Video:Guillermo del Toro Don't Be Afraid and Haunted Mansion

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Transcript:Guillermo del Toro Don't Be Afraid and Haunted Mansion

Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con.

Guillermo del Toro - Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and Haunted Mansion

So, the original film was told with the mother as the person terrorized. Why did you switch it to the little girl?

Guillermo del Toro: "Well actually the original film was not even a mother it was a young couple of yuppies, sort of pre-yuppies, and the dynamic between the husband and the wife was so vertical in the original film, it was such an abusive relationship that she was essential debased into the role of a child. I was not interested in that dynamic because one of the elements I wanted to bring into the tale was sort of the horror/fairy tale element and I felt the most conducive figure for that would be a child that was exposed to this horror and sort of fairy tale elements. And it evolved from there, but the dynamics remain very similar."

How did you create the monsters for this?

Guillermo del Toro: "They do, but it's a modern take on that. Troy Nixey got together with a group of really talented designers we surrounded him with and he created sort of an update, redesign of those creatures. But we're very, very mindful of the original which were the scariest monsters I saw as a kid."

So is that why you went back and re-did this, because it scared you as a kid?

Guillermo del Toro: "Yeah. As a kid I loved it. For many, many years until my adolescence it was perhaps the scariest movie I've seen. But then when I saw it again as an adult I realized there was a second movie, one that I had imagined that was not there - and that's the one that we're doing."

And Haunted Mansion, are you going to be directing and writing and producing?

Guillermo del Toro: "Well I'm co-writing with Matthew Robbins and producing. It is my hope that down the line, if the calendar allows it, I can direct it. But it's not firm yet. It's not been set in stone yet."

And we can forget about the first Haunted Mansion because this is going to be completely different.

Guillermo del Toro: "Completely different. Not a comedy - scary and fun like the ride is, an E ticket ride. But we are honoring the spirit of the Imagineers and honoring the spirit of the ride which is not a comedic ride. It has fun elements by Mark Davis, but it's not meant to be a comedy. And the reason why I want to direct it is the way I see the house and the ghosts is a way that hasn't been done before. I really expect - I will not spoil it but it's really visually a world creation movie."

So people who are fans of that ride are going to adore what you do with it because you are keeping real to what it is.

Guillermo del Toro: "Absolutely. Look, like anything that has a passion some will and some won't. It's the same, you know? The reality with passion, be it comic books or anything, is that some people that love it love it for the same reason that others hate it. But it's going to be done from a genuine place - the heart of a fan. A fan that has his own Haunted Mansion room at home."

You have your own Haunted Mansion room?

Guillermo del Toro: "I do. I do. I have my own Haunted Mansion house, which is my man cave, which is a house that lodges only my collections and that is five minutes away from the family home. But then there is a secret room that you go through a bookshelf and inside there is gargoyles from the Haunted Mansion, the original wallpaper, original Mark Davis art from the gallery of portraiture, all the gallery of portraiture, every conceivable collectible - a Hatbox ghost. There's everything."

You have to direct it.

Guillermo del Toro: "I want to but my next project is looming. I hope that this one waits for me."

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