“Pacific Rim” director Guillermo del Toro is one of those filmmakers that likes to have a lot of irons in the movie-development fire. No matter what enormous, fantastical project he’s currently working on, it almost seems like he has his people prepping two more at the same time.
That was the case when MTV News’ Josh Horowitz sat down with him at the press junket for “Pacific Rim.” Del Toro updated us on three of his upcoming projects, which include “Justice League Dark,” a television adaptation of his novel “The Strain,” and possibly directing Emma Watson in a new version of “Beauty and the Beast.”
“The Strain”
Next on del Toro’s plate is the pilot based on the vampire novel he wrote with Chuck Hogan that stars Corey Stoll, Mia Maestro, and John Hurt. That shoots in September, and del Toro says production is well underway. “We are already prepping,” he said. “We have offices in Canada, makeup effects are being built, digital effects, all of it. We cast the thing so carefully, from the first part to the last. We still have two or three members of the cast to announce, one of which, I think, is going to be a big surprise. Getting John Hurt, we pushed the production to wait for him, because there is no other Setrakian.”
“Justice League Dark”
This team made up of the DC Comics characters won’t include the big names like Batman and Superman, but it does bring together some of the strangest supernatural beings from that universe, something that sounds pitch perfect for del Toro, who’s currently rewriting the outline while the production waits for it yet-to-be-announced writer.
With the success of “Man of Steel,” there’s now the question of building the DC universe onscreen, something del Toro is very much interested in. “I think that the great thing about the dark universe is that you have this possibility of basically creating a supernatural group. You can play by different rules,” del Toro said. “I would love to see the DC universe become as cohesive as the Marvel filmic universe. If there’s any correlation, I will honor it.”
“Beauty and the Beast”
The upcoming project of del Toro’s that is sure to grab a lot of attention is his retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” which currently has Emma Watson attached to it. The director said that she is, in fact, still involved and that they’re close to casting a monstrous costar for her. ” ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ we’re waiting to close on the Beast. We are weeks away from getting who plays the Beast,” del Toro said. “We’re talking to the makeup effects guys who are going to render the Beast. We’re going to do a solid, fantastic makeup job. We’re going to fuse digital and makeup in a way that I think is quite cutting edge.”
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