At last night’s Saturn Awards, fanboy favorite Guillermo Del Toro stopped by, and being the gracious person he is, spent nearly half an hour fielding questions from fans, bloggers and journalists and spoke openly about a number of topics and projects. We’re tried to condense it down to the bare essentials, but you can watch the full interview below.
We don’t need to remind you that Del Toro left the continually delayed “The Hobbit” last month, and the question on everybody’s mind is: what will he do next? The director certainly doesn’t have any shortage of potential projects on his plate, and while he didn’t confirm anything this time around, he did talk about the status of a couple of projects on his slate.
A longtime dream project for Del Toro has been an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains Of Madness,” and while it remains at the top of his wishlist of projects, it remains a tough sell for studios. “I would love to be doing ‘Mountains Of Madness,’ but still, even now, it’s very difficult for the studios to take the step of an R-rated, tentpole movie, with a tough ending, no love story….,” Del Toro says. So scratch that one for now.
However, his gestating adaptation of “Frankenstein” seems to be on somewhat firmer ground. While the script isn’t finished, Del Toro says, “I’m presenting the storylines to Universal.” Moreover, sculpture work is already done and screen-testing with potential lead Doug Jones should be underway soon. Del Toro plans to stick very closely to Mary Shelley’s novel, but acknowledges he’s having a hard time finding his way through the material saying, “The screenplay is not ready, that’s the problem. It’s not an easy screenplay to crack. There’s been so many versions and I really would love to bring something new.” He does have an idea in mind, but he’s keeping mum on it saying, “If I say what it is, I spoil it completely.”
So what is he doing next? Del Toro says he has one project in mind that he thinks will come together which “started 15 years ago” and has now come back full circle into his hands. Of course, he’s keeping cagey and don’t expect any official announcements until Comic Con or possibly after.
Finally, for those of you have been waiting for the long ago announced Criterion edition of Del Toro’s “Cronos,” off camera Del Toro revealed it will be coming this December. And for all you nerds out there, one of the features will be a fifteen minute segment on his Man Cave where he keeps all his collectibles. Seriously.
