Writer/director Guillermo Del Toro knows how to charm an audience. The Mexican filmmaker, best known for “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Hellboy,” “Pacific Rim” and just about every interesting fantasy/sci-fi film of the last two decades, is a great storyteller and isn’t afraid to open up about every aspect of his career. So, when he sat down for an hour and a half long discussion of his career and the filmmaking craft at Annecy 2017, the packed room was all ears.
Since this was at Annecy, Del Toro began by talking about his first foray into animation. He was only 8 years old. Apparently, the first Del Toro animated epic was about a killer tomato. After then he began to focus on live-action, but animation always held a special place in his heart.
Obviously, whenever a successful filmmaker is being interviewed in an audience of students, the inevitable question about how to get a script sold is asked. In typical charming Del Toro fashion, he responded, “My statistics are very bad. I have written 24 screenplays. I’ve made 10 movies. It’s like asking me for dieting advice.” However, when he went on to describe the difference between the scripts that he’s written that get made versus those that don’t, he said, “Every movie I have made was made because I would die to have it made.”
Del Toro is also known as a man who is quick to discuss films he wants to have made, and those he almost made. He quickly told the crowd that he honestly didn’t regret not making any film, except one notable exception – “Harry Potter.”
He also took the time to discuss how society is moving so fast, and content is being created by just about everything. However, he warned the students that to keep up with what’s happening now they needed to give “110% in everything you do. It’s the only way you will learn.”
For fans of Del Toro, and those hoping to somehow make it in the film industry, this talk is a must-see. There just aren’t many people as fun, interesting, and talented as Guillermo Del Toro working in Hollywood.
