Guillermo Del Toro To Direct Cold War Romance Starring Octavia Spencer & Sally Hawkins

Guillermo Del Toro, Octavia Spencer“What I can tell you quite safely is, I don’t intend to keep on doing big, giant Hollywood movies for much longer,” Guillermo del Toro said last fall. “…I’m not going to pursue action movies or superhero movies at all any more. I hope I can go back to doing the smaller, weirder ones.” Following "Crimson Peak," he’s doing just that, and no, it’s not that movie about a Mexican wrestler fighting vampires.

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Instead, del Toro is helming an untitled Cold War-era love story that’s set in 1963 and features otherworldly elements. The cast is intriguing too, with Oscar winner Octavia Spencer ("The Help") and Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins ("Blue Jasmine") lining up roles in the movie that will shoot this summer. There’s not much in the way of other details, except that Fox Searchlight is backing the film, but the indie shingle certainly cements del Toro’s step in a new direction.

It’s a drastic shift for the filmmaker, and it’ll be interesting what he pulls from his wide ranging cinematic passions to apply to this picture. I really liked his amped up Brontë-esque "Crimson Peak," and I’ll be eager to see what influences surface with this film. [Deadline/Variety]