Guillermo del Toro Interview - Hellboy II and The Hobbit
Guillermo del Toro is not only one of the most successful directors working today, he's also just about the nicest man you'd ever want to meet. At the 'Hellboy II' premiere, del Toro talked about the appeal of Hellboy-and his upcoming 'Hobbit' films.
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Transcript: Guillermo del Toro Interview - Hellboy II and The Hobbit
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the Los Angeles Film Festival and Universal Pictures' World Premiere of Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
Writer/Director Guillermo del Toro
What is so appealing to you about the world of Hellboy?
Guillermo del Toro: "Well, I love the guy. I identify with the guy. I sometimes dress like the guy."
With the horns and everything?
Guillermo del Toro: "In private. No, no, no. No, I love the guy. I know him. There's much of me in the movie Hellboy, not in the comic Hellboy. And you know, I'm just irresistibly attracted to the whole world of Abe Sapien, Liz... The beauty of it, the directness of it, I love it."
How tough was it to figure out which direction to go with this one because you've veered away from the comics?
Guillermo del Toro: "Well, the reality is I feel it was our duty to be more free with this one, but at the same time embrace aspects of the comic that we did not embrace on the first movie, which was the idea of magic and folklore and so forth. But again, it's my take on those themes. But I was a lot more free, or allowed myself to be a lot more free thematically and visually on this one."
So going the direction of the fairies and the cuter creatures that are still evil, that's just inside your brain and came out?
Guillermo del Toro: "Yeah."
Where do you come up with these things?
Guillermo del Toro: "Frankly, it's hard for me not to come up with these things. I've done seven movies I think or eight, I don't know, and I believe that none of them has been fully free to create the worlds to the extent I would like to create them."
Even Pan's Labyrinth?
Guillermo del Toro: "Even Pan's Labyrinth. I hope one day I will, but the scope and the madness of the imagination I would like to put on the screen, it's still ahead."
How are you going to do that? What is going to be the catalyst that allows you to put that out there?
Guillermo del Toro: "I think that the movie's to come. I have The Hobbit, I have Mountains of Madness, I have Hellboy III – knock on wood. Hopefully in the future I will find the day when the imagination, the budget, and the resources allow me to."
The Hobbit was actually my favorite. I liked Lord of the Rings but I was a huge Hobbit book fan. Are you going to follow the book?
Guillermo del Toro: "Yes."
Absolutely?
Guillermo del Toro: "Yes, absolutely. There are moments in the book that will be, like everything, abridged, edited and so forth, but I'm following the spirit of the book I read when I was 11 years old. And in that, I'm faithful to that. There are certainly sequences in the book that are very uncommon in cinema that I plan to keep."
Any casting yet or are we still not at that point?
Guillermo del Toro: "No, well, yes. Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, the ones that have been reported. No one else."
No James McAvoy?
Guillermo del Toro: "No, not yet."
He would be somebody that would be good for it at least.
Guillermo del Toro: "Oh, I believe that there are many names that would be great, but all is speculation."
Do you read everything that's on the internet about it?
Guillermo del Toro: "Not everything. I read enough to get a sense of what's going on. But I try not to be too immersive on it because you can get distracted."