Del Toro's Civil War trilogy

[judderman]

I've been holding out on buying the DVDs of Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth because the third and final part of the Spanish Civil War trilogy is still in development, and I'm sure that when the complete trilogy is released it's gonna get its own super deluxe special edition with fifty commentaries and a thousand hours of archive footage. But now that Del Toro is doing The Hobbit, 3993 probably won't get released until at least 2012, so maybe I should just bite the bullet and pony up.

[magicmonkey]

Could you perhaps open up the scope of this thread Judderman? As so far it just seems as though you just have an indecision and decided to open up a thread about it... Tell us more about the 3rd movie? Tell us more about his prior two civil war films? Open up the whole thread to a deluge of Spanish civil war debate? Who is the best Spanish Civil War filmmaker? Loach? Del Torro? Victor Erice? Is El Espíritu de la colmena like the best film eva?!? Please do open this up a little or I'm gonna have to lock, repost the info, and delete...

[Nachokoolaid]

In the video I just posted in the Hobbit thread, he said he's most likely cancelling all projects for the next 4 years due to the Hobbit, and (if the studio wants it) his first post Hobbit project will be Hellboy 3.

[Fried Gold]

I've never seen any direct, specific, source of where this "spanish civil war trilogy" has come from. Del Toro has said Pan's Labyrinth was a "spiritual sequel" to The Devil's Backbone, but if someone can show where he's said "I am a making this a trilogy" I would like to know.

Both films have similar settings, feature young children, and merge the themes of horror, fantasy and live under fascist rule. If you see The Spirit of the Beehive, one could consider a "trilogy" of sorts to be complete.

Not that I'm saying he won't make another similar themed film, I've just never seen evidence that he particularly intends to. It seems like he'll be occupied in Middle Earth for the next few years anyway...but perhaps similar sentiments will porously leak through into that setting - war is happening, it is a fantastical environoment...Hobbits are a bit child-like. Could either of these Hobbit films take a similar tone to Del Toro's earlier work?

[papalazeru]

I've never seen any direct, specific, source of where this "spanish civil war trilogy" has come from. Del Toro has said Pan's Labyrinth was a "spiritual sequel" to The Devil's Backbone, but if someone can show where he's said "I am a making this a trilogy" I would like to know.

Both films have similar settings, feature young children, and merge the themes of horror, fantasy and live under fascist rule. If you see The Spirit of the Beehive, one could consider a "trilogy" of sorts to be complete.

Not that I'm saying he won't make another similar themed film, I've just never seen evidence that he particularly intends to. It seems like he'll be occupied in Middle Earth for the next few years anyway...but perhaps similar sentiments will porously leak through into that setting - war is happening, it is a fantastical environoment...Hobbits are a bit child-like. Could either of these Hobbit films take a similar tone to Del Toro's earlier work?

I always thought Cronos was the beginning of his faerytale trilogy, followed by Devils backbone and Pan's.

They are all adult stories told with a childlike nativity.

[John-Locke]

I always thought Cronos was the beginning of his faerytale trilogy, followed by Devils backbone and Pan's.

They are all adult stories told with a childlike nativity.

Yeah I thought that too.

All 3 are seriously flawed too, only Pans is actually any good, Cronos is just crap and Backbone has too many moments of people acting like idiots to be worth watching more than once. In all 3 of these films characters do things to take the film nearer the ending already set out rather than because it's the logical thing to do, thats the main reason I don't like Del Toro, he's clearly got a keen eye and a great imagination but he's a really lazy writer.

[magicmonkey]

I just remembered him announcing the movie about the kid who witnesses the last days of the world on a trip to the shops... where was that film discussed? I just did a quick search and turned up nothing... GAFFNEY!!!?!?!?!

[Fried Gold]

I've never seen any direct, specific, source of where this "spanish civil war trilogy" has come from. Del Toro has said Pan's Labyrinth was a "spiritual sequel" to The Devil's Backbone, but if someone can show where he's said "I am a making this a trilogy" I would like to know.

Both films have similar settings, feature young children, and merge the themes of horror, fantasy and live under fascist rule. If you see The Spirit of the Beehive, one could consider a "trilogy" of sorts to be complete.

Not that I'm saying he won't make another similar themed film, I've just never seen evidence that he particularly intends to. It seems like he'll be occupied in Middle Earth for the next few years anyway...but perhaps similar sentiments will porously leak through into that setting - war is happening, it is a fantastical environoment...Hobbits are a bit child-like. Could either of these Hobbit films take a similar tone to Del Toro's earlier work?

I always thought Cronos was the beginning of his faerytale trilogy, followed by Devils backbone and Pan's.

They are all adult stories told with a childlike nativity.

I'm not sure if Cronos really fits. It's also a bit pants.

[judderman]

I've never seen any direct, specific, source of where this "spanish civil war trilogy" has come from. Del Toro has said Pan's Labyrinth was a "spiritual sequel" to The Devil's Backbone, but if someone can show where he's said "I am a making this a trilogy" I would like to know.

"3993 is a movie that, if I do it, would close the trilogy of Spanish Civil War movies, because it's about a character in 1993 who believes that civil war is a thing of the past. And something from 1939 comes to life and proves that it's not — that it's pretty much alive."

Source

[Al Shut]

I just remembered him announcing the movie about the kid who witnesses the last days of the world on a trip to the shops... where was that film discussed? I just did a quick search and turned up nothing... GAFFNEY!!!?!?!?!

Discussed right here

[Fried Gold]

I've never seen any direct, specific, source of where this "spanish civil war trilogy" has come from. Del Toro has said Pan's Labyrinth was a "spiritual sequel" to The Devil's Backbone, but if someone can show where he's said "I am a making this a trilogy" I would like to know.

"3993 is a movie that, if I do it, would close the trilogy of Spanish Civil War movies, because it's about a character in 1993 who believes that civil war is a thing of the past. And something from 1939 comes to life and proves that it's not — that it's pretty much alive."

Source

Excellent.

[papalazeru]

I thought Cronos was awesome. Yes it was flawed but it was still very very good.

A lot of Toro's film lie within the realms of Spanish culture, mainly in the script.

[magicmonkey]

The thing I like about Del Toro's civil war movies is that they don't feature unstoppable, spawning creatures like his other films tend to do. The bad guy who multiplies and cannot be killed sounds kinda cool, but for some reason, for me, it doesn't work. He hasn't yet managed to conjure up a feeling of dread when dealing with something of that nature, maybe it has something to do with the fact that there is no easy, possible, victory... It's pretty nihilistic to dwell on, but it's not as though "Mimic" was a PG film or aimed at kids. A comparison would be that of the zombie, which can be killed, providing short term satisfaction, but the dread of this unstoppable force is conveyed so much better in say a Romero film or a Carpenter film by way of location use, tone and through spurring characters on into a long, complex interminable struggle with doom whereas Del Toro's movies evoke feelings of a more sudden, apocalyptic doom with seemingly no time to dwell on or imbibe its implications as a viewer or as a character. His civil war films though show a retreat into oneself which has never been conveyed so well as in his more mainstream material. It would be great if elements of the two were incorporated into one film, maybe Hellboy 2 will be it, but I doubt it.