AICN has posted an interview with director (and GDT pal) James Cameron, who talked a little about The Coffin.

Despite restructuring his company, Cameron says he and GDT still want do get the film made:

What I’ve said is there are only a couple of projects that I will continue to be involved with that we did develop and COFFIN is one of them. The reason for that is because Guillermo del Toro is one of my best friends and we’ve never really worked together. I mean, we always feel like we’re working together because he gets all involved in my stuff, I get all involved with his stuff, but not in an official capacity.

So, COFFIN is definitely not dead and Guillermo says he still wants to make it.

Guillermo says that he wants to make The Coffin in 3D, and with Cameron’s experience in this area, the partnership makes sense.

Guillermo gave us a great scoop on his planned adaption of Phil Hester’s The Coffin. Check it out:

COFFIN has always been designed, written and thought of as a 3-D movie. As soon as we started the project, Jim Cameron made sure I became familiar with the way the new technology was developing. I fell in love. I believe that 3-D brings forth a very “comic book” sensibility and will be perfect for this movie when it happens.

You can check out GDT’s thread on the message board here.

Phil Hester, author of The Coffin graphic novel, spoke with Newsarama about his upcoming projects, and had a few interesting things to say about GDT’s film adaption:

Guillermo del Toro has turned in a draft of the screenplay, but that’s all I know, really. Who knows if a film will come of it, but the studio cut Mike and I a big ol’ check, so they must think something is finally going to happen. I’m hopeful, but don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. The money helped me buy a house, and the positive response has helped Mike and I get a few more projects off the ground. That’s more than enough.

The latest news has Guillermo now directing the picture as well. That has Mike and me very excited. GDT really understands what makes a comic book concept cool (see Hellboy, Blade II, etc.) and we feel very safe in his hands.

Guillermo stopped by the message board for some questions and shared some great info. Here are a few highlights:

Influences for The Coffin:
“To me, THE COFFIN is the superhero version of CRONOS: Ageing billionaire villain, resurrected man finding that the only thing that matters to him is the simple love of his granddaughter (in Coffin, is his daughter) and facing how useless his life has been without sacrifice.”

On adapting The Coffin:
“-It will be very similar to its comic book incarnation but slimmer and the technology behind it will be a bit more wild-

All modern, though- no gears per se- but some cute lil?buggers that you?ll have to see in order to enjoy. I call them cellbots.”

Stories GDT has the rights to:
“I hold the rights to AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, COFFIN and have a looooooose grip on SPANKY by Christopher Fowler. I wish I could make a Roald Dahl movie or two- a FRANKENSTEIN, a THE MAN WHO LAUGHS by Hugo, MONTECRISTO, LIST OF SEVEN, SWAMP THING, etc.”

Comic Book Resources ran a story on comic book scribe Phil Hester and his new release The Atheist. The article makes mention of Hester’s previous work, The Coffin, and GDT writing a treatment for a screenplay.

“The Coffin’s” screen treatment also came up. Hester said he saw Guillermo Del Toro recently, and Del Toro told him that he had turned in a treatment for the screenplay. Del Toro would not be the director, but he would be the screenwriter, while one of his prot?g?s would direct.

“I try not to think about it,” Hester said. “All I know is that they bought us out, I got the check, and I can see from my house where the crane is digging the hole that’s going to be our new house.”

Thanks to Typhon24 for sending this to us. To read the entire article, click here.

UPDATE!!
GDT stopped by the message board to clarify what is going on with this project:

THE COFFIN is now in the scripting stage. I met with Matt Robbins in Madrid a week ago and we had a very productive session. Now I’m alone again with HB and the gang. I will direct Coffin. No one else. I am planning to produce stuff for first time directors in the future but Coffin is not it. TEQUILA GANG (my company in Mexico) focuses on first / second time directors and I hope to repeat the model someday in American productions.

Thanks, GDT, for following up on this. Can’t wait to hear more!

Also, a short description of The Coffin is available online here.