Guillermo DelToro has had a bit of a rough patch over the past few years as a director. He was set to direct the two Hobbit films coming out but departed due to lack of traction with the production due to financial concerns with New Line. The screwed up part is that shortly after he departed the film picked up steam and entered production without him with Peter Jackson sitting in the directors chair. Then he was all set to make the Mountains of Madness with Tom Cruise which sounded to be an incredibly fun film. That didn’t work out either. Seemingly frustrated from not getting any of his own efforts off the ground he attached himself to Pacific Rim, cast Idris Elba in a role, and then seemingly vanished into the solace of directing. He’s re-emerged here and there mostly speaking on his work with bringing the Hulk back to TV and his creepy cool Pinnochio production but today is something different. Today we get to hear something we haven’t heard in about 4 years from Del Toro. Him talking about an actual movie he’s directing that’ll be released in theaters!
Del Toro: So much of the creation of the movie was having the best creative experience I’ve ever had in Hollywood.
Total Film: What sort of scale are you working on?
Del Toro: When we’re talking about the physicality of the fight, we ended up building several blocks of Hong Kong. And literally demolished them. We built a building and then we took down the buildings.We built command centres of the robots that were the size of the house. We started them on hydraulic rigs that shoot and elevated them and moved them round so you could really get a sense of the physical nature driving a robot like this.
Total Film: How did Charlie Hunnam get cast?
Del Toro: The funny thing is Charlie was one of my only two choices for the prince of Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I met with him. He screen tested. I loved Charlie before Sons Of Anarchy. He always brought a certain honesty. He’s the kind of guy that women will love who guys won’t hate.He’s the right side of honest and good looking that you don’t want to punch him in the face. You want to have a pint with the guy. You want to take him to the pub. There’s male bonding energy with this guy that I thought was perfect for the character.
It’s interesting and a little odd that he stated that this was the best creative experience he’s had. I mean all of his other projects appeared to be labors of love and he ushered them all into reality through his hard work and effort. With the exception of Blade 2 Del Toro had written all his directorial efforts so with him now directing a film from someone else’s written work it’s surprising that he feels this way. Is there less pressure now? He’s still producing the movie so I’m sure he wants to see a success story. It’s a very curious statement that I might have to re-visit sometime in the future for curiosities sake.
Source: Latino Review
