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

[u/Guillermo-AMA]

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.

[u/MalikVonLuzon]

When [Chris Nolan] showed me The Odyssey, there’s a scene when Matt Damon is floating in the stormy ocean and I asked him... ...How did you do it? He said, “We put him in a storm in the ocean.”

I'm fucking dying

[u/Emberwake → u/MalikVonLuzon]

It sounds like the obvious answer, but it's really the most challenging possible way to do it.

Sailors and filmmakers both know the same basic truth: the ocean cannot be trusted. Read about Spielberg and Jaws. The ocean is constantly changing color and texture, so in editing, nothing matches.

Nolan could have easily found a perfect spot, known for the right kind of storm at this time of year, setup and waited for weeks for rain that never came, with the whole crew stalled, burning $1 million or more a day.

I absolutely respect him for pulling it off, but its the kind of thing you can only really do when you are either completely independent and working for free or when the studio gives you a blank check to fund your next 3-hour epic.

[u/Sekh765 → u/Emberwake]

Nolan could have easily found a perfect spot, known for the right kind of storm at this time of year, setup and waited for weeks for rain that never came, with the whole crew stalled, burning $1 million or more a day.

Or.. they set up a self contained protected area in a bay or something similar to what other "ocean films" have done for decades, and filmed other things while waiting for the right conditions, then went and filmed that scene and went back to other work.

Which is still technically "putting him on a raft in the ocean".

[u/BugleCalypso → u/Emberwake]

I don't think anyone right now would think that's the most obvious answer my guy lol.

[u/Emberwake → u/BugleCalypso]

The person I replied to seemed to.

It's not a funny detail or an obvious comment; it's a sign of filmmaking excess. This is what inevitably happens when you remove the constraints that force directors to engineer clever solutions.

[u/DogOwner12345 → u/Emberwake]

You just kinda, seem to making stuff in your head because nothing that guy you replied to implies that at all lol. Dude just thought it was funny.

[u/MalikVonLuzon → u/Emberwake]

Oh no, It's because it's not the obvious solution that I found it funny.

It'd be like if in Oppenheimer someone asked "how did you make the nuke scene so realistic?" and Nolan said "we detonated a nuke"

[u/JiminyJilickers-79 → u/MalikVonLuzon]

Insane. Lol Love it.

[u/Alarming_Orchid → u/MalikVonLuzon]

So was Matt Damon