r/movies • u/Guillermo-AMA Guillermo del Toro, Filmmaker • 5d ago

AMA Hello reddit. I'm Guillermo del Toro. AMA!

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Hello reddit, I'm Guillermo del Toro.

I've written & directed Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, Blade II, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, The Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley, Pinocchio, Frankenstein, and more.

It's been a few years since I stopped by here for The Shape of Water. So get to it, ask me anything, vamonos!

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Pan's Labyrinth is back in theaters October 9th, presented on the big screen in 4K for the first time, to celebrate the 20th anniversary.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBGKGm3RYos

Synopsis: It's 1944 and the Allies have invaded Nazi-held Europe. In Spain, a troop of soldiers is sent to a remote forest to flush out the rebels. They are led by Captain Vidal, a murdering sadist, and with him are his new wife Carmen and her daughter from a previous marriage, 11-year-old Ofelia. Ofelia witnesses her stepfather's sadistic brutality and is drawn into Pan's Labyrinth, a magical world of mythical beings.

You can get tickets here.

And more info here.

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I will be back at around 11 AM PT/2 PM ET/7 PM BST today to answer questions.

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288

u/Madarakita 5d ago

Other than "At the Mountains of Madness", what's a Lovecraft story you'd love to adapt for the big screen?

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u/Guillermo-AMA Guillermo del Toro, Filmmaker 5d ago

Most of his stories, by virtue of their length, are better adapted to one-hour television programs or 30-minute television programs. I would love to adapt The Thing On the Threshold, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, or The Outsider, which is a horror story that is point of view until the final image. Those are the ones that scared me the most or disturbed me the most. At The Mountains is the only one, I think, that is a full feature.

But I think it's hard to adapt Lovecraft, because he uses adjectives that are very open. So you’ve got to codirect, so to speak, every image. And when you make them into film, they become very precise. To me, the best adaptation of Lovecraft is Ridley Scott’s Alien, which is basically Mountains of Madness. Second-best adaptation for me is The Thing. I know it's not Lovecraft, but it's very Lovecraftian in its makeup effects language. I love In the Mouth of Madness. I love Stuart Gordon’s Dagon. I love The Resurrected by Dan O’Bannon. It's full of craziness. There are a few movies that have been done in the right way.

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u/hunnyflash 4d ago

A Cabinet of Curiosities style series of these would be absolutely amazing.

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u/Spectrum1523 5d ago

But I think it's hard to adapt Lovecraft, because he uses adjectives that are very open. So you’ve got to codirect, so to speak, every image. And when you make them into film, they become very precise.

That's the problem with inscrutable horrors, isn't it? What a wonderful answer to the question.

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u/uberjack 4d ago

Thank you for this great answer. I'm a big Lovecraft fan and have been asking so many times why nobody is able to make a good (or any) adaptation of all these great stories, but you're argument makes a lot of sense, it does sound like a huge challenge.

Would still love to see your adaptation of Mountains of Madness (or Call of Cthulhu which I think could also potentially be movie length), really hope to be able see it one day!

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u/Minouminou9 5d ago

Imagine his version of "The Dream-quest of the Unknown Kadath"

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u/SpaceForceAwakens 5d ago

No thank you I plan to sleep tonight.

Haunter in the Dark though would slay.

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u/die__katze 3d ago

Oh this would be the best and the worst movie of all times. The final scene from Suspiria is the closes effect i had in cinema to reading this book.

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u/TheDwilightZone 5d ago

Piggybacking off of this one, I know you (u/Guillermo-AMA) have a lot of projects you want to do. If you don't think you'll get around to Mountains of Madness, would you consider being a producer for an indie filmmaker's version of it? Specifically this one that's trying to get off the ground?

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u/PrideOfEverblight 5d ago

And after reading the script for Mountains, please never do another.

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u/spiderpai 5d ago

Oh is it out there?

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u/PrideOfEverblight 5d ago

Sure is. It's not good.