someone like del Toro, giving birth to a new Frankenstein’s Creature is even more exciting than designing an original monster. Just as a Renaissance painter relished the challenge of rendering the Crucifixion, a true monster-maker wants to take on the icons.

“Frankenstein” was one of nearly a dozen projects that del Toro had in development. He hoped to follow “The Hobbit” with a spate of more personal films, including “Saturn and the End of Days,” a “deranged little movie” about a boy who witnesses the Rapture from his bedroom window. Del Toro is sometimes mocked for his tendency to announce projects prematurely. Recently, on the Hollywood news site Deadline, a commenter sniped, “This man is more famous for what he hasn’t done than what he has.”

To secure financing for “Frankenstein” from Universal, which signed a production deal with del Toro in 2007, he had to direct a “proof of concept” video: a brief sequence demonstrating that his Creature was thrilling enough to justify a new film. Though he had mentally sketched out the film, he hadn’t even begun a script. Everything would emanate from the monster’s design.

Work on Frankenstein’s Creature was being done at Spectral Motion, a design studio in a warehouse in Glendale. Most of del Toro’s monsters come to life there. When we arrived at the studio, del Toro was greeted by the company’s founder, Mike Elizalde, and they amiably exchanged curses in Spanish. Born in Mazatlán, Elizalde has the compact, muscled build of a superhero sidekick. He is a master of animatronics—making puppets move with robotics. With del Toro’s support, Spectral Motion has become an avant-garde studio for traditional monster design. It innovates with latex, not pixels.

We headed to the sculpting area, at the back of the warehouse. Monster maquettes were crammed atop bookshelves, like sports trophies in a locker room. A headless Hellboy suit hung on a gray mannequin. Desks were strewn with muscle magazines—the sculptors consult them when designing monster physiques. A torso lay on a long table, harshly illuminated by a swing lamp; several maquettes had been wrapped in black garbage bags, in preparation for storage. The place felt like a makeshift morgue.

At Spectral, a monster design is first rendered in clay. A mold is then made, and a plastic compound is poured into it to produce a maquette. Even when a creature is destined to be primarily computer-generated, del Toro commissions maquettes; seeing a beast in physical form helps him detect design flaws. Elizalde said that del Toro was by far his favorite client, because of “his tremendous imagination and appreciation for what can be done practically.” Many directors, Elizalde said, haplessly begged him to make something scary; del Toro provided blueprints from his notebooks, and assessed maquettes like a biologist supervising a dissection. They shared a distrust of excessive computerized effects, which often looked weightless onscreen. “That’s part of the goal of his films,” Elizalde said. “To celebrate the handmade, old-school creature.”

The “Frankenstein” project was tucked in a side room. Just before we got there, del Toro stopped short. “Is that the original casting?” he asked. On a high shelf sat a bust of Gill-man, from “Creature from the Black Lagoon.” One of Elizalde’s sculptors had borrowed the bust from an archive for close study. Del Toro, who considers Gill-man the apex of man-in-a-suit design, informed me that its creator was Milicent Patrick, a former Disney animator. Patrick did not receive official credit—apparently, nobody involved in “Lagoon” had wanted it known that a woman created the monster. Judging from the staff at Spectral, the demographics of monster design hadn’t changed much. Del Toro could recall working with only one female designer, on “Hellboy.” “This is a very geeky pursuit,” he said.

Sculpting Frankenstein’s Creature was Mario Torres, a slight, doleful-looking Latino whose head was covered by a navy-blue ski cap. For “Hellboy II,” he had helped del Toro design Mr. Wink, a troll with a mace for a fist. On Torres’s desk, near a small portable oven, was a large red clay bust of the Creature. Once the design was settled, the staff at Spectral Motion would use the bust as a guide for creating prosthetics that could be layered on an actor’s face.

In accordance with Mary Shelley’s description, the head appeared to have been stolen from a cadaver: there was exposed sinew around the jaw, and the cheekbones looked ready to poke through the scrim of flesh. Most appallingly, the Creature lacked a nose; a single bridge bone protruded over an oval breathing hole. Torres had been etching deep furrows into the Creature’s forehead, and shaved bits of clay were scattered on his desk, like clippings on a barbershop floor.

The Creature’s face was inspired, in part, by the graphic artist Bernie Wrightson, who, in 1983, published a stunning illustrated edition of “Frankenstein.” Four panels from the book hung in del Toro’s study at Bleak House. Wrightson’s Creature has been rudely cobbled together from several corpses, but he also has a lithe, sensual grace. It’s Michelangelo’s David, if Goliath had won.

For ten seconds, del Toro beheld the bust. “Que lástima,” he began—“What a shame.” Torres looked ready to pull his ski cap over his eyes. Del Toro unleashed a twenty-minute critique, largely in Spanish, lessening the sting with humor and pats on the back. “Cabrón, is that the nose of Skeletor?” he teased. The nose bridge was implausibly long, del Toro said. The facial decay was inconsistent: if the nostrils and underlying cartilage had rotted away, the earlobes would be long gone, too. “Anything that dangles goes away faster,” he noted. And the Creature’s furrowed expression was too limiting: “If it was going to be the monster just for a few minutes, I would say it’s really good. But it’s the main character.” The prosthetics for the Creature needed “to accommodate a personality,” allowing the actor wearing them to express “calm, vacancy, or even happiness.”

“So these lines are too deep?” Elizalde, who was taking notes, said.

“Yes,” del Toro said. “It needs to go beyond a good sculpture. You need to really believe.” He wanted fewer wrinkles across the face. “It has to convey being newborn.”

Del Toro studied the bust again, then told Torres that the jawline should be “bulked up” to look more square—it would be the single allusion to the famous Boris Karloff incarnation.

“Más Karloff,” Torres agreed, meekly.

The bust was modelled on the face of Doug Jones, the former mime, who had already agreed to play the role. Jones has performed as a monster so many times that Spectral Motion keeps a full-body cast of him on hand. Jones is prized by del Toro for his tiny head, swanlike neck, and spindly physique (six feet three, a hundred and forty pounds). Makeup artists can layer prosthetics on him without giving him a clunky silhouette. “Is this his real neck?” del Toro said of the bust, admiringly. “He’s inhuman!”

Elizalde asked del Toro about the Creature’s hair. Shouldn’t it be patchy, to emphasize the theme of decay?

“No, it should be long and full,” del Toro said. “He’s the Iggy Pop of Frankensteins!” He wiggled his hips. Shelley’s story had resonated with del Toro as a metaphor for the rebelliousness of teen-agers, and so he wanted the Creature to have the unnerving vitality of a rock star.

Del Toro turned to a nearby table, where he examined a green clay version of the Creature’s entire body. The figure, about a foot high, was lurching forward. “This is very twenty-first century,” he joked, pointing at the figure’s dangling penis.

“Lose it?” Elizalde asked.

“Yes,” del Toro said. “We’re going to have to make a gauze-cotton loincloth that is sort of falling off.” This would indicate that the monster “just came out of the lab table.” To underscore the Creature’s origin in multiple cadavers, one of the arms needed to be longer than the other.

He complained that the sculpture didn’t graphically indicate where the sutures were. “Give me the gauge,” he said to Torres. He grabbed the tool and, squinting, carved into the lower right hip; turning the sculpture wheel, he continued the line across the Creature’s buttocks. The suture lines, he told Torres, should “look jagged,” and the various body parts should have different skin tones.

Torres took some warm clay out of his oven and began Karloffing the jaw. Del Toro, scrutinizing the bust again, ordered a radical rhinoplasty: “Take this nose off.” He was questioning Wrightson’s breathing-hole concept. Later, he explained, “It’s a great graphic idea, but I’m not sure it works so much practically. When an actor acts with his eyes, you want to be looking at his eyes, not at a breathing plug-hole.” He requested a nose that looked semi-crushed and “about to slide off.”

Elizalde liked the idea. “It’s a cool effect, when you have that ridge of the bone, and you have tissue that’s sort of stringy and hanging on. It’ll be pretty creepy-looking.”

Torres asked, “How should the nose look on the inside?”

“Not like this!” del Toro said, patting him. “This is too Halloween.” He paused. “Don’t you have a skull around?” He flipped through Bone Clones, a catalogue of osteological replicas. “See? There are some very tiny, skinny bones in there.” Del Toro told Torres that he would return in four days, “to determine exactly what the nose area should look like.”

While we were in the sculpture studio, a pair of assistants filled del Toro’s Chrysler sedan with maquettes that had been polished for display at Bleak House. As del Toro emerged outside, the Angel of Death was being gingerly lowered into the back seat. “Es la Virgen María!” he said. Elizalde wished del Toro good luck in New Zealand. Del Toro climbed in and headed toward the freeway; a seat-belted maquette of Mr. Wink rode shotgun.

[SilentScream]

STYD EXCL: Guillermo del Toro Developing Beauty and the Beast With Potter Star

Much as I quite like del Toro (though his ego is quite laughable) he might as well leave Beauty and the Beast well alone. No way on earth will he surpass the Cocteau flick. Besides, hasn't he kind of paid homage to that with Pan's Labyrinth?

[so sorry]

Nice little interview with Del Toro courtesy of Mr Beaks

[Ribbons]

Isn't The Hobbit also technically a lost Del Toro movie now?

That's what I was just thinking, so I added it to the poll (along with a buttload of other titles).

[TheButcher]

From Variety:
Guillermo del Toro to direct 'Beauty and the Beast' - 'Bridget Jones' scribe will pen script for Warner Bros.

Guillermo del Toro will direct "Beauty and the Beast," a new take on the classic tale that Warner Bros. has tapped "Bridget Jones's Diary" scribe Andrew Davies to write.

WB's "Harry Potter" star Emma Watson is in final negotiations to topline the period pic that del Toro had originally only been onboard to produce.

DiNovi Pictures' Denise Di Novi and Alison Greenspan will produce with del Toro, who plans to write a treatment off of which Davies will work.

Del Toro, who's currently filming "Pacific Rim" for WB and Legendary Pictures, is credited as a co-writer on both of WB's upcoming "Hobbit" movies. He recently exec produced Universal's "Mama" and DreamWorks Animation's "Rise of the Guardians."

Having wrapped her long-running role as Hermione Granger in the "Harry Potter" pics, Watson will next reteam with "Deathly Hallows" director David Yates. She currently co-stars in "My Week With Marilyn" and will soon be seen in Summit's "The Perks of Being a Wallflower."

Davies, who wrote "Bridget Jones's Diary" and its 2004 sequel, most recently penned "The Three Musketeers" and "Brideshead Revisited."

WME reps both del Toro and Watson, who are also respectively repped by Exile Entertainment and U.K.-based Markham, Froggatt and Irwin. Davies is repped by CAA.

[TheButcher]

From ILLUSION INDUSTRIES :
Is this Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein?

[so sorry]

From ILLUSION INDUSTRIES :
Is this Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein?

Looks like Marv from Sin City

[The Vicar]

"Davies, who wrote "Bridget Jones's Diary" and its 2004 sequel, most recently penned "The Three Musketeers" and "Brideshead Revisited.""

Mot a lot to feel inspired about here, as writers go.
BJD wasn't all that.
That most recent Three Musketeers flick was utter shite.
Brideshead? Not a lot going on there, from a horror perspective.

[TheButcher]

Del Toro Will Co-Direct 'Pinocchio' After 'Pacific Rim'; Then What?

[TheButcher]

'Hellboy 3'? Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman say they're both game -- EXCLUSIVE

Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman may be in San Diego to debut footage from their giant robots vs. giant monsters summer 2013 tentpole picture Pacific Rim. But at the EW Comic-Con studio, the longtime collaborators had another film on their minds: Hellboy 3.

For a long time, whenever del Toro was asked about the dearly hoped for threequel, he would demure with a maybe-not-quite-a-joke that Perlman was not eager to spend multiple hours every day getting in and out of the extensive makeup for the hulking, blood-red character. But now both men are singing a different tune. “I can say publicly that now we are together in trying [to do Hellboy 3],” del Toro told EW. Perlman was sitting right next to him, and was not shy about explaining why he’s game to strap on Hellboy’s trenchcoat one more time.

“The [first] two movies were really set up to have this unbelievable resolve,” said Perlman. “Everything that was done in both movies was leading up to this destiny, written in stone, of what Hellboy has been summoned to Earth to do. To not do it, particularly in light of the scope that Guillermo is thinking of for the resolve, would be in my mind a little bit of a shame.”

As it happens, Perlman recently suited up again as Hellboy when he worked with the Make a Wish Foundation to grant the dream of six-year-old boy battling leukemia. “The make-up artist [with Spectral Motion] was the one who got contacted by the foundation,” explained Perlman. “This kid was watching Hellboy when he was in treatment. [The makeup artist told me] he would like to meet Hellboy. I said, ‘No problem, what day?’ He said, ‘I don’t think you understand. He does not want to meet Ron.’”

Del Toro says the event was also a factor in helping to bring himself and Perlman together on making a third Hellboy. “I’ve encountered a lot of kids who are fans of the movies,” said del Toro, “but to hear the story of this kid who was watching the movies while going through treatment, it really just moved me a lot.” The director stresses that he hasn’t yet approached Hellboy creator Mike Mignola on the prospect of a Hellboy III, nor is a studio signed on yet. But, he says, “We’re going to make an effort to do it. I hope it happens.” So do we!

[TheButcher]

A Eulogy for Guillermo del Toro's 'The Hobbit'

Hobbits staring wide-eyed, epic fights with great monsters, Gandalf confidently expressing fear and a terrible notion of what’s to come – it must be a new Peter Jackson movie. The new trailer for the first movie of Peter

Jackson’s second Lord of the Rings Trilogy is out, and there were some fun things to see – hints of trolls, a moment of Radagast the Brown, more Gollum, of course. Mostly, it gave us what we wanted from Jackson – a grand story to set the stage for the grand story to come.

It makes me a little sad to remember the Hobbit that we lost. Guillermo del Toro was contracted to make this movie for a long time, and I badly wanted to see that movie. Del Toro is no Jackson, that’s for sure. His half-crazy sense of style, his obsession with monsters, and his ability to find the small and the fascinating in the strangest places wasn’t the most natural move for MGM, but it was the perfect move for the Hobbit. The Hobbit needed something that wasn’t so necessary with Lord of The Rings – fun.

Lord of the Rings lends itself well to the sweeping strings that characterize Jackson’s vision. There are ancient evils that defy human comprehension, the tribulations of immortal elves, centuries-old prophesies, and nothing less than the fate of the world at stake. It’s a grand world that the Hobbits have been uncomfortably thrust into.

The Hobbit is a different kind of story. Tolkein hasn’t yet completed his vision of the greater Middle Earth. In many ways, it’s a world scaled down for the Hobbits. It’s smaller, and sillier – we don’t have the savage Uruk-hai. We have a bunch of singing goblins. There is the vague notion that The Ring is something more than a parlor trick to get Bilbo out of trouble, but it isn’t anywhere close to fleshed-out.

The Hobbit is “There and Back Again.” It’s beautifully contained within the small bounds of a folk-story, straining against its container but never quite breaking it apart.

There are hints of what’s to come towards the end of The Hobbit. By the time we’re at The Battle of The Five Armies, Tolkein is beginning to get a feel for the world he’s created beyond the Shire. He later doubled back with supplemental material that rooted The Hobbit in the broader world of LOTR. That doesn’t change the Hobbit he had already written.

Jackson’s Hobbit is going to be grand, expansive, apocalyptic and something that we might call fantastic-realism. It’s not going to be The Hobbit so much as three prequels to The Lord of The Rings. I can only think what del Toro’s would have been – I wanted the other-worldly mystery of the Dwarves, the dangerously amusing mischief through the Goblins, and the baroque grander of Smaug. Jackson’s imagination may be wider than del Toro’s, but del Toro’s is deeper. We’ll never get to see what he would have done with Tolkein. And that’s a shame.

[TheButcher]

EXCLUSIVE: Señor Fenix Knows The Futures Of LOCKE & KEY, POWERS, REVIVIAL, JJ Abrams and Guillermo del Toro

2. Rice- “Starchy and Tasty”- Speaking of Guillermo del Toro let’s just say he is working on a movie that has the potential to be the greatest movie ever committed to film. Or bytes. I hear that his next epic, PACIFIC RIM ( a Japanese Porno) is testing so well that Warner Brothers wants to offer him everything they have. Fortunately he passed on the feature version of V and the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but he does want to do his own version of the Avengers, just supernaturally. Called HEAVEN SENT he is combining all the magical beings from DC Comics in one epic adventure. Deadman, The Spectre, Swamp Thing, Constantine Hellblazer, Phantom Stranger, Zatanna, Zatara, and Sargon as well as Etrigan the Demon will team up to no doubt save us from the Stay Puft Marshmallow man. Now this one is a ways away, but Warner’s lawyers have been working every night trying to clear the rights to all these characters. I am excited. Imagine a giant inflatable Spectre floating over San Diego ComiCon like we had with the SKY CAPTAIN Robot? Or endless screenings of the film like with SCOTT PILGRIM? Or maybe a building converted into a giant ad like with COWBOYS AND ALIENS? HEAVEN SENT is certain to RULE ComicCon in 2020! Que Bueno!

From THR 07/20/2006:
Deadman' to live again on big screen

Guillermo del Toro is teaming up with Swell Dude's Angry Films to bring cult DC Comics superhero "Deadman" to the big screen for Warner Bros. Pictures.

Del Toro is in negotiations to develop the comics-to-film adaptation, which would be produced by del Toro, Murphy and Susan Montford.

Deadman is the ghost of a circus acrobat named Boston Brand, who was murdered during a trapeze performance. His spirit was granted the power by a Hindu goddess to possess any living being in order to find his killer. In the ensuing search, Brand finds himself obliged to help others. The hero was created in 1967 by Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino and is known for a run of issues by artist Neal Adams.

A search for writers is under way.

"I have been producing features for first- and second-timers in Spain and Latin America, and I would to do the same here," del Toro said in an interview. "If there is a window and an opportunity, I could end up directing but right now, I am only producing."

About the superhero, del Toro said: "(Deadman) has great supernatural elements and is one of the more off-kilter superheroes. What I like is that it has some of the canon of horror films but it has a quest and the heroics in the more traditional superhero roots. It's a great combination that is not very common to superheroes."

Dan Lin is overseeing for the studio. Gregory Noveck oversees for DC Comics.

Angry Films is in post on "Shoot 'Em Up," an action movie starring Clive Owen, and is one of the companies behind Michael Bay's "Transformers."

Del Toro will be at San Diego Comic-Con International talking about his upcoming fantasy film "Pan's Labyrinth," which opens Dec. 29 in North America. He is attached to direct "Hellboy 2" and "Killing on Carnival Row." He is repped by ICM and Exile Entertainment.

From Variety 12/03/2006:
Dauberman draws 'Deadman' gig

Warner Bros. has hired tyro scribe Gary Dauberman to work with director-producer Guillermo del Toro in penning the script for the bigscreen adaptation of DC Comics' "Deadman."

Project is a potential directing vehicle for del Toro, who is producing with Angry Films' Swell Dude and Murphy's partner Susan Montford.

Deadman is the ghost of a murdered circus acrobat who has the power to possess the living in order to seek out his killer, as well as to help the innocent.

Dauberman impressed "Deadman" producers with a spec script he had written for a Western zombie pic.

Del Toro's latest film, "Pan's Labyrinth," opens Dec. 29.

Angry Films' upcoming slate includes "Transformers" and "Shoot 'Em Up."

From Collider:Guillermo del Toro Producing DEADMAN Adaption

From Bloody Disgusting:Guillermo Del Toro to Produce DC Comics Adaptation 'Dead Man'

Bloody Disgusting is being told that Nikolaj Arcel (Island of Lost Souls ) is looking to direct Dead Man, a Crow-esque adaptation for Warner Bros. Pictures.

Guillermo del Toro is set to produce the pic that follows a a circus tightrope walker who is murdered and returns as a ghost with the ability to inhabit the bodies if others in order to find his killer.

We're being told this is based on the DC character "Deadman" that first appeared in Strange Adventures #205 (October 1967).

[TheButcher]

Possible Star Wars Directors Get Interesting – Guillermo Del Toro And Colin Trevorrow

Patrick Dane writes for Bleeding Cool.

It seems that no director can escape the touch of Star Wars. Not a day goes by that a reporter doesn’t ask whichever poor victim is in front of them if they are involved with the resurrected saga.

Spielberg, Abrams, Snyder and Tarantino have said no and Favreau is down as a maybe. Now its the turn of two other directors. One big, one small, both with interesting answers.

First victim comes in the form of Guillermo Del Toro. Fanhattan asked him about his feelings on the gig and while it sounds like he was hardly overflowing with enthusiasm, he did call it attractive.

You know, I saw it on the Internet, but I haven’t approached them, they haven’t formally approached me. I mean, I heard some rumblings, but to me it’s really — I have so many projects to discuss or think about. Something that is not a possibility yet, I don’t do that. You know, because I have so many things that I need to catch up with. If this becomes ever a reality, and there’s an approach to do it, I would then think about it, but it’s like thinking if I want to date a supermodel. I don’t think about these things.

Formally approached, note. The emphasis, Fanhattan notes, was Del Toro’s.

While it isn’t a huge surprise that Del Toro is saying he’s busy, he is also saying that the door is at least open to a proper offer. Likening the franchise to a supermodel won’t hurt either.

We heard last week that Safety Not Guaranteed‘s Colin Trevorrow has spoken to Lucasfilm too, even before his debut film has rolled out across much of the globe

Moviezine (via Joblo) did end up getting some interesting quotes from the director that seem to cement that there have been talks.

It is not something that I can comment too much on. But I can definitely say, I am as much of a fan of Star Wars as everyone else for whom Star Wars was the most important thing in their life, when they were a kid. I’m deeply aware of how profoundly important it is, to billions of people. It really is a mythology and possibly even a belief system for a lot of people. I certainly can’t comment on what my involvement may ever be, I can definitely say that I would absolutely love to direct a “Star Wars” film at some point in my life. That would be incredible, I’m not daunted by it.

Not being able to comment on something, understanding the value of a fan-favourite series and reassuring that fan base that you would not overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility are usually the traits of someone who’s having to take their comments very seriously. We may actually have something on our hands with this Trevorrow talk.

He went on to talk about how he thinks it’s important to honour the style of the original trilogy:

That is a very specific example of something that needs to feel consistent with the movies that came before it. That’s a sequel to Return of the Jedi, that’s a very specific world and a specific style of filmmaking and presentation. I think that whoever does that movie, to depart too far, at least for these particular films…

While Trevorrow may not have been on top many people’s lists for this film, things seem to be stacking up in his favour. Would Disney go for a a director this “small”?

It remains to be seen. And if not this time around maybe next time around. Could Trevorrow end up being the Irvin Kershner of this new trilogy?

[TheButcher]

Guillermo del Toro Talks PUSS IN BOOTS 2, KUNG FU PANDA 3 & TROLLHUNTERS; Says PANDA 3 Has the “Most Formidable Villain in the Series”

Finally, del Toro has been developing a film of his own at DreamWorks called Trollhunters for the past few years. The filmmaker reiterated that he intends to direct the feature once the script is in top shape:

“The relationship with DreamWorks Animation actually started with me approaching them and saying ‘I want to direct an animated movie,’ and we started developing that screenplay Trollhunters three years ago. We’re on the fourth or fifth draft and I’m doing designs for it, and when the screenplay’s ready and the designs are ready I’m gonna set aside 18 months of my life and dedicate them only to the animated movie.”

The filmmaker revealed that the film will feature child protagonists, but he intends to deal with kids in a very real way:

“It’s about a group of kids that basically are Trollhunters at night, and they have to still do the math exam during the day; they get fit with braces and go through all the growing pains. I love the idea of creating a sort of nuanced portrait of kids that they’re not all perfect. They’re kind of misfits but not in a picturesque, hip way, they’re really, really kids that are not entirely great (laughs).”

[TheButcher]

From Vulture 7/30/10:
Guillermo del Toro Left a Tom Cruise Van Helsing Project to Direct Mountains of Madness

Saying "yes," in Hollywood usually means saying "no" to lots of other things, which is why our ears perked up when we saw the news earlier this week that Guillermo del Toro had signed on to direct At the Mountains of Madness for Universal. We knew that to do that, he'd have to let go of something else, but what? We figured it out: Vulture has learned that del Toro had been (and is now no longer) developing a new twist on the story of Van Helsing, vampire slayer, with Tom Cruise producing and possibly starring. (That was also a Universal project.) However, even with del Toro gone, we hear that Cruise remains attached to the project. Well, it was fifteen years ago that he played a vamp in Interview with the Vampire, so why shouldn't he see how the other half lives?

[TheButcher]

Guillermo Del Toro To Helm ‘Crimson Peak’ As Next Feature, With Legendary Pictures

EXCLUSIVE:
Guillermo del Toro has committed to make the ghost story Crimson Peak the next film he will direct. Even though del Toro set up that project originally from a script he wrote with frequent collaborator Matthew Robbins, he will make the film for Legendary Pictures, which backed his latest film, Pacific Rim. Legendary will produce with the expectation it will release through its deal with Warner Bros. Legendary will be a participating financing partner, with Universal retaining an option to come in as co-financier at a later date.

Del Toro will work through a rewrite with Lucinda Coxon and they will shoot for an early 2014 production start. That gives del Toro the time to complete press for Pacific Rim and to film the FX pilot for The Strain, the series based on the vampire novel series del Toro wrote with Chuck Hogan.

Del Toro tells me that Crimson Peak is best described as “a very set-oriented, classical but at the same time modern take on the ghost story. It will allow me to play with the conventions of the genre I know and love, and at the same time subvert the old rules.”

The main thing: Legendary will give him the resources he needs to honor what he calls the “grand dames” of the haunted house genre. “To me that is Robert Wise’s The Haunting, which was a big movie, beautifully directed, with the house built magnificently. And the other grand daddy is Jack Clayton’s The Innocents. I’ve always tried to make big-sized horror movies like the ones I grew up watching,” del Toro said. “Films like The Omen, The Exorcist and The Shining, the latter of which is another Mount Everest of the haunted house movie. I loved the way that Kubrick had such control over the big sets he used, and how much big production value there was. I think people are getting used to horror subjects done as found footage or B-value budgets. I wanted this to feel like a throwback.”

The project originally sold quietly as a spec script to Universal, where del Toro had his deal. “It was the first one I wrote after Pan’s Labyrinth, and I sold it to Donna Langley at Universal,” he said. “She loved it, I was going to direct it, and then Hellboy II happened, and then I was off to New Zealand for The Hobbit. Donna suggested I move aside and produce it. It went out to directors, but I didn’t quite like anyone for it. Finally I went through the experience of Pacific Rim with Warner Bros and Legendary, and it was the best experience I have ever had making a movie, period. I had a really good working relationship with Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni, and they asked what I wanted to do next. I sent them At The Mountains Of Madness, I sent them [The Count Of] Monte Cristo, another project I’ve tried to do for 20 years. I also sent Crimson Peak, but didn’t expect a reaction because it’s not a typical Legendary movie. Much to my surprise, Thomas Tull called 9:30 at night on the day I sent it and said, ‘I don’t know how it ends, but I am on page 45 and I love it.’ Next day, Jon Jashni called and said we think it’s the best project for us, just the right size.” Universal allowed him to move the project, with the caveat the studio can put up money for a stake in the film.

Don’t think for a moment that del Toro has given up his dreams for At The Mountains Of Madness, based on the HP Lovecraft horror classic that Universal unplugged late in the process even though del Toro had Tom Cruise poised to star and James Cameron poised to supervise 3D as producer. Del Toro hopes that Legendary will be part of that effort.

“They love it, but we just finished Pacific Rim,” he said. “They want to let that film happen [it opens July 12] and then my hope is, down the line we can do it. People ask how do i choose projects. All the projects in my roster are there because I love them, but the financing process is serendipity. And often, the ones I think will happen don’t, and the ones I think won’t happen, do.”

Screenwriter Coxon most recently adapted Michel Faber’s novel The Crimson Petal And The White for BBC. She’s repped by CAA and UK-based The Agency. Del Toro is managed by Gary Ungar and repped by WME.

[TheButcher]

Guillermo del Toro Talks Dark Universe, His DC Comics Supernatural Heroes Movie
The Hellboy director says he’s found the “perfect” writer for the film.

[TheButcher]

Mountains Of Madness Back From The Brink, Hulk TV Show On Ice

[TheBaxter]

Mountains Of Madness Back From The Brink, Hulk TV Show On Ice

why do you build me up, buttercup, baby
just to let me down and mess me around?

[so sorry]

Mountains Of Madness Back From The Brink, Hulk TV Show On Ice

why do you build me up, buttercup, baby
just to let me down and mess me around?

That Hulk on Ice show sounds promising.

[Ribbons]

That Hulk on Ice show sounds promising.

Someone needs to get a Kickstarter on that shit

[Al Shut]

That Hulk on Ice show sounds promising.

I don't know, Kong on Ice was pretty lame

[TheButcher]

GDT Shocks the world!!!
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio Not Going To Happen But Little Jordan Ray’s Muddy Spud Might

[TheButcher]

Pinocchio Update: Gris Grimly Says He’s “Still Kicking”

Gris Grimly dropped me a line to follow up on his prior tweets about the fate of his Pinocchio movie with Guillermo Del Toro.

His e-mail reads:

I’m writing to clear up the rumor that has gotten started. It all started with misconstrued information that I passed along through my networks. But it has come to my knowledge that Pinocchio is indeed still kicking with interest from the studios. Although I thought it was going to lay quiet for a little while, I never thought it would be canceled. It’s too good.

Here’s hoping he’s right this time.

Now, let’s see if a studio bites, and when…

[TheButcher]

Total Film:
Exclusive: Guillermo del Toro updates on Justice League Dark movie
GdT talks origin stories for DC Comics' dark Avengers...

[TheButcher]

Benedict Cumberbatch Joining Emma Stone in Guillermo del Toro's 'Crimson Peak'

[TheBaxter]

i would enjoy a film featuring Emma Stone's "crimson peaks"