An Interview With Director Guillermo Del
Toro
Guillermo del Toro is
one of America's most visionary genre directors. The Mexican native
got my attention with his horror film “Cronos,”
which depicted a vampire tale with more scares and more haunting
images then you could ever imagine. Then he made his American
debut film "Mimic", followed by “Blade
2”, a brilliant sequel that brought the Blade story
to a whole new level. He then mixed it up with a Spanish film
“El Espinazo del Diablo” aka “The
Devils Backbone.” A ghost story set during the
end of the Spanish Civil War, The Devil's Backbone confirmed Del
Toro's artistic promise and earned him more critical kudos. Now
with his new film coming out HELLBOY, a supernatural
action adventure based on Mike Mignola’s popular Dark Horse
Comics series of the same name. Yet again Guillermo looks like
he has taken the comic book genre to the next level. I had the
privilege to talk to him about Hellboy and many more other things
and here is what he had to say to me in this exclusive 1-1 interview.
 Kel:
This year Latino Filmmakers are getting their due in Hollywood
and it looks like 2004 is a good year. And your film comes out
first.
Guillermo
del Toro: I come out in April. I think it’s a very good
year for Latin Filmmakers. I think we are also in a position that
in terms of…all of us are handling basically genre films.
People tend to it into what is considered Hollywood mainstream.
It’s a really great sign that we can now tackle basically
any genre on any franchise or any type of movie we want.
Kel: You've established
yourself in the Hollywood mainstream with Blade 2 and the upcoming
Hellboy. Will you continue in that direction making English-speaking
films or will you also make smaller, Spanish speaking films?
Guillermo del Toro:
Well I try to mix it up. Between Mimic and Blade 2, I
did Devils Backbone. Alfonso Cuarón and I are producing
a movie together in Ecuador called “CHRONICAS,” Alfonso
Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu,
and I are talking about…
Kel: An Anthology
film?
Guillermo del Toro: Yeah,
we are talking about that. Where we each one do a half hour story,
and at the same time I have another movie that I want to shoot
in Spanish in Spain, that is again Horror but its pretty much
like a companion piece to Devils Backbone and it’s a smaller
film. So I try to mix it up.
Kel: You have an immense
talent for making comic oriented genre films. Are there any other
genres you would like to explore, romance, drama, historical films?
Guillermo del Toro: Really
my interest is in the genre of Horror films. And they can combine
action like Blade 2 and Hellboy, combine action and comic superhero
type of conventions with horror elements. Or Devils Backbone combined
historical drama with horror elements. My main interest, what
I’m attracted to is more dark material that has to do with
the horror genre.
 Kel:
What are some of the movies and directors that inspired you?
Guillermo del Toro: In
terms of the Mexican cinema I am a big fan of Roberto Gavaldón,
I’m a big fan of Fernando Mendez and his horror movies.
And they both were very sophisticated storytellers working in
Mexico. I’m a big fan of the 70’s filmmakers Arturo
Ripstein, Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Felipe Cazals, Jorge Fons,
and in the Spanish language cinema I love Pedro Almodóvar.
I love all this work but the main filmmaker for me in the Spanish
language of all time is Luis Buñuel. And that to me is
the most overwhelming influence.
Kel: If you had a
chance to do a mega-budget film like LOTR or The Matrix, what
story would you do and why?
Guillermo del Toro: I
would actually choose to do a story that I am developing right
now is called AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, which is based on a
novel by H. P. Lovecraft, and its once again horror movie but
of epic proportions. It’s really quite an enormous undertaking.
It happens over at Antarctica and it is set in the 1920’s.
So it’s a big movie but once again of my genre.
Kel: Now on to Hellboy,
Ron Perlman is one of your favorite actors. Did you have any problems
with the studio casting him as Hellboy? Did they want a younger,
more well know actor?
Guillermo del Toro:
Yeah, we went through the usually song and dance. I just
didn’t want to give in, I think the best thing in a movie
is when you feel you’ve cast the right actor and you’re
happy with your actor. Then you’re sharing the weight of
the movie with someone that you trust completely and that you
feel is capable of delivering the part perfectly and I think that
for HELLBOY, Ron Perlman was the only actor to do it really. And
the studio was suggesting other names, bigger names. That’s
why it took me 5 ½ years to get it made, because I was
very suborned and I just stuck by my chosen actor.
 Kel:
Do you think Hellboy would’ve be done without Ron Perlman?
Guillermo del Toro: The
studios may have financed it, but it wouldn’t be the same.
And I certainly wouldn’t be directing.
Kel: How true to the
comic is Hellboy, and is the film based on any particular story
arc?
Guillermo del Toro:
Yeah, I think it’s very faithful to what makes the
comic work. As you may know we had Mike Mignola involved from
the very start of the project all the way. So I keep saying that
it’s basically like giving your favorite Frank Sinatra song,
sung by Tom Waits, it’s a different riff on the same material.
But [Hellboy] is based very loosely on the arc that goes from
SEED OF DESTRUCTION, which is the first paper back of Hellboy
to WAKE THE DEVIL, which is the second one.
Kel: Does Mike Mignola
have a cameo in the film?
Guillermo del Toro:
Yeah, we both appear together. But it’s very short
and we are in costumes so it’s hard for people to recognize
us. We appear in a Halloween pumpkin patch, and I’m dressed
as a dragon and Mike is dressed as a Knight from a round table.
Kel: Is the cast signed
for sequels?
Guillermo del Toro:
I believe there are provisions in the contracts to do
sequels, but really the only thing that determines sequels or
not is the box office you know?
Kel: What’s
your opinion on Latino Films in America?
Guillermo del Toro:
I think that there is a market opening importantly, I
think that they [Distributors] are still very timid about going
strong with a film. That’s why I love so much the way “Y
Tu Mama Tambien” was launched, it was launched with a lot
of “cojones.” It was launched very wide, it was launched
with faith in the movie. That same movie could’ve been launched
in a few hundred theaters at once. And I think that’s why
the movie was successful. I think that it’s very important
that the distributors have the faith to launch Latino movies in
hundreds of screens, not 10-20 screens. They have to have faith
and cojones to launch the film.
 Kel:
Speaking of Alfonso Cuarón, he has a huge movie coming
out with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, are you expecting
it be totally different from the first two films?
Guillermo del Toro: I
already saw it.
Kel: Really? How was
it? And is it darker from the other the two films?
Guillermo del Toro: It’s
absolutely fantastic. It’s not only a beautiful Harry Potter
film, it’s an absolutely delight of a film period. Its just…Alfonso
imagination for anyone who saw Little Princess, it’s extremely
rich and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is incredibly
detailed, incredibly full of spectacle and intelligence. I mean
I was blown away by it, I think it’s going to be a huge
success. I saw it London and it’s simply fantastic.
Kel: Would you have
taken a project like Harry Potter?
Guillermo del Toro: They
actually offered me Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban before
Alfonso. Which is actually very good in terms of realizing the
way Latino filmmakers are regarded. I was very sincere with what
I said before. I love the Harry Potter universe, I love the books
but I felt more passion towards doing HELLBOY. It was a project
that I had been involved so long and if I didn’t do it now,
I could never get to do it. I'm extremely happy that Alfonso took
it and he did a fantastic productive job. I think it’s one
the best children’s movies I have ever seen in my life.
Kel: Now with the
Oscar’s coming up, who should win best picture?
Guillermo del Toro: It
should be Peter Jackson, because I believe the academy has been
waiting for the third Lord of the Rings movie to acknowledge it
as a body of work that is a single movie. And I trust that it
will happen so. I think Peter Jackson has done a movie that is
not only great but is un-presented in cinema history.
 Kel:
Do you have any advice to any future Latino Filmmaker?
Guillermo del Toro: The
only thing I can say is that it’s very important to forget
the limits that geography gives you but it’s very important
to keep the roots that your origin gives you. It’s important
for us to succeed in any type of movie we want to tell. Not be
restricted by what people tell us we should do. But it’s
equally important to try and keep yourself active in the cinema
that is your language and that your heart belongs to and that
it comes from. Because if you don’t become involved in both
enterprises is very sad, but at the same time, you should always
dream without any fear of geography.
Kel: What is actually
next for you after HELLBOY?
Guillermo del Toro: I
have a couple of projects that are being delivered to the studios,
which was AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS and another one. But if
the studios don’t go for any of them, I will definitely
will love to…in the fall go back to Spain, and shoot my
Spanish companion piece to Devils Backbone. It’s called
“El Laberinto Del Sauno.” aka Pan's Labyrinth.
Kel: Okay, I know
you’re a busy man and I wish you the best of luck with Hellboy.
Thank you for you time.
Guillermo del Toro:
No, my pleasure man. You guys are really…you’re
really getting some good scoops lately. I love the way the website
is beating everyone to the punch. [Laughs]
HELLYBOY OPENS APRIL 2,
2004
|
