Guillermo Del Toro

Author's Note: Here's an article I wrote for UAB's student newspaper, the Kaleidoscope, back in late January of 2013, when I was a college student. I thought it would be interesting to post, as Del Toro is experiencing a bit of a career resurgence with "The Shape of Water," after a few projects that didn't do as well as hoped. 

It's also interesting to see which projects he had planned then that still haven't gotten off the ground, such as the proposed new "Haunted Mansion" movie or his long-awaited Lovecraft adaptation. 

Either way, it's still a decent enough introduction to his work, even after all the years that have passed since I wrote it, and I think it's cool that they let me write an article about the likes of Del Toro in the first place, personally! 

With the massive success of the recent “Mama” sealing his commercial credibility at the box office, along with his screenwriting duties on the “The Hobbit” trilogy, writer/director/producer Guillermo Del Toro’s career has never been in better shape. What’s more, this all comes before what is likely to be his biggest magnum opus to date, “Pacific Rim,” which is scheduled to be released July 13th. 

Far and away his most ambitious effort- and that’s saying something- the film revolves around an alien invasion in which we fend the enemy off with…wait for it…giant robots. Yep, it’s basically “Independence Day”-meets-“Transformers,” only with us in control of the ‘bots. The reported $200-million budget is also a career high for Toro, who was originally going to adapt H.P. Lovecraft’s epic “At the Mountains of Madness” with James Cameron producing and Tom Cruise starring, which would have been crazy-awesome. Alas, the studios balked at the proposed $150-million budgeted, “R”-rated effort, and Toro had to shift his focus his attentions to the more palatable “Rim.”  

Time will tell whether that was the right decision, but if “Rim” doesn’t fly, Toro certainly has plenty more to go on from where that came from. Best known for the two filmic adaptations of the popular “Hellboy” comics, Toro was also a front-runner to direct “The Hobbit” films until rights to get the film made in the first place took so long that he bailed out of everything but his scriptwriting duties on the films and the director’s chair reverted back to originator Peter Jackson. It was probably for the best, as far as fans of that much-beloved series are concerned, but it also freed up Toro to work on other projects. 

A “Hellboy 3” is in the planning stages, as is a proposed “Haunted Mansion”-reboot that would revert the film version back to a scarier tone, more in keeping with the original ride- think along the lines of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise: scary, but not without a sense of dark humor. Toro has also allowed that the film would focus, at least in part, on the famed “Hatbox Ghost,” which should ring a bell with hardcore fans of the classic ride. 

Also up for grabs is a TV adaptation of his popular novel series, “The Strain,” co-created with Chuck Hogan, author of the book which the recent Ben Affleck film “The Town” was based upon. The vampire-themed show revolves around an apocalypse in which a virus breaks out that turns people into blood-thirsty maniacs. Think a vampocalypse instead of a zombie one and you’ve got the idea. Toro will direct the pilot for FX. 

As if that weren’t enough to keep most filmmakers busy for a decade, he also has the gothic horror epic “Crimson Peak” in pre-production with his “Rim”-star Charlie Hunnam (“Sons of Anarchy”) and Emma Stone attached to star; plus yet another take on “Frankenstein,” this one written by Frank Darabont (“The Walking Dead”) long ago and abandoned in favor of director Kenneth Branagh’s version with Robert DeNiro. All this, plus adaptations of cult novels “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Drood” on the chopping block, getting ready to go. Can you say busy? Toro can. 

New to Toro’s unique vision? No problem. His older work is readily available on DVD and Blu-Ray. In addition to the two cult classic “Hellboy” films, I can’t recommend the superlative dark fantasy “Pan’s Labyrinth” enough, which was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars in 2006. (A dubbed English-language version is readily available for you language snobs.)  

For fans of “Mama,” there’s also plenty of films Toro had a hand in that are well worth your time, include “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Cronos,” which he wrote and directed; and “The Orphanage,” “Splice” and “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” all of which he produced. “The Orphanage” in particular is certainly one of the best horror films of the 2000s- if not one of the best films of the 2000s, period. The guy just isn’t capable of making an ordinary film, so even the lesser flicks on his resume, such as “Mimic,” “Blade 2” and the more recent animated effort, “Rise of the Guardians” is worth your time if your tastes lean more towards the esoteric and offbeat. 

Whatever the case, with two films currently book-ending the box office charts in “Mama” and “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Toro has certainly started the year off on a high note. We’ll just have to see how long he can sustain it. Myself, I think he’s only just getting started.