Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro Gómez (Guadalajara, Jalisco, October 9, 1964), known simply as Guillermo del Toro, is a film director, screenwriter and film producer. Mexican. He has managed to be awarded with the Goya Award and several times with the Ariel Award. He is the recipient of the Golden Globe and three Oscars for best director and best film, both for The Shape of Water , and best animated film for Pinocchio .

He began filming in Mexico as a teenager, when he was at the Institute of Sciences, in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco. He spent ten years in makeup design and formed his own company, Necropia, before being able to executive produce his first film, at age 21. He co-founded the Guadalajara Film Festival and created the production company Tequila Gang.^{[citation needed]} In November 2022, UNAM awarded him an Honoris Causa doctorate for his "contributions to culture and support for youth".

Biography and career

Early Years

Guillermo del Toro was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, the son of actress Guadalupe Gómez, and Federico del Toro Torres, a used car dealer, both of Spanish origin. He grew up in a strictly Catholic home..

Del Toro studied at the Center for Film Research and Studies, at the University of Guadalajara. Creative from a very young age, he was marked by an extraordinary experience, a lucid dream in which he remembers seeing a Faun come out from behind his watch and monsters walking under his green carpet. Terrified but wanting to go to the bathroom, little del Toro offered them a deal: if they let him go pee he would be friends with them for life. With their part fulfilled, Guillermo dedicated his entire career to presenting his new friends in a kinder light in his filmography.

Del Toro showed an early interest in the fantasy genre. His father, an auto worker with little imagination, didn't understand Guillermo's fascination with movies like James Whale's Frankenstein and monster comics. But despite that, del Toro managed to enjoy Japanese stories like Astro Boy, Princess Knight and Godzilla, and also the classic magazine "Famous Monsters of Filmland", of which he was such a fan that he had to learn English on their own to be able to read it. In the magazine he learned about a substance called nitrocellulose. This discovery prompted his first discoveries with makeup, with which he began to simulate scars to scare his babysitter.

Beginnings as a cinematographer

Guillermo del Toro in 1993.

Guillermo del Toro is a filmmaker who has directed a wide variety of films, from comic book adaptations (such as Hellboy and Blade II), to horror and fantasy films history, two of which are located in Spain at the time of the Spanish Civil War and the period immediately after, during the dictatorial regime of General Francisco Franco. These films, The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth, also share similar aspects: protagonists (little children) and themes (such as the relationship between horror and fantasy and living under the yoke of a fascist or dictatorial regime).

He is characterized by giving his films spectacular aesthetics and settings, creating gloomy and oppressive environments or magical and fantastic situations. Her style is marked by her taste for biology and the symbolist school of art, her fascination for the fantastic world from the point of view of fairy tales and her taste for dark themes. Her works frequently include monsters or fantastic beings. Del Toro has always claimed to be in love with monsters: "My fascination with them is almost anthropological... I study them, I dissect them in some of my films: I want to know how they work, what they look like inside and how they behave." He also has a list of other things that fascinate him and that have become regular fixtures in his films: “I have a kind of fetish for bugs, clockwork, machinery and gears, monsters, dark places, unborn things...»

Guillermo del Toro is also a friend of Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, two other renowned Mexican directors. The three sometimes influence each other's decisions on directing issues, they have been interviewed together by Charlie Rose and Cuarón was one of the producers of Pan's Labyrinth with his company Esperanto Filmoj. All three were nominated for the 2006 Oscars, held in February 2007: Del Toro was nominated for Pan's Labyrinth (which garnered six nominations, including Best Foreign Language Film), Cuarón for writing and editing Children of men and Iñárritu for producing and directing Babel.

At the end of January 2008, it was announced that he would direct the films based on the novel The Hobbit, by the British writer J. R. R. Tolkien, from which two films would be made, the release of which was expected for 2012 and 2013. However, despite having been involved for more than two years in the design and production of the film adaptations of said novel, on May 31, 2010, del Toro resigned from the direction of the tapes, due to the delay in the start of filming due primarily to financial problems faced by the production company Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Ultimately, he has been credited only as a screenwriter on each of the films in what ended up being a trilogy.

Guillermo Del Toro signing an autograph for Blade II in 2002.

His 2017 directorial film The Shape of Water was screened in the main competition section of the 74th Venice International Film Festival, opening on August 31, 2017, and being awarded the Golden Lion for best film.

He was involved with Pacific Rim: Uprising, produced by Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures, released on March 23, 2018.

In 2008 he began to get involved in the development of the production of a new three-dimensional adaptation of Pinocchio in stop motion. In May 2012, with financing from The Jim Henson Co., del Toro announced that he would co-direct the film with Mark Gustafson since, he stated, "he had to direct it because of the great influence that the story had generated throughout his life".; However, the start of filming was lengthening given the studios' fear of the economic recovery of the project, with which in 2013 Del Toro returned to the role of producer while the direction fell into the hands of graphic artist Gris Grimly. Given the failure at the American box office of Frankenweenie, the project was put on hold. However, on October 22, 2018 it was announced that Del Toro would be in charge of directing, writing and producing the musical version of Pinocchio, in collaboration with the animation director Karla Castañeda, for Netflix. The Stop-Motion technique was mainly used in this film. The premiere was presented at the London Film Festival on October 15, 2022. Pinocchio won the Golden Globe in the category of "Best Animated Film".

In the mountains of madness

Del Toro and fellow screenwriter and film director Matthew Robbins wrote a 2006 adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness, a horror novel by H. P. Lovecraft, which was originally rejected by Warner Bros..

In 2010, del Toro resumed the project that would have the performances of Tom Cruise and Ron Perlman and with the production of James Cameron, of which sketches were made for nine months, creatures were designed and forums were built, until the Universal production company decided to cancel it in 2011 because it required an expensive budget of $150 million dollars for its production in Alaska and because of the Guadalajara's insistence on obtaining a type R classification (restricted to children under 17 who are not accompanied by an adult). to do justice to the author's vision, coupled with the fact that, after the release of Prometheus, the company judged that there were too many ideas similar to those of the Alien prequel.

In July 2014, del Toro discussed the possibility of retaking the film under Legendary's production, showing his willingness to make the necessary changes in order to go from the R rating to the more commercial PG-13: " I'm going to explore ways to make it as terrifying as possible, just not as explicit."

In November 2018, del Toro revealed all the films he wrote that never came to fruition, seventeen completed scripts that were never produced, including At the Mountains of Madness.

On March 6, 2020, the screenplay for the film adaptation of del Toro's At the Mountains of Madness leaked, 108 pages available online.

In December 2021, the director declared that he remained committed to bringing H. P. Lovecraft's imaginary to the cinema, rescuing At the Mountains of Madness for Netflix, since this was one of the first projects he presented to the platform after closing a multi-year contract with it in 2020. Adding that if it goes ahead, the adaptation would include changes adjusted to its current vision:

The script I wrote 15 years ago is not the script I would do now; I need to rewrite it. Not only to reduce it, but because then he tried to save it with elements that made it capable of seducing the study machinery. A blockbuster. And I don't think I need to reconcile this anymore. I can go to a more esoteric, weirder and smaller version, where I pick up some scenes that stayed out. (...) I've already made set pieces like that, I feel like going in a weirder direction. I know some things will stay. I know the end we have is one of the most intriguing, strange and disturbing for me, and there are about four horror scenes of the original script I love.

In November 2022, the director himself posted on his Instagram a digital effects test for the film produced by Industrial Light & Magic.

Other projects

Del Toro at the Annecy Festival 2016.

In June 2010, Del Toro was announced as a writer for a new Van Helsing story that he may have produced for Universal and was speculated to direct.

On July 22, 2010, it was announced at the San Diego Comic-Con International that a new film based on the Disneyland attraction The Haunted Mansion, was in development with Guillermo del Toro involved in scriptwriting and production for Disney. On August 7, 2012, the filmmaker told Collider that he would co-write the script but he would not direct the film.

Although rumors spread in October 2010 that del Toro would be directing the new film adaptation of Godzilla, he soon denied it himself.

Also in 2010, the filmmaker was questioned about making a third Hellboy film, but he himself dismissed any possibility. However, in July 2012, in the face of rumors during Comic-Con that Hellboy III would be made, he revealed to Entertainment Weekly: "I can publicly say that we're together trying to make it." In 2013, through social networks, the actor Ron Perlman urged fans of the saga to show their support for the project in order for Columbia and Universal to trust that it was a profitable investment in the face of fears for its financial recovery given the huge budget that its filming required and the fact that the profits of the previous films resided in the sales for home formats. Finally, in July 2014, Del Toro stated: "We didn't see that movie on the horizon, but the idea was for Hellboy to finally realize that his destiny, his inevitable destiny, was to become the beast of the universe." Apocalypse and for him and Liz to face that part of their nature. He had to, ironically, in order to be able to defeat the adversary he would have to face in the third movie. He must become the beast of the Apocalypse to be able to protect humanity, but at the same time he becomes a much darker being. It's a very interesting ending to the series, but I don't think it will happen."

Similarly, in 2012 it was announced that Marvel had a new television series of The Incredible Hulk in development. However, after the good reception of the character after the premiere of The Avengers, the production company resumed the plan to make a new film with the character of Bruce Banner played by Mark Ruffalo, so the television project is paused.

In September 2012, Rupert Wyatt stepped down to direct Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, prompting Del Toro to appear among the directors being considered by 20th Century Fox to take over this sequel to the Apes. reboot of the franchise, which was ultimately left in the hands of Matt Reeves.

Before WonderCon in Los Angeles in 2013, Guillermo del Toro began talks with Warner Bros. Pictures and the comic book company DC Comics to work on an adaptation that would bring together a group of paranormal superheroes such as classic Vertigo characters Etrigan the Demon, The Spectre, Deadman, Zatanna, John Zatara, Sargon, The Ghost Alien, John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Madame Xanadu, Shadow and Enchantress, along with new ones like Mindwarp, building on the recent commercial success of a series based on The New 52 -a reboot of DC's stories- called The Dark Justice League, from which there would also be a series of films for each character. With the endorsement of the companies, Del Toro had already delivered a script titled Dark universe to them in November 2014, which remains in the production plans to date, but which was announced in June 2015 that the director was no longer linked to the project.

On November 26, 2018, del Toro confessed on Twitter to the list of scripts he had failed to turn into films.

Other activities

Novels

In 2009 Guillermo del Toro made his debut as a writer when his first novel was published: Nocturna, the first volume of the Trilogy of Darkness (Nocturna, Dark and Eternal), co-written with Chuck Hogan, about a virus that turns people into vampires. In the second half of 2010, Del Toro and Hogan released Oscura, the second installment in the trilogy, worldwide.

Video Games

In 2010, Mercury Steam used the character of the pan as a major part of the game Castlevania Lords of Shadows from the movie Pan's Labyrinth.

Guillermo del Toro had planned to release a video game with the company THQ titled INSANE, a survival game like Silent Hill. The launch was expected to take place in mid-2013, but on August 6, 2012 the project was canceled by THQ itself. On January 6, 2013, Guillermo del Toro stated that the project was still ongoing and that he was in negotiations with "a big company" that would finance the publication of the game.

During Gamescom 2014, a demo titled “P. T.” (acronym for "Playable Teaser"), which consisted of a small first-person horror game where the player must solve a puzzle without any kind of hint or specific instructions inside a small house, which changes slightly offstage and generates a cycle of endless basements and corridors until the player can solve the puzzle.

In the credits of said demo, you can see the name of Guillermo del Toro along with Hideo Kojima and Norman Reedus, revealing at the end the title of the next video game that was being developed: Silent Hills, that could be based on the classic survival horror franchise Silent Hill although seconds later another ad appeared warning the public that the demo had nothing to do with the game being worked on. The project was later canceled, apparently due to the difficulty that Konami, its developer, saw coming after the possibility of not only not making a profit, but also not recovering the investment when creating it because, according to reports, this "playable teaser& #3. 4; alone cost the company too much, creating uncertainty.

Recently Death Stranding was released, which together with Hideo Kojima and Norman Reedus was the last game they have collaborated on together.

Filmography

Cinema

Year	Title	Accredited as
		Director	Guionist	Producer	Executive producer	Notes
1985	Herlinda and her son				Yes.
1986	Doña Lupe	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.		Short film
1987	Geometry	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.		Short film
1993	Cronos	Yes.	Yes.
1997	Mimic	Yes.	Yes.
1998	A spell			Yes.
2001	The Pencil of the Devil	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2002	Murderer.				Yes.
	Blade II	Yes.
2004	Chronicles			Yes.
	Hellboy	Yes.	Yes.
2006	Hellboy animated: Sword of storms					Creative producer. Animation telefilm.
	The Labyrinth of Fauna	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2007	Hellboy animated: Blood and iron					Creative producer. Animation telefilm.
	The orphanage				Yes.
	Hellboy animated: Iron shoes					Creative producer. Video animation short film.
2008	While she was out				Yes.
	Rudo and Cursi			Yes.
	insignificant things			Yes.
	Hellboy II: The golden army	Yes.	Yes.
2009	Rabia				Yes.
	Splice				Yes.
2010	Megamind					Creative consultant
	Biutiful			Yes.
	Julia's eyes			Yes.
2011	Kung fu panda 2					Creative consultant
	Don't be afraid ot the dark		Yes.	Yes.
	Puss in Boots				Yes.	Voice of the Commander
2012	Rise of the guardians				Yes.
	The hobbit: An unexpected journey		Yes.
	The captured bird				Yes.	Short film
2013	The hobbit: The desolation of Smaug		Yes.
	Mom.				Yes.
	Pacific rim	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2014	The hobbit: The battle of the five armies		Yes.
	The book of life			Yes.
	Dinner					Creative consultant. Short film.
2015	Crimson Peak	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
	The thin yellow line			Yes.
2016	Kung fu panda 3				Yes.
2017	The Shape of Water	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2018	Pacific Rim: Uprising			Yes.
2019	Stories of fear to tell in the dark		Yes.	Yes.
2020	The witches		Yes.	Yes.
2021	The alley of lost souls	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2022	Pinocchio	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.		Co-written with Patrick McHale

Television

Criticism

Cinema

Awards and nominations

Oscar Awards