Monday, March 7, 2011

So what's next for Guillermo Del Toro?


A busy day for Guillermo Del Toro news. The prolific filmmaker has been lovingly crafting his pet project, an adaptation of HP Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, with Universal Pictures since last year. The film is seen as a massive production, which would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $150M and likely have an 'R' rating. While the film is assumed to be next on Del Toro's list, a start date has never been set in stone. Weird for a production like this, considering the talent involved. Not only is Del Toro directing, but Tom Cruise is rumored to be starring, along with James Cameron as a producer.

Then earlier today, a confirmation of sorts. Producer Don Murphy told i09 that the film was “supposed to shoot in June”. Not exactly a leadpipe lock, right? Well shortly thereafter, Murphy spoke to Hitfix and told them there was no start date planned at all. Period. If you're a Del Toro fan dying to see him actually direct something again, this has to be a bit worrying.  If you didn't like that, then maybe this next bit will make you feel a little better.

Deadline is reporting that Madness might have to wait a little bit, as Del Toro is reportedly set to direct Pacific Rim first. What is Pacific Rim exactly? We wrote about it briefly last year, but basically it's a film about the human race joining together to stop an invading monster force.  The Travis Beacham script was picked up by Legendary Pictures and could've been the basis for the Godzilla relaunch...but wasn't.  

So why the sudden change? Well it boils down to money. Universal doesn't want to lose any, and At the Mountains of Madness is a huge film with an audience limiting rating. They're likely hoping he can tone it dow
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n a bit for a more palatable PG-13, while also reducing the budget somewhat. With James Cameron and Tom Cruise involved that sounds unlikely to me. But if Pacific Rim does well then the chances of Madness getting made dramatically increase. 

I don't care what Del Toro does next. It's been too long since Hellboy 2 and Pan's Labyrinth. If only he could've stayed on The Hobbit!!

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