The career of Academy Award nominee Guillermo del Toro is a curious thing. He is celebrated as a writer-director-producer of unique and compelling vision, having delivered movies such as Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth, and yet his projects seem as likely to stall before principal photography as they are to get in front of the cameras.
He is famed for metaphorically ramming his head against the brick wall of Hollywood studio financing, with The Hobbit and At The Mountains Of Madness featuring among his personal non-starters – but he also creates giant blockbuster fare, such as Pacific Rim. Now, however, it seems that del Toro is taking stock, and looking to return to a long-gestating indie project, titled Silva.
While promoting his latest release, Crimson Peak, del Toro discussed his plans with The Guardian – explaining the logic behind a move that might well generate one of the most intriguing films currently in development.
“What I can tell you safely is, I don’t intend to keep on doing big, giant Hollywood movies for much longer. Crimson Peak is a great permit for me to work on a smaller scale. I mean, it’s big for a drama, but it’s a much smaller undertaking than Pacific Rim or Hellboy. I can’t say which ones, but I’ve been offered gigantic movies in the superhero genre, but I don’t like the superheroes that are… nice. I like the dark ones, so Blade and Hellboy were right for me. The mechanics of action only interest me when it’s a universe very, very close to my heart, which Pacific Rim is, and I love it. I’m not going to pursue action movies or superhero movies at all any more. I hope I can go back to doing the smaller weirder ones.”
Two points leap out from these comments. Firstly, wouldn’t it be fascinating to know which superhero movies del Toro has been offered? It’s clearly more than one. Given his tendency toward darker tales, I would like to think they were DC projects, rather than Marvel. While del Toro is the soul of discretion here, it is hard not to wonder how beautiful and thrilling a Guillermo del Toro Aquaman movie would be.
Secondly, if del Toro has resolved to avoid action and superhero movies in the future, then all discussion of Hellboy III can come to a close. It sounds as though the filmmaker has turned the page on that one.
“I’m never ironic, I’m never post-modern, ever. I’m always earnest. For me, irony puts you above your subject. I get high on my own supply. As a filmmaker, I’m not interested in working in those dynamics any more. I feel that I gotta do the movies that need me, not the movies I need.”
Could the movie that needs del Toro be Silva? The film, which sees a masked Mexican wrestler find that all politicians are vampires, has been simmering for del Toro for a number of years, and was previously discussed as being scheduled for an early 2015 shoot. However, with Pacific Rim 2 being delayed in yet another studio shuffle, the director sounds ready to step back from the Hollywood machine and plant his feet firmly back in the world of small, independent film. Silva might be filmed in black-and-white, with a small cast, which del Toro once claimed to hope would feature John Hurt. Whichever form Silva ultimately takes, however, an unfettered Guillermo del Toro is a promise of exciting things to come.
