LA TIMES HERO COMPLEX FILM FEST

PACIFIC RIM Main Trailer

Like a monster from the sea, PACIFIC RIM waded out of the sea and crushed the fans of the San Diego Comic Con.

Judging from the internet reaction, the Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures presentation at Hall H on Saturday was a big success.  Fans and media were treated to clips of giant robots and monsters duking it out in an impressive media presentation.  The enthusiastic attendees took to twitter and blogs, sharing their reaction with fans not lucky enough to be among the capacity crowd.  Some of my favorite tweets from yesterday:

@slashfilm: Someone was crazy enough to gave Guillermo hundreds of millions of dollars to play with, and we’re all invited to the toy box

@devincf: Literally choked up with awe and wonder and excitement from the PACIFIC RIM footage. Huge, thrilling

@firstshowing: Gigantic, I mean GIANT robots vs monsters, it looks so so so huge, so badass, holy sh*t wait until see you this stuff yourself.

I would venture to guess that Legendary has a big hit on their hands, and to include it with the likes of THE HOBBIT and SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL, which also presented, is saying big things about their expectations.

Here are some other quotes of interest, pulled from the online media reports:

Hollywood Reporter

With his Mexican accent, his eloquent profanity, and his ability to speak geek, del Toro talked of the creative process behind the movie, in which he combined his drive to make the film’s destruction as real as possible, while also retaining heart.

“No f—ing motion capture,” he exclaimed of his choice to eschew that technique to convey the Jaegers. “I don’t want the robots moving like human beings. They need to move like a shock absorber and gears move.”He also described how the production had the soundstages rigged so that sidewalks, cars, and streets actually crumbled and shook when filming monsters stalking cities.

USA Today

There are around seven different robots in the movie, del Toro said, and nine monsters, or Kaiju. His team designed 40 different monsters, “and we did an American Idol on them. The better Kaiju are the ones in the movie.

“Everybody was a fan of monsters and robots,” he added, “and we locked ourselves in adjacent rooms and played.”

To make the creatures seem more real, del Toro is putting them in elements like rain and mud, and they’ll each have different personalities and abilities. (Footage showed one shark-looking beastie getting a smackdown courtesy of a Jaeger.)

“Sea monsters, flying monsters — we have monsters out the wazoo,” del Toro said.

“When you get a big budget, you can get crazy or lazy. And I got as crazy as I could. We used madness as our fuel to make this movie.”

We also got a sneak peak into what Ron Perlman’s character will be like in PACIFIC RIM – a black market dealer named “Hannibal Chow”, specializing in delivering kaiju parts for consumption by the rich element of society (think of it like witch doctor medicine).  Sounds as if he and Charlie Day’s character, Dr. New Gotlieb, will have some comic run-ins.

You can check out IGN’s report on PACIFIC RIM below:

Also, here is an SDCC interview I found with GDT from ComicVineVideos:

Here is GDT talking about PACIFIC RIM to the Hollywood Reporter prior to SDCC:

PACIFIC RIM Pilot Suits

On the floor of the Comic Con, you could find the Jaeger pilot suit costumes.  The dark suit out front is suit you will see Charlie Hunnam wearing.  Each Jaeger is controlled by two pilots – one controlling the left side of the mech, and the other controlling the right.

PACIFIC RIM Buttons

Also check out these cool PAC RIM buttons that were given away at the Warner Brothers booth.

HELLBOY 3?

And in a surprise SDCC announcement, GDT and Ron Perlman said they would BOTH be up for HELLBOY 3 if they could get it financed.  The catalyst for this announcement was Ron’s recent appearance as HELLBOY for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  See GDT and Ron Perlman talking about the possible reunion on EW’s site.

A Toronto news team covered a story on how Guillermo Del Toro is making over Toronto to look like Tokyo.  It is an interesting little piece that shows the detail that is going into the set design for the film – right down to the cherry blossoms.

Watch the video below:

What you may have missed are a couple of intriguing details – I froze a couple of the screens for a closer look -

In a featurette from the new MIMIC BluRay, GDT talks about why we revisit movies, and the “ever-flowing” river of narrative.

Some new clips from DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK have been posted online, as well as some pictures! Check them out below and let us know what you think!

Just a few more months and we’ll finally get to see a Guillermo Del Toro film hit the screen.

Of course, he didn’t direct it, but he did write the screenplay with Matthew Robbins.  DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK will be released August 26th, 2011, and a new trailer has just been released. Check it out below.

The film stars Katie Holmes, Guy Pierce and is directed by Troy Nixey.

How time flies when you are a busy man.  Because of other commitments, I have not been giving my fellow DTF’ers the attention they deserve.  That’s why I’m coming at you with a butt-load of updates.  Here we go!

The GDT New Yorker Interview

In perhaps one of the best interviews with Guillermo Del Toro to date, Daniel Zalewski has written an amazing profile of Guillermo for the New Yorker.  Not only including some great insights to his life in Mexico, it offers a rare glimpse into Bleak House and some of Guillermo’s secret creature designs.  Not to be missed is an extensive look at the preproduction work for ATMOM!

Below are some creature designs mentioned in the article:

Smaug

An overhead view likens him to a “flying axe”.  Smaug’s bodyis unusually long and thin. “The bones of its wings were articulated on the dorsal side, giving the creature a slithery softness across its belly,” writes Zalewski. GDT describes Smaug as snake-like.  Smaug’s front legs looked disproportionately small, like those of a T. rex. Smaug’s eyes, del Toro says, were “going to be sculpturally very hidden.”

Frankenstein

• The article mentions the ”tension” in New Zealand that may have proved a factor in GDT’s decision to leave the HOBBIT production
• GDT recently underwent sleeve-gastrectomy surgery to lose weight.
• Some of the artists working on ATMOM creature concept design is Wayne Barlowe, Guy Davis and Peter Konig.

GDT Notebook Video

Many of you know the legend of Guillermo’s notebooks already. Within them reside the seeds to his movie magic – Oh, to just sneak a peak! I bet it is crawling with ATMOM tidbits as we speak! 

To the left is a cool little Hellboy sketch done by Guillermo that I pulled from IndieMoviesOnline.  Pretty cool, eh?

 Well, the next best thing to getting your hands on his notebook is to watch this video, also from the New Yorker. What do you think?

Cameron says Cruise is still a possibility

James Cameron recently confirmed that Tom Cruise starring in ATMOM is still a definite possibility, and the hope is for the film to get a greenlight so GDT can start shooting in June or July.

Don’t Be Afraid Gets International Distributor

Variety reports that Pathe International will distribute the GDT-scripted flick DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK to international audiences. Hopefully this will encourage a domestic distribution soon, as Disney had announced it would not distribute the project.

Bardem gets Oscar Nom for BIUTIFUL

In case you didn’t know, Javier Bardem scored an Oscar nomination for BEST ACTOR for his lead role in the GDT-produced film BIUTIFUL. Great to see a foreign film get recognized in this category.  Has anybody caught his performance yet?

JoBlo.com got a (very) rough cut of the MIMIC original ending.  Apparently, the original ending did not score well with test audiences and MIRAMAX and the Weinsteins insisted that Guillermo change it. 

We know that Guillermo has been working on the MIMIC Director’s Cut DVD for some time, and to my knowledge, the cut is complete.  A key obstacle in its release was the sale of MIRAMAX to Filmyard Holdings, which concluded around July 2010.

Will the MIMIC Director’s Cut DVD ever see the light of day? Not sure, but for now, we have this leaked alternate ending. Perhaps we will someday get to see GDT’s original vision in its entirety.

Click this link to watch the video, and be sure to make your comments below!  What do think of it?

A very insightful interview with Guillermo Del Toro was posted on January 18th on the Zócalo Public Square website.  The interview is available as a video or a podcast. 

Guillermo provides many insights on his childhood and upbringing, and also his philosophies on film-making, society and more.  Don’t miss this.