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He has become a master storyteller and he doesn't hide his geek pride, del
Toro chats Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, The Hobbit and more.
{sidebar id=1}As a Cuban-American, I am proud to see Latin filmmakers succeed in Hollywood.
We don't have too many but Guillermo makes up for it.
Del Toro recently sat down with IESB and other members of the press to
discuss his most recent trip to the world of B.P.R.D. that Mike Mignola first
created over 15 years ago.
Read the interview in its entirety below,
IESB: You can always count on you and Neil Gaiman to be
wearing black.
Guillermo del Toro: You know, Albert Einstein and Seth
Brundle in the Fly, both said the same thing which is if you only wear the same
thing over and over and over again - Woody Allen does the same - you don't
think about what you are going to be wearing and you can be musing about
something else. So I'm not thinking will I combine? I always look like shit,
but I look uniformly like shit so it's great.
IESB: I read somewhere that this is the Hellboy you really
wanted to make from the outset.
del Toro: No, I wish I was that wise, I wish I was that fucking
sleek, but I really thought I think it is but it was not planned that way. The
first movie I fully thought we were doing the exact version that would honor
the comic and be faithful to the comic, but as time passed I realized mistakes
were made or short comings were evident because of - I was prudish I think on
the first one a little bit and I was completely unbridled on this one. I think
it made a difference because on the first one I was there to try and satisfy a
specific aesthetic I admire, which was Mike's [Mignola], a specific character I
admired which was Mike's and I made it my own only to a certain point. It was
not conscious, it was not a process it just happened and I learned and I was
desperate to make the second one to improve, expand, go a little wider.
IESB: To find a balance between Mike and your own?
del Toro: Yes, I believe so. I think that it is Mike's
creation. It will always be Mike's creation, but I really allowed myself to
disagree with more people on this one sometimes including Mike. I feel it was a
riskier proposition, but I feel if you were going to do the second one and be
equally timid you were going to come out with the exact timid approach.
IESB: Are you a Jim Henson fan, because you used a lot of
practical features?
del Toro: Yes, I am a huge Jim Henson fan and actually
Solution Studios who participated in many of the creatures, many of them used
to be on the Henson shop. That's why we went with them, they created some of the
stuff I liked the most in Story Teller or they worked in Little Shop of Horrors
and Return to Oz and so on and so forth. One idea I had in the movie is that
first and foremost we wanted to make the movie feel handmade. We wanted the
movie to have an artisan pride in craftsmanship, pride in the sets and the
creatures. When they designed the Golden Army I told them, "Make sure the
gold is hammered not flat. It is hammered and a little rust or oil stains.
Let's make everything lived in" because I wanted everything to be
texturally palpable. So one of the approaches which was in the first movie also
was let's make the creatures as practical as we can.
IESB: There is a note to Star Wars and the Cantina scene in
this. I don't know if it was conscious or not ...
del Toro: Well, actually that was Mike's fear more than
anything. Every time we came to the Troll market Mike was [hums Stars Wars
tune]. I said "No" and we shot it completely different from that.
Instead of doing a close up of creatures that we had, I treated them like
extras in the background. Sometimes we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
on a creature that happens only in the first shot. If you look at the movie
ever again you'll see a creature called the Strider, which are three large elephant
like creatures with long legs like the elephants from the knee and no head
walking past the archway. Only ones in the whole movie and I said I will shoot
it completely different from the Cantina scene. I will shoot it like we really
wandered into a real place and I will use creatures that cost thousands of
dollars to pass by and we did.
IESB: Did you put in the See You Next Wednesday reference
from John Landis?
del Toro: Landis and Kubrick, yeah.
IESB: Also, I noticed there were many references to Bride of
Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon ...
del Toro: Wizard of Oz Every movie that I referenced in the
film, Harryhausen, Creature, Wizard of Oz, American Werewolf, whatever it is
those are movies I called my 12-year-old movies, because the idea of Hellboy II
was, can I shoot a movie like a 12-year-old? I am 43, I've done X number of
movies, but can I learn to just devolve emotionally into a guy who is so in
love with these things that I shoot it with that much emotion. When you see the
resurrecting of the fairy, there's a wide angle with everybody around standing
and the little fairy moving, which is exactly like a stop motion set up of
Harryhausen of Sinbad. Or the resurrection of the stone giant portal, I told
Danny Elfman let's listen to Bernard Hermann on Jason and the Argonauts the
[makes drum beat] and horns and we referenced it because those are all
12-year-old movies and I wanted very much, very much for this movie to have
that, I wouldn't say innocence, but that wide eyed view of the creatures. When
you have that love for monsters that is unbridles and untempered by any adult
concern in the emotional aspect.
IESB: That childlike innocence that you talk about, is that
what attracted you to The Hobbit?
del Toro: I believe so, you know to a point, because the
Hobbit like this movie every movie has to be balance between the two. Pan's
Labyrinth is the same thing. It had a lot of that awe, but at the same time it
is a more adult theme and a more adult tone. The theme and the tone of the
Hobbit are very different from this movie just aesthetically it can't be as
poppy as this movie so the approach will be different. The Hobbit is an
11-year-old book and I read it when I was 11 and it hit me right at that moment
so I tried to honor that feeling. It would be my most sincere hope that
somewhere at some point on the Hellboy II exhibition there is a 10 year old or
11 year old with his or her parents that fall in love with one of the creature
forever like Wink or the Angel of Death or something because we created those
monsters...every guy that was involved every girl that was involved in creating
those creatures I ask them to come from a place of love. I did it like
animation, which is not very customary in movies like this. I said to each of
the guys, "which is the character that enthralls you? Grab that character
and run with it." Instead of assembly line the monsters, we gave a guy one
monster and that guy created him from machete all the way to final realization,
wardrobe, sculpting, painting, like you give a lead animator a character in an
animated film, because I felt you needed that level of commitment in the
creation of the creatures in the movie. There is one [inaudible] with one guy
who did only the octopus fish vendor that was the only guy who did it. That was
an entire shop that just did that creature. It is a very uncommon approach. I'm
not sure that it is economically great, but it was creatively.
IESB: What brought you to Seth MacFarlane as the voice of
Johann?
del Toro: When we came to the conclusion that Johann was
going to essentially be a voice and therefore I thought who would be the best
performer we talked about Seth early, early on and Lloyd Levin brought him up
and I said "Absolutely, ideal." Because I love Stewie, I love Brian I
think - I do think the guy is an incredibly gifted vocal actor, incredibly
gifted and he makes a killer crooner if you've ever heard him sing. But we
thought we would never get him, the guy is essentially his own cottage
industry. We thought, how can we - a guy that is worth whatever millions of
dollars, why would he be interested in $10,000 bucks or whatever to do a voice
in a movie. When we called him he said, "Absolutely. Send me the
script." He read it, he said, "I love it let's do it." It was
easy, but I never thought I would get him. At the end of the day we went to him
and we were fortunate enough and to this day I can tell you the days he was in
the booth, which was about three or four days only, were the happiest days of
my geek life. I kept telling him, "in that episode where Peter gets the
rectal exam, what was going through your mind?" And he told me fantastic
stories. I have my living DVD extras right there. I was like the James Lipton
of Family Guy. "What is your favorite color?" [In Lipton voice]
IESB: If you decide to do a third Hellboy how are you going
to logistically do that if you are committed to the next several years on the
Hobbit?
del Toro: There was four years between the first Hellboy and
the second one. There can legitimacy be four years between the second one and
the third one. It would take at least two years - it took two years and a half
to solve this script for me. I spent huge amounts of time just solving. I
wanted to make the action set pieces relevant to the story. The Elemental for
example, making it a moment where he [Prince Nuada] says, "Choose between
him or them." Things like that and with the third one the ante is up
considerably in that it is a very complicated movie because I wanted to signal
the end of at least this incarnation of Hellboy, not forever, but I would not
be involved past that. It will be probably the last Hellboy Ron has physically
in him. It is a very gruelling process, he is entering the silver years shall we
say. He's a guy that I cannot demand physical action from again and again and I
think that we would love to make it a sort of a capper.
IESB: Considering these are different studios, how are we
going to get a DVD set?
del Toro: I know, isn't that a bitch to figure out. I don't
know. I have the same concern and I think the answer is we won't unless someone
strikes a deal that no one wants to make. I think that if at all possible I
think the second and third movie would get a package, but the first one won't
be there.
IESB: Will Ron be in the Hobbit?
del Toro: I have no idea. I really think that there is, I
have the most the greatest friendship and a lot of loyalty he has to me and I
believe that there is a commitment to continue enjoying each others work
together, but it doesn't come before screenplay. If the screenplay has a
character he can fit and fulfil he'll be there. But if there isn't we will wait
for the next one.
IESB: How is the screenplay coming along?
del Toro: We are starting. We started taking notes on the
first novel, on the novel and on the first movie and making adaptations for the
ideas for the second one. It is in its infancy right now.
IESB: Are you staying faithful to the novel?
del Toro: Look somebody said and I agree with that comment
the only faithful adaptation is to actually put the book in front of the camera
and turn the pages one by one. That is the only way you are going to do it.
Hitchcock used to make a joke; if you give a goat in a garbage dump, and it eats
the book and eats the film, the goat will turn and say, "I prefer the
book." It is just a commonality. We will be as faithful to what we believe
has to be done. As I said, I found in my life with the Hellboy movies the first
one was slightly to slavish in some ways, so I think that we will try to honor
it. If this is any indication, I find the differences - the changes Peter, Fran
and Phillipe did to the trilogy in adapting it into a filming trilogy I found
them to be absolutely necessary. Many fans will be irate or have been irate,
many other have agreed and I see the same thing is going to happen with this.
IESB: Where do you see a middle point to break the Hobbit in
two?
del Toro: I don't see a middle point. I think the book
should be contained if possible in the first movie, but this is an exploration.
The second one would be a movie that would [weave] through the gap of about
half a century between the hobbit and the first of the trilogy films and
connect them. Ideally, we would have a creator overture and sort of a first
movement to a symphony of five films. It is too early. When people ask me where
I am with Hobbit, I say I'm in post with Hellboy I'm in post on the Lovely
Bones that is where we are on the Hobbit. Three weeks from now I will be more
and more able to answer.
IESB: Will you be relocating to New Zealand for a number of
years?
del Toro: You know when people ask me about the Hobbit I say
always, "Look, my life completely was going in another direction" and
when I got the call I said "yeah let's spend half a decade over
there." I was just finishing my house and when I mean my house, I mean my
house. I'm doing a man cave of epic proportions. My collection of crap was
getting so big that my wife said, "Dude, you or us." I said
"let's move the things out." I bought a house five blocks away from
my house, I put a secret book shelf door, I put a haunted mansion room, I am
moving all my stuff there and I was planning on having that as my office for
the next five years and then I got the call.
IESB: Will you move the house?
del Toro: I'm going to lend it to a friend, a like-minded
friend to live there for three years while I'm gone. He's going to have 7,000 DVDs,
15,000 comic books, but the only thing he can't touch is my toys. I have many
iterations of Disney's the Nautilus. I collect haunted mansion memorabilia; I
collect any iteration of Chernabog the demon from Fantasia. I own two of the
original sketches that Kay Nielsen and the other artist pitched to Disney. I am
an obsessive collector and I've said in the past, mercifully I do dress like
shit and I drive a really old car, so the only vice I have is collecting this
stuff. When I used to come through customs in Mexico I was really afraid that
the customs would look and find my rubber spiders and my EC Comics and finally
one day - when you press the button in Mexico the red light comes on and it
means you are going to be inspected. I put my bag and I go, "My God I'm
going to pay a $1,000 fine for all my imports." And they open it and pull
the rubber spiders and the EC Comic Books and the guys goes, "This guy has
all this shit!" and let's me go through.
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY is in theaters NOW!
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