On Monday we reported that it looked likely Guillermo Del Toro would make Pacific Rim after Universal didn’t greenlight his adaptation of At The Mountains Of Madness, despite having him on board as director and James Cameron producing. Now Del Toro has been talking to Deadline and confirmed that Pacific Rim will indeed be his next flick, as well as talking a little about what happened to Mountains Of Madness.
The Deadline interview is pretty interesting and worth reading in full, as Del Toro isn’t one to hold back and play Hollywood, instead just telling the truth. In regards to what went wrong with Mountains Of Madness, he says “Since the day of the decision, I havent had a face to face with them [the studio, Universal]. Weve exchanged a few phone calls. In my mind, we were given the parameters of a budget and screenplay, and I was given the chance by the studio to create a visual presentation. They were blown away by the visual presentation, they openly admitted to loving the screenplay, saying it was dead on. And we hit the target on the budget they gave us, not a figure I arrived at. This came after months and months of story boarding, haggling with VFX companies, and bringing down the budget number. The week before the decision, I was scouting in the border of Canada and Alaska. We were a week away from opening offices in Toronto. We were crewed up, and frankly, I am as puzzled as most people are. One of the biggest, biggest points for me with this movie was the scope and the R, going hand in hand.”
Apparently Tom Cruise was indeed almost set for the film, as reported, although no deal was closed as that was down to Universal (and as it was likely Tom would require a pay or play contract, they wouldn’t have wanted him to sign until they were sure they were going to make the movie). However all hope is not lost, as Del Toro says, “That is my hope right now that they [Universal] just allow us to seek a home for this. It will remain a timely premise for years to come, so I dont have to do it next month. I know its not an easy proposition. It is, if you have faith. I think a studio needs to fully believe in that.” So there’s always the chance it’ll get put into turnaround and someone else will pick it up.
But first he’s going to make Pacific Rim, saying about it, “I can only say I was very happy to be able to develop it under the radar in many ways. People got it confused with the Godzilla movie a few months ago but we cleared that up. I can say the scope and imagination that have been outlined in it are absolutely appealing to me. I cannot say more, its not the time… The idea is unequivocally to start shooting in September. The terms of that will become public very soon, but the idea is to get behind the camera this year. I miss it terribly. Unfortunately for me, I have passed discreetly on a number of high profile projects last year in order to save myself for a project that Ive been shepherding. That was Mountains, and now it seems like its going to be Pacific Rim.”
Not too much is known about Pacific Rim, although it’s previously been reported that it’s set in a future in which malevolent creatures threaten the earth, and the planet must band together and use highly advanced technology to eradicate the growing menace.