Everything about Guillermo Del Toro totally explained
Guillermo del Toro Gómez (born
October 9,
1964) is an
Academy Award-nominated
Mexican film director.
Biography
Early life
Del Toro was born in
Guadalajara,
Jalisco. He studied in the Instituto de Ciencias, and was raised by his Catholic grandmother. Del Toro first got involved with filmmaking when he was about eight years old. He executive produced his first feature in 1986, at the age of 21. Before that he spent nearly 10 years as a make-up designer, and formed his own company, Necropia, in the early 80s. He also co-founded the Guadalajara-based Mexican Film Festival. Later on in his directing career, he formed his own production company, the Tequila Gang.
In 1998 his father was kidnapped in Mexico, which prompted del Toro to move abroad to live as an
expatriate. He currently lives in Westlake Village in
Los Angeles, California.
Professional career
Guillermo del Toro has directed a wide variety of films, from
comic book adaptations (
Hellboy and
Blade II) to historical fantasy and
horror films, two of which are set in
Spain in the context of the
Spanish Civil War under the
authoritarian rule of
Francisco Franco. These two films,
El espinazo del diablo (The Devil's Backbone) and
El laberinto del fauno (
Pan's Labyrinth), are among his most critically acclaimed works. They share similar settings, protagonists (young children), and themes (including the relationship between fantasy/horror and the struggle to live under authoritarian or
dictatorial rule) with the 1973
Spanish film
The Spirit of the Beehive, widely considered to be the finest Spanish film of the
1970s.
Del Toro, as interviewed on
WNYC's
Leonard Lopate Show, lists several fascinations that have become regular features in his films: "I have a sort of a
fetish for
insects,
clockwork,
monsters, dark places, and unborn things." Del Toro's work notably frequently includes monsters. In recent interviews, he's stated that he's always been "in love with monsters. My fascination with them is almost anthropological... I study them, I dissect them in many of my movies: I want to know how they work, what the inside of them looks like, [and] what their sociology is." He also mentions as influences
Arthur Machen,
Lord Dunsany,
Clark Ashton Smith,
H.P. Lovecraft, and
Jorge Luis Borges.
He is close friends with two other prominent and critically praised Mexican filmmakers,
Alfonso Cuarón and
Alejandro González Iñárritu. The three often influence each other's directorial decisions, and have been interviewed together by
Charlie Rose. Cuarón was one of the producers of
Pan's Labyrinth. All three received
Oscar nominations when the 2006
Academy Award nominations were unveiled in January 2007 - del Toro for his original screenplay for
Pan's Labyrinth (the film itself received 6 nominations, including Best Foreign Language Film), Cuarón for editing and co-writing
Children of Men and Iñárritu for producing and directing
Babel. Del Toro also received a
Nebula Award for Best Script for his
Pan's Labyrinth script. He turned down a chance to direct
I Am Legend,
One Missed Call (2008) and
Halo to work on .
Future Projects
Guillermo has said that one of his future projects will be directing on
The Coffin based on the critically praised graphic novel written by
Phil Hester, and drawn by
Mike Huddleston. He'll be directing
Deadman, The Witches, a story adaption by
Roald Dahl,
The Champions which the film is based on a British television series and
At the Mountains of Madness, based upon the the
H. P. Lovecraft story of the same name.
Del Toro has expressed interest in adapting
Frankenstein as a faithful "
Miltonian tragedy". He has read a draft by
Frank Darabont which he considered near perfect. Del Toro said of his vision, "What I’m trying to do is take the
myth and do something with it, but combining elements of
Frankenstein and
Bride of Frankenstein without making it just a classical myth of the monster. The best moments in my mind of
Frankenstein, of the novel, are yet to be filmed [...] The only guy that has ever nailed for me the emptiness, not the tragic, not the Miltonian dimension of the monster, but the emptiness is
Christopher Lee in the Hammer films, where he really looks like something obscenely alive.
Boris Karloff has the tragedy element nailed down but there are so many versions, including that great screenplay by Frank Darabont that was ultimately not really filmed."
In April of 2008 Del Toro was officially announced as director of "The Hobbit" in
J.R.R. Tolkien's
Lord of the Rings series alongside executive producer
Peter Jackson. Del Toro stated that "Contributing to the 'Lord of the Rings' legacy is an absolute dream come true." For the next four years, he and his wife and two daughters
will be moving to New Zealand.
Director filmography
Possible future projects
3993 (2009) (announced)
At the Mountains of Madness (2010) (announced)
Doctor Strange (TBD) (attached)
Saturn and the End of Days
Producer filmography
El Orfanato (The Orphanage) (2007)
While She Was Out (2008) (post-production)
(2008)
Death and Me (in development)
Hater (in development)
Projects he turned down to direct
(1996)
End of Days (1999)
(2004)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Alien vs. Predator (2004)
(2005)
I Am Legend (2007)
One Missed Call (2008)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2008)
Halo (2009)Further Information
Get more info on 'Guillermo Del Toro'.
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