The great thing about being a Guillermo Del Toro fan is that GDT always has lots of projects out there to engage our interest and curiosity. Even though it has been roughly five years since Guillermo’s HELLBOY 2, there have been plenty of appetizers served as we await his next main course: PACIFIC RIM. Those delicious nuggets include THE STRAIN trilogy, MIMIC Director’s Cut BluRay, DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (a GDT/Matthew Robbins screenplay) and his various producing efforts, including PUSS IN BOOTS and SPLICE.

Unfortunately, PACIFIC RIM is still a year away, due out the summer of 2013. And as Tom Petty once said, “the waiting is the hardest part.”

So as we wait for el maestro to serve us our entree, you may need something to keep that tummy from growling, and I am here to please. Below are the major GDT projects in the works, and their most current status updates (my source is el maestro himself).

This should hold you over…at least for a day or two.

PACIFIC RIM

Shooting is wrapped, and GDT is now neck-deep in post production. This epic summer blockbuster from Legendary Pictures will pit massive robots vs. giant monsters and will be released July 12, 2013. Our pal Spydaweb recently treated us to a plot synposis at FanboyConfidential:

From acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ epic sci-fi action adventure “Pacific Rim.”

When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes-a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)-who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

Oscar^® nominee Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) is directing “Pacific Rim” from a script by Travis Beacham (“Clash of the Titans”). Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and Mary Parent are producing, with Callum Greene serving as executive producer.

The film stars Charlie Hunnam (TV’s “Sons of Anarchy”), Idris Elba (“Thor”), Rinko Kikuchi (“The Brothers Bloom”), Charlie Day (“Horrible Bosses”), and Ron Perlman (the “Hellboy” films). The ensemble cast also includes Max Martini, Robert Kazinsky, Clifton Collins, Jr., Burn Gorman, Larry Joe Campbell, Diego Klattenhoff, and Brad William Henke.

Sounds great, right? I was lucky enough to visit the Toronto set for PR, and I can tell you one thing: this one is going to be a LOT of fun. Get your popcorn ready. (Oh, and expect something to be revealed at this year’s San Diego Comic Con in August!)

PINOCCHIO

This looks to be GDT’s next directing effort, a 3D stop-motion re-telling of the classic Carlo Collodi fairy tail that is being backed by the Jim Henson Company. Del Toro will co-direct with Mark Gustafson (THE PJ’S), with this version being a dark tale heavily influenced by the artwork of Gris Grimly’s PINOCCHIO. GDT says that “redesign will start soon” as well as a rewrite. GDT told the Hollywood Reporter at Cannes that the project is “on schedule” and will be “ready” in 2014. I can assume that since stop-motion films take a long time to make, this project will not hold Guillermo’s undivided attention. Expect for him to be doing other things in 2013.

No cast is set yet, but GDT has “expressed interest” in bringing in Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Waits and Christopher Walken (as the fox!).

HAUNTED MANSION

Another one of GDT’s obsessions is the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland (he has been collecting memorabilia for years, so it is no coincidence that he is developing a film based on the famous attraction. A screenplay has already been delivered to Disney, with a second revision being sent over soon, so this project is still very much on the radar. Also, “show-and-tell” storyboards have already been developed, with over 4o pieces of art. GDT had this to say to MTV: “The movie I see in my head of ‘Haunted Mansion’ is not, I believe, what everyone is imagining it to be,” he said. “It’s not just a regular world with a haunted mansion plopped in the middle. I really am thinking of a movie that has a heightened reality.”

HULK TV SHOW

ABC Network President told the Hollywood Reporter that GDT’s Hulk television program is still in development, with the expectation that it will be ready by next season (2013). GDT will be developing the show along with BATTLESTAR GALACTICA creator David Eick. GDT says the series is currently looking for a new writer. Guillermo has described the Hulk project as an “origin story”, with the Hulk character being created with a blend of prosthetics, puppetry and CGI. Don’t expect Mark Ruffalo to reprise his Avengers roll, however.

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS

Guillermo: “For now it slumbers and awaits in the South Pacific.”

The movie that all die-hard Guillermo fans are anxious for is the epic Lovecraft tale that has been years in the making. As we know, it came within studio execs nod of getting made (macquettes, artwork and script were complete – GDT was even scouting locations when he heard the news) and recently, Guillermo expressed doubt that with PROMETHEUS getting released this year, it may never get made. GDT told our fans on the message boards: “I assumed the greek metaphor alluded at the creation aspects of the HPL book. I believe I am right and if so, as a fan, I am delighted to see a new RS science fiction film, but this will probably mark a long pause -if not the demise- of ATMOM.”

Let’s hope that movie fans and studio execs have short memories and Cthulu rises again from deep in several years. Never is a long time.

MTV Rough Cut has posted a great interview with GDT.  Watch the videos below to get updates on the following projects:

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

FRANKENSTEIN

PACIFIC RIM and ATMOM

HAUNTED MANSION

“The ‘R’ did us in.”

That is what Guillermo Del Toro told New Yorker scribe Daniel Zalewski in a March 8th article, citing the reason that greenlight negotiations for AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS broke off between Universal Studios and Guillermo’s producing team, including James Cameron and Don Murphy.

Universal was unwilling to take a risk on GDT’s $150 million 3D horror epic – his dream project – as long as Guillermo inisted on making it an ‘R’ rated picture.  A PG-13 film, such as AVATAR, was much more likely (in Universal’s estimation) to turn a profit.  Deadline.com reported that Universal execs felt that AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS would need to gross $500 million dollar to turn a profit (due to global marketing expenses).

Universal, in the end, felt that Guillermo’s vision was too risky.

Guillermo’s unwillingness to compromise his vision is nothing new – after all, HELLBOY sat in development hell for years, if only for GDT’s insistence that Ron Perlman should play Big Red.  He has shown that he is both patient and faithful to his artistic freedom. 

Even so, this has got to sting. 

Guillermo and his team had been working tirelessly for months on pre-production for ATMOM.  Universal approved a budget for concept art, maquettes, and script rewrites, and GDT went “all-in” to make his dream project happen.  Now, it is still possible that GDT could pitch this to another studio, now or on down the line, but the most likely scenario is that he moves on to a new project.  This is a man who is itching to get back in the director’s chair.

Harry Knowles at AintItCoolNews is reporting that PACIFIC RIM will be Guillermo’s next project, and will start shooting in September. Here is what the Hollywood Reporter is saying:

Rim came on del Toro’s radar late last spring, after he had left The Hobbit and was back from New Zealand. Legendary picked up the spec in June from Travis Beacham, who in 2005 wrote A Killing at Carnival Row, to which del Toro was attached to direct for a while.

Rim, which Legendary sees as a PG-13 movie, is a monster movie that sees powerful extraterrestrial force threaten the Earth’s existence, with humans uniting to fight them off.

No deal hade been made on the Rim front, and Universal insiders say they would still like to see a Mountains movie — just not at its current state.

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?

Happy 2011, everyone! 

Die-hard Del Toro fans may be wondering what they can expect from the New Year.  I can guarantee this:  it will NOT be like 2009 and 2010 – which was chock full of a whole lot of nothin’.

Sure, we got some HOBBIT preproduction,  THE STRAIN trilogy, SPLICE, and some other nice things.   Actually, THE STRAIN was more than just ”nice”, it was pretty darn cool, but let’s get down to brass tacks:

WHEN ARE YOU DIRECTING A MOVIE, GUILLERMO???

Come on, that’s what all of you are thinking, right?  Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room, give him a paper cut and pour lemon juice all over it.

But here is the thing:  the question above is not a desperate plea.  It is not a call to action to a man who is presumably sitting on the couch, watching Maury Povich and eating stale pork rinds. 

No, sir.  Guillermo KNOWS what he’s doing next. 

He just ain’t sayin’.

So, here is my fabulous New Year’s prediction:  GDT will be sitting in the director’s chair sometime this year, and I’ll bet we will see a new GDT feature in 2012. Bet on it.

GDT Challenges Developers

Kotaku is reporting that Guillermo is challenging the developers of inSANE, his new game with THQ.

Danny Bilson, one of the higher-ups from the game’s publisher at THQ recalled this ultimatum while talking to Kotaku today: “He said, ‘At the next meeting I want all of you to come to the meeting with one dream feature, one thing you’ve always wanted in a game … or don’t come to the meeting.’

And Danny already has his idea in mind, and it sounds great:

Mine’s Autotuning. To have a great fiction game, everyone has to finish the game. To have a trilogy you have to get to the end and care about the story. You can’t care about the story if you choke off halfway through or you get sick of it or fatigued or whatever. So the game will have the coolest [artificial intelligence]-based auto-tuning where it’s challenging for everybody.

Sounds great, Danny.  Sounds like storytelling is a premium for this project, and Guillermo is pushing the envelope. Hope they can pull it off.

More Tom Cruise rumors

Rumors again are circulating the internet that Tom Cruise has signed on for AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, this time from a casual aside in an article at Deadline.

So here is the unbiased, fact-based report on Tom Cruise starring in ATMOM.  Here is what we know:

1. The Deadline report cites no sources in its assertion that Tom Cruise is attached, that said….

2. GDT is a Tom Cruise fan

3. And in a YouTube video posted by cronoticias.com, James Cameron says this about ATMOM at about the 6:29 mark:

I really don’t know what is officially announced yet…Tom’s very excited about doing the movie. I’ve known him for years. I would love it if he did it, but no deals have been made.

So there you go – it sounds like “Tom”, if that is indeed “Tom Cruise” that Cameron is referring to, is the first choice for ATMOM, but no official announcement has been made.

What do you think about Tom Cruise starring in ATMOM?

CriteronCast.com posted an interview with Guillermo Del Toro this past weekend covering several topics, the new Cronos Criterion DVD, Bleak House and AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS.

I found Guillermo’s responses to the latter topic most interesting, since he goes in to some specifics on the color palette, the use of snow in the film, and the ambiguity of the creatures.  Check it out below, and click through to see the other GDT videos that CriterionCast has posted.

CriterionCast.com – Guillermo Del Toro Interview – At The Mountains Of Madness from Criterion Cast on Vimeo.

I was going through my notes and realized that I have a lot of items to cover this morning!  This is great – after two long slow years of waiting for THE HOBBIT to happen, it seems like there is an interesting news story coming out every day.  GDT’s career is definitely in full swing, which is good for the loyal visitors to this website. 

I will admit, however, that keeping this website up to date was a whole lot easier before PAN’S LABYRINTH. 

Ok, so here is what I got for you today fans – Enjoy!

1. The CRONOS Criterion DVD becomes available December 7.  You can preorder it now from the Criterion website.  In addition to Guillermo saying that the film is the “most beautiful” it has ever looked, there are some cool special features to check out:

• On camera interviews with GDT and Ron Perlman
• Behind the scenes footage
• Tour of “Bleak House”, Guillermo’s “man-cave”
• Photo galleries and pre-production art
• Commentaries from the original Lionsgate DVD
• A re-edited version of GDT’s short horror film, GEOMETRIA

2. On December 11th, Spike will air the 2010 Video Game Awards. Remember that announcements on THQ’s Guillermo Del Toro video game trilogy is expected on this date

3.  Some of you have asked what Guillermo’s role was with the recent Dreamworks feature, MEGAMIND.  Fangoria got the answer in a recent interview:

“I came in at the very end when they were shaping up that movie, advised them on reorganizing some of the editing and came up with ideas for a couple of little bits. I was really taken by how great and collaborative the spirit was in reshaping the movie a little. I had a blast. I’ve really longed to be able to do animated films, both as producer and director, because it’s an area where you have control over texture and color and shape in a way you don’t get in any other medium.”

4.  A lot has been said about the online rumors that GDT wants Tom Cruise as the lead in his planned AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS movie.  IndieWire reported a rumor today that GDT actually prefers James McAvoy, although it does not identify a source for the story. 

5. And now the BIG item that you might all be interested to hear- Fangoria also had this interesting quote from Guillermo regarding HELLBOY 3:

Will we be seeing a third in his HELLBOY series anytime in the forseeable future? Del Toro says that’s up to Perlman, who has expressed reluctance to return in the heroic title role. “You know, seven-hour makeup sessions per day get a little rough,” he laughs. “But there’s a website called Den of Geek in the UK that started a petition to get Ron to do a third HELLBOY [you can see it here]. And I must say that we got thousands of signatures, and Ron was very moved. We had lunch the other day, and Ron said to me, ‘You know, if you write it, I may do it.’ We got a very strong ‘maybe’ from the man!”

You heard it people – Ron changed his answer to “maybe”.  Your fandom does matter! Keep making your voices heard and maybe, just maybe, you’ll see a new HELLBOY film in the future.

6.  And now for some humor – many of you may have seen the recent College Humor video making the rounds on the internet: If Other Director’s Made THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Our pal Guillermo was parodied in the video. Very funny clip – check it out below.

A great video was posted online by SeattleGeekly, where Guillermo talks at length about AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. Check it out:

  

We here at DelToroFilms have known that GDT had written a part specifically for Ron Perlman in ATMOM – but finally we have a little insight into his character. Check out the video below:

Perlman will play Larson, a “hard-boiled” Nordic dog sled runner. GDT hints that casting Perlman will depend on his availability – he, of course, is star of the hit F/X series SONS OF ANARCHY.