Guillermo del Toro

The Mexican filmmaker celebrated the 20th anniversary of his work with a 4K screening, preceded by a message about art and fear

Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” hasn’t lost any of its power to dazzle the Cannes Film Festival over the last two decades. The fantasy movie world premiered in competition at the 2006 festival, where it earned instant acclaim and was met with a still-record holding 22-minute standing ovation. Del Toro returned to Cannes this year [...]

Guillermo del Toro just picked up one of the most prestigious honors in film, the BFI Fellowship from the British Film Institute, and he didn’t just shake hands and leave. While in London, he took the stage for a wide-ranging career conversation that gave fans a glimpse into what he’s cooking up next. Sitting down with BFI executive and film historian Jason Wood, del Toro dug into everything from growing up in Guadalajara to his obsession with design and collecting. But what really grabbed attention was his update on his next project, an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Buried Giant . Del Toro described the film as a “fascinatingly difficult stop-motion movie for adults” that is being produced “without any concession to a family audience.” The story follows an elderly couple, Axl and Beatrice, traveling through a mythic version of post-Arthurian England where memory itself is slipping away. It’s a haunting story, and del Toro seems locked in on preserving that atmosphere. He’s co-writing the screenplay with Dennis Kelly , known fo r Matilda the Musical , and he’s convinced stop-motion is the only way to do it right. “If you do a live action Pinocchio and all of a sudden a puppet walks through it becomes uncanny valley, which is a horrible thing that doesn’t belong in the same world. Just like if you do a live action movie about an old couple crossing a landscape full of trolls and fairies, and there are special effects and actors.” Del Toro is chasing cohesion in the world he builds, and that means everything needs to feel like it belongs together. Del Toro added: “I want all the creatures to be of the same material. It’s gonna take us years. And it’s incredibly difficult.” If you’ve seen his Oscar-winning Pinocchio , you already know he’s serious about stop-motion as a storytelling tool, not just a visual gimmick. This new project sounds like it’s pushing that even further. It was also revealed that Ron Perlman is coming back into the fold. Del Toro didn’t reveal who he’ll play, but simply said: “He’s coming on the next movie.” Their creative partnership goes all the way back to Cronos . The film is being developed at Netflix, continuing del Toro’s ongoing relationship with the streamer following Frankenstein. Before that hits, though, he’s heading to the Cannes Film Festival to present a 4K restoration of Pan’s Labyrinth as part of the Cannes Classics lineup. Between revisiting one of his most beloved films and pushing forward with something as ambitious as The Buried Giant , del Toro is clearly in a creative groove. And if this project lands the way he’s describing it, we’re in for a beautifully strange ride. Source: Deadline