Tag: Guillermo del Toro

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Crimes Of The Future’: David Cronenberg Reunites With ‘Pacific Rim’ & ‘Blade II’ Production Designer Carol Spier For New Sci-Fi Movie

Canadian director David Cronenberg (The Fly, Naked Lunch, Eastern Promises) is finally returning to the sci-fi genre as he’ll write and direct the science fiction thriller Crimes of The Future (title lifted from his 1970 film) that will be distributed in the U.S. by Neon (Parasite).

While some embrace the limitless potential of trans-humanism, others attempt to police it. Either way, “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome” is spreading fast. Saul Tenser is a beloved performance artist who has embraced Accelerated Evolution Syndrome, sprouting new and unexpected organs in his body. Along with his partner Caprice, Tenser has turned the removal of these organs into a spectacle for his loyal followers to marvel at in real-time theatre. But with both the government and a strange subculture taking note, Tenser is forced to consider what would be his most shocking performance of all.

Crimes of The Future’s cast so far includes Viggo Mortensen (Lord of The Rings, Eastern Promises, The Road, Alatriste), Lea Seydoux (Spectre, No Time To Die, The Lobster), Kristen Stewart (Underwater, Panic Room, Spencer), Scott Speedman (Underworld The Strangers), Welket Bungué, Don McKellar, and Lihi Kornowski.

The Ronin can confirm the sci-fi film will see Cronenberg reunite with his longtime production designer Carol Spier (Eastern Promises, Naked Lunch, A History of Violence). She’s also worked on Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, Blade II, Mimic, and had been attached for his At The Mountains of Madness film at Universal Pictures before the project dissolved.

There is also an expectation that David Cronenberg will again work with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky (Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, Eastern Promises, Naked Lunch) on the pic as he’s been the filmmaker’s go-to director of photography since Dead Ringers.

UPDATE: Deadline reports that Canadian cinematographer Douglas Koch (Funny Boy) will be working on the film and that production has started in Greece.

Filming on Crimes of The Future is expected to begin within days as previous reports stated production is taking place in Athens, Greece over the summer.

A release date has yet to be officially announced by Neon.

Posted on in News, Television News

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Empty Man’ Director David Prior Joins Guillermo del Toro’s Horror Anthology Series ’12 After Midnight’

Netflix and Guillermo del Toro are working together on a bunch of live-action and animation projects including a darker version of Pinocchio that he is co-directing with Mark Gustafson (Fantastic Mr. Fox) that will be using stop-motion animation. They’re also partnering on a new horror anthology series 12 After Midnight (formerly 10 After Midnight) that will see a group of hand-selected directors will be working on including Guillermo del Toro and Australian director Jennifer Kent (The Babadook, The Nightingale)

The Ronin can exclusively reveal that American director David Prior has joined the horror anthology project and is now part of the 12 After Midnight directing team.

Prior previously wrote and helmed the 20th Century Studios horror film The Empty Man, that starred James Dale Badge (Iron Man 3, The Pacific, The Departed), Marin Ireland (Hell or High Water), Stephen Root (Barry, Perry Mason), Ron Canada (The Strain, House of Cards, The West Wing), Robert Aramayo (Amazon’s Lord of The Rings, Game of Thrones), Joel Courtney (Super 8), and Sasha Frolova (Little Women, Red Sparrow, Mare of Easttown).

Guillermo del Toro has wrapped on his Nightmare Alley remake for Searchlight Pictures and is co-writing a sequel to Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.

We’ll be excited to see what other horror directors that Guillermo will pick to direct the rest of the episodes.

THE EMPTY MAN – This supernatural horror film, drawn from the Boom! Studios graphic novel, centers on shocking events originating in a small Midwestern town. After the mysterious disappearance of a group of teenagers, James Lasombra (James Badge Dale), a troubled retired cop, is thrust into action to investigate. Following leads that may tie a secretive occult-minded group to a terrifying local legend, he soon realizes that his life — and the lives of those close to him — are in terrible danger.

Posted on in Television News

Guillermo del Toro’s Horror Anthology Series ’12 After Midnight’ Enlists ‘Nightmare Alley’ & ‘The Strain’ Production Designer; Jennifer Kent Also Directing

A new horror anthology from writer/producer Guillermo del Toro is coming to Netflix with the show titled Guillermo del Toro Presents 12 After Midnight (formerly 10 After Midnight), and it allows the filmmaker to honor the genre he loves. Guillermo del Toro is directing some episodes of the anthology alongside Australian director Jennifer Kent (The Nightingale, The Babadook). More directors will be announced later on. 

In this new genre-defining anthology series, acclaimed Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro will present a collection of personally curated stories, that are both equally sophisticated and horrific. Creator and executive producer del Toro will bring his own visionary style as both a writer and director to certain episodes. In addition, he will handpick a team of the genre’s best writers and exciting new filmmakers to bring his selection of stories to life.

The Ronin can confirm that the horror series has added seasoned production designer Tamara Deverell (Star Trek: Discovery), who had recently worked with del Toro on his latest feature film Nightmare Alley and his vampire series The Strain. Deverell will work alongside art director Brandt Gordon (Nightmare Alley, Crimson Peak, Total Recall, Suicide Squad, Shazam!)

We’ve also learned that the production team will have visual effects supervisor Dennis Berardi, who has a fantastic body of work with projects such as Shazam!, Crimson Peak, Monster Hunter, Antlers, The Shape of Water, The Strain, Nightmare Alley, Vikings, and The Strain. 

Filming is already underway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and will wrap sometime in February. 

A longtime producing partner of del Toro, J. Miles Dale, is behind the series. His credits consist of Nightmare Alley, Antlers, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, The Shape of Water, The Strain, Mama, Shadowhunters, The Thing (2011), and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. 

12 After Midnight will drop on Netflix sometime in 2022. 

Posted on in Film News

‘Shape of Water’ Plagiarism Lawsuit Against Guillermo del Toro Has Been Dismissed

Director Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water was a lovely and horny love letter to the filmmaker’s passion for movie monsters. The off-beat genre flick was a hit earning an impressive 12 Oscar nominations leading to wins for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Production Design, and Best Original Score. Guillermo co-wrote The Shape of Water script with Vanessa Taylor, the pair landing a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

THE SHAPE OF WATER – Elisa is a mute, isolated woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. Her life changes forever when she discovers the lab’s classified secret — a mysterious, scaled creature from South America that lives in a water tank. As Elisa develops a unique bond with her new friend, she soon learns that its fate and very survival lies in the hands of a hostile government agent and a marine biologist.

Making money, being popular, and becoming a multiple Oscar nominations led to a claim of plagiarism from David Zindel, the son of Let Me Hear You Whisper playwright Paul Zindel. With Zindel suggesting that Guillermo del Toro took from his father’s play for The Shape of Water and filing a copyright lawsuit back in February 2018, just before the Oscars ceremony that saw the film earn four awards. Fox called the claim baseless back in 2018 and there was an update on the upcoming trial.

LET ME HEAR YOU WHISPER – The play revolves around Helen, a recently hired scrub-woman, at the American Biological Association Development for the Advancement of Brain Analysis. During the course of her work, Helen learns the plight of an imprisoned intelligent dolphin that is being harshly studied by scientists.

Yesterday, it was announced via outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter that the lawsuit has been dismissed avoiding a trial that was said to begin in July.

Searchlight Pictures added this comment below on the lawsuit and suggests the two sides have agreed to simply end the dispute.

“David Zindel, the son of Paul Zindel, author of Let Me Hear You Whisper, acknowledges, based on confidential information obtained during the litigation process, that his claims of plagiarism are unfounded. He acknowledges Guillermo del Toro as the true creator of The Shape of Water.  Any similarity between the two works is coincidental.”

The next film from Guillermo del Toro is a remake of the thriller Nightmare Alley that is set to be released on December 3, 2021.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Guillermo del Toro Hopeful For ‘Pacific Rim’ & ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Crossover – “Perhaps, One Day They Can Rumble”

While Legendary is about release their big Monsterverse crossover Godzilla vs. Kong, director Guillermo del Toro is on Twitter responding to fans with the hope that at some point his Pacific Rim universe could “rumble” with the Monsterverse in a crossover of it’s own.

DEL TORO: “I personally love seeing the Neon, Sea battles, building demolition, etc because secretly -maybe- the PAC RIM Universe co-exists in the LEGENDARY Kaijuverse and, perhaps, one day they can rumble!”

Pacific Rim: Uprising didn’t do the kind of business that had been expected and given the two films have their other mythology with kaiju (titans in the Monsterverse) being sent to Earth by aliens. Adding aliens to the Monsterverse could one way to continue the franchise beyond the next installment. However, they might have to do a soft-reboot to make it fit for a crossover. Similar to how Kong: Skull Island was Legendary’s soft-reboot of King Kong to become a direct entry point into the established universe of Godzilla.

You can’t watch the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer without noticing the visual cues from del Toro’s neon-filled Pacific Rim. They’re also seemingly teasing robots with the possible inclusion of Mechagodzilla in the new film.

GODZILLA VS. KONG – Legends collide in Godzilla vs. Kong as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home, and with them is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But they unexpectedly find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, cutting a swath of destruction across the globe. The epic clash between the two titans—instigated by unseen forces—is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth. 

SOURCE: GUILLERMO DEL TORO

Posted on in Film News

Rundown of 2021 Movies That Have Been Given New Release Dates

No Time To Die wasn’t the only studio film to get a bump to later in the year as there were a wave of release changes yesterday. The COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t seem to be letting up over the spring or possibly the summer meaning that theatrical releases are going to be further delayed.

Here is a rundown of those releases changes that took place over the week.

  • Godzilla vs. Kong – March 26th, 2021 (moved up)
  • Nobody – April 2nd, 2021
  • BIOS – August 13th, 2021
  • The Many Saints of Newark – September 24th, 2021
  • No Time To Die – October 8th, 2021
  • Last Night In Soho – October 22nd, 2021
  • Antlers – October 29th, 2021
  • Ghostbusters: Afterlife – November 11th, 2021
  • Nightmare Alley – December 3rd, 2021
  • Morbius – January 21st, 2022
  • Uncharted – February 11th, 2022
  • Ambulance – February 18th, 2022

We’re likely to get more release date changes in the coming weeks as summer movies alongside other spring films might be getting pushed later in the year or to 2022. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if we saw new dates for films such big films as Black Widow, Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Spider-Man 3, F9, The King’s Man, Top Gun: Maverick, Jungle Cruise and others.

I know people are going to assume that studios will simply throw these projects on streaming services, however, considering the large budgets involved they will be more interested in turning a profit than offloading the films from their slates, they are still businesses that need to generate revenue. Until we get those official announcements it seems a little premature to speculate which projects will end up on streaming as plenty of these releases escaped that fate in 2020 and might continue that in 2021.

I personally believe the best way to go is with reasonable prices for multiple digital renting and buying options along with great access to those choices. Having access to these films suck behind a paywall then given high price of $30 like with what Disney did with Mulan meant that Disney+ subscribers still had to pay a premium price alongside their monthly subscription. At the very least, they should have given a discount to subs asking for $10-20.

We’ll certainly update when further changes are announced.

Posted on in Film News

Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz, David Bradley, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, and Others Join Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’ Movie

Today, the bulk of the voice cast for Guillermo del Toro’s animated Pinocchio film for Netflix has been finally announced. The Hollywood Reporter first reported the casting additions but their website is currently having technical issues.

A handful of actors have previously worked with del Toro but there are also plenty of newcomers as well. Ewan McGregor had previously outed himself for the project months back during an interview.

This version of the classic Carlo Collodi tale will take more of a grim setting than the Disney counterpart as it will take place during the rise of fascism in Mussolini’s Italy.

Here is the full cast list for the stop-motion animation feature film.

  • Gregory Mann as Pinocchio
  • Ewan McGregor (Kenobi, Doctor Sleep) as Cricket
  • David Bradley (Harry Potter franchise, Game of Thrones) as Geppetto
  • Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer)
  • Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained)
  • Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things, IT, Ghostbusters: Afterlife)
  • Cate Blanchett (Nightmare Alley, Thor: Ragnarok)
  • John Turturro (The Batman)
  • Ron Perlman (Nightmare Alley, Hellboy)
  • Tim Blake Nelson (Watchmen)
  • Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim, Game of Thrones)

Production on Pinocchio started last fall at ShadowMachine’s studio in Portland, Oregon with Mark Gustafson co-directing alongside del Toro from a script penned by Guillermo and Patrick McHale.

Alexandre Desplat will be handling the film’s music and score.

Guillermo is expected to resume production on his thriller Nightmare Alley on September 16th in Toronto and complete principal photography by late November.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

James Cameron Offered Guillermo del Toro The Chance To Direct ‘Alien 3’

During an in depth chat with Whos Nick, film concept artist TyRuben Ellingson talked about various projects he has worked on. Those credits include Star Wars, Avatar, Blade II, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pacific Rim, and Elysium.

He reveals during their chat that before David Fincher was hired by 20th Century Fox to make Alien 3, James Cameron offered the job to a very young Guillermo del Toro. This taking place before the release of his first feature film Cronos in 1993.

ELLINGSON: “I left ILM to work with Guillermo del Toro on Mimic and Jim [Cameron] and Guillermo are friends. Because believe it or not, Jim offered Guillermo Alien 3 before Alien 3 became Alien 3 when Jim had some control over the franchise.”

He goes on to say that Guillermo del Toro ultimately turned it down to work on his own stuff like Mimic, which is getting a series reboot at Miramax TV.

There is a small shot that because of the timing between Cronos and Mimic, Ellingson may have been talking about Alien Resurrection as both that and Mimic released in 1997.

SOURCE: WHOS NICK

Posted on in Television News

Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Mimic’ Getting The Series Treatment With ‘Resident Evil’s Paul WS Anderson Directing The Pilot

Deadline is reporting that Guillermo del Toro’s 1997 creature horror flick Mimic will be adapted into a new television series from Miramax TV with Resident Evil and Event Horizon director Paul WS Anderson tackling the show’s pilot episode. 

Jim Danger Gray will write and showrun Mimic with previous credits that include Hannibal, American Gods, and Orange Is The New Black. 

The horror film was based on a short story from author Donald A. Wollheim with a script from Matthew Robbins and Guillermo.

MIMIC – When a cockroach-spread plague threatens to decimate the child population of New York City, evolutionary biologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) and her research associates rig up a species of “Judas” bugs and introduce them into the environment, where they will mimic the diseased roaches and infiltrate their grubby habitats. So far so good … until the bugs keep on evolving and learn to mimic their next prey — humans.

The original film’s cast included Mira Sorvino, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Northam, Charles S. Dutton, Norman Reedus, Giancarlo Giannini, and F. Murray Abraham. It would end up getting two direct-to-video sequels. 

Sadly, Guillermo del Toro won’t be involved in the new series. 

I thought the original Resident Evil movie was fine and Paul’s work on Event Horizon might be the highlight of his career, hopefully, there is a bit more care put into this new horror series than the Resident Evil sequels that got increasingly worse. 

I would recommend giving Event Horizon a shot.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Guillermo del Toro Still Wants To Make ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ and A ‘Frankenstein’ Trilogy

While speaking with Collider to help promote the upcoming horror film Antlers, producer Guillermo del Toro revealed that he is still extremely keen on making feature films based on the H.P. Lovecraft story At The Mountains of Madness and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. 

Teasing he’d like to make a trilogy about the latter.

DEL TORO: “I’ve always imagined it as a two to three-part story, because in order to encompass the book you have to change points of view and it’s a complex exercise.”

Both projects had been in various development stages in the past before Guillmero was ultimately pulled away from those films to focus on other stuff. Seemingly, when he was developing At The Mountains of Madness it got the furthest along as Tom Cruise and his Hellboy actor Ron Perlman had been attached for roles until the budgetary issues with Universal Pictures put the horror project on ice for the foreseeable future. 

The director was hellbent that Mountains needed to be R-rated and was likely another issue between himself at the studio. 

Universal had been tinkering with trying to resurrect their Universal Monsters with a Bride of Frankenstein reboot starring Oscar-winners Angelina Jolie and Javier Bardem. The studio had been reportedly courting new directors which included Sam Raimi before he took over duties from Scott Derrickson on Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. 

Here is del Toro speaking about Bride of Frankenstein back in 2012 at the Academy screening series A Monstrous Centennial: Universal’s Legacy of Horror at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. 

Guillermo is expected to resume filming on his period thriller Nightmare Alley this fall in Toronto and had been previously attached to direct a remake of the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage for a pre-Disney owned 20th Century Studios. 

SOURCE: COLLIDER