Guillermo Del Toro
Guillermo del Toro isn’t afraid of AI, but fears “natural stupidity”
The director expressed his admiration for "people who are fearless" rather than being afraid of AI. Guillermo del Toro Isn’t Afraid of AI, But Fears “Natural Stupidity” Eddie Fu
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio Breathes New Life Into the Classic Fable: Review
The Pitch: 2022 has really seemed like The Year of Pinocchio. While the original 1883 Italian novel by Carlo Collodi has had its fair share of adaptations over the years (from classic Disney delights to, well, Pauly Shore in middle-aged twink mode), this year saw new takes on the material from two of cinema’s most acclaimed directors. But where Robert Zemeckis’ retelling felt morbid and soulless, master of the macabre Guillermo del Toro returns to gift us with a version that hits the classic beats of the fable, while slotting it handily into the concerns and aesthetics the director has pursued his entire career. The lumber is the same, but the construction is quite different: Pinocchio (the cherubic Gregory Mann) is still the wooden boy whittled into existence by old carpenter Geppett...
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Is a Horror Anthology Haunted By Creative Freedom: Review
The Pitch: A racist scavenger (Tim Blake Nelson) uncovers the ultimate score in the storage locker of a dead Nazi. A desperate grave robber (David Hewlett) gets more than he bargained for on his latest excursion. A medical examiner (F. Murray Abraham) autopsies a dead body from a mine explosion and finds a passenger hiding within the flesh. An awkward, frumpy bank teller (Kate Micucci) is tempted with the secrets of beauty by a mysterious skin cream. An art student in 1909 (Ben Barnes) grows obsessed with the horrific paintings of a strange new colleague (Crispin Glover). A desperate man (Rupert Grint) searches for his dead twin sister through the veil of spiritualism. A reclusive billionaire (Peter Weller) gathers a group of illustrious talents to view his latest otherworldly find. A...
Pinocchio Comes to Stop-Motion Life in Trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s New Film: Watch
Netflix has cut loose the first trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the auteur’s new stop-motion adaptation of the classic tail. Directed by del Toro alongside Mark Gustafson from a script by the former with Matthew Robbins (Crimson Peak), the movie marks del Toro’s first feature-length animated movie. He’d been trying to get the project financed since 2010, and fans of Hellboy II: The Golden Army know stop-motion has been a passion of the filmmaker for some time. It finally all came together when Netflix revived the film in 2018, and now we get to see the fruits of del Toro’s labor of love. As the first trailer shows, del Toro’s Pinocchio sees Sebastian J. Cricket (Ewan McGregor) narrating the tall about “imperfect fathers and imperfect sons, about loss and love.” I...
Guillermo Del Toro Shares First-Look Stills of Stop-Motion Pinocchio
No lies here: This December, Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion Pinocchio adaptation will come to life on Netflix. The offbeat director shared another sneak peek of the project at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival today (June 15th), giving viewers a look at his own animated interpretations of the wooden marionette (voiced by Gregory Mann) and his woodcarver Geppetto (David Bradley). In an exclusive teaser screened at the festival (via The Hollywood Reporter), Geppetto is startled awake by a noise in his attic during what seems to have been a long, late night of woodworking. “Who goes there?” he exclaims. After climbing up the creaky ladder, Geppetto finds Pinocchio alive for the first time: “You asked for me to live,” he responds. “I’m your son.” Understandably, Geppetto ...
Guillermo del Toro Slams Oscars for Cutting Awards from Live Broadcast
It seems pretty likely that we’ll hear Guillermo del Toro’s name at this year’s Oscars, but the filmmaker wants his fellow artisans to get the same due as big-name directors. While accepting an award at the Hollywood Critics Association Awards on Monday (February 28th), del Toro criticized the Academy for cutting select behind-the-scenes categories from the Oscars’ live broadcast, noting the collective nature of filmmaking. “If any year was the year to think about it, this is not the year not to hear their names live at the Oscars. This is the year to sing and do it live,” del Toro said. The director, who was accepting the Filmmaking Achievement Award, was referring to the artists who work in documentaries, editing, makeup and hairstyling, production design, short films, and sound. Last we...
Guillermo del Toro Reveals Plot of His Abandoned Pacific Rim Sequel
Guillermo del Toro co-wrote the screenplay to the 2013 science fiction smash Pacific Rim, but by the time its sequel Pacific Rim: Uprising, hit theaters in 2016, he was no longer attached to the project. In a recent interview, the director revealed what Pacific Rim 2 would’ve looked like if he had the final say. “The villain was this tech guy that had invented basically sort of the internet 2.0. And then they realized that all his patents came to him one morning,” del Toro told TheWrap. “And so little by little, they started putting together this and they said, ‘Oh, he got them from the precursors.’ The guys that control the kaiju.” He continued, “And then we found out that the precursors are us thousands of years in the future. They’re trying to terraform, trying to re...
Guillermo del Toro Turns From Gory Monsters to Gauzy Film Noir with Nightmare Alley: Review
The Pitch: When we first meet Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), he’s burying a body under the floorboards of a country home and setting it aflame, burning his past and his previous life to the ground, presumably to start anew. Eventually, his wanderings lead him to a run-down carnival deep in the sticks, where he quickly ingratiates himself with the freaks and geeks who populate it. It’s not long before he sees the flim-flams underpinning each of their acts — particularly the mentalism of fortune teller Zeena (Toni Collette) and her drunken husband, Pete (David Strathairn), who correctly divines the identity of objects with the help of verbal codes — and wants in on the action. Stars in his eyes, Stan makes his way to the big city with young, virginal carny Molly (Rooney Mara) in tow...
Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley Gets First Trailer: Watch
Guillermo del Toro has offered the first look at his upcoming psychological thriller, Nightmare Alley, which stars Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, Rooney Mara, and Tim Blake Nelson. Watch the newly revealed teaser trailer below. An adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel of the same name, the film tells the story of an ambitious con-man (Cooper) who partners with a female mentalist (Blanchett) to swindle Chicago’s social elite. Nightmare Alley is set to hit theaters on December 17th, 2021. The film will be distributed by Fox Searchlight, which previously partnered with del Toro on his Oscar-winning 2017 film, The Shape of Water. Advertisement Related Video [embedded content] Share this: You Deserve to Make Money Even Whe...
The Witches Heading to HBO Max Before Halloween
Robert Zemeckis’ re-imagining of Roald Dahl’s The Witches is heading to HBO Max. The potential Warner Bros. blockbuster was originally slated for theatrical release on October 9th, but will now bow on the streaming service on October 22nd. “The Witches is a wonderful reimagining of Roald Dahl’s timeless tale that combines world-class filmmaking with fantastic performances. It’s fun for the whole family and ideal for this time of year,” said Toby Emmerich, Chairman, Warner Bros. Pictures Group. “This film, with its stellar cast, is outstanding,” said Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer for HBO and HBO Max. “We are thrilled to be able to use our platform to deliver timely, relevant and engaging new content during this time when the theatrical experience is not available to everyone.” The...
Nigerian doctor named one of TIME’s Most Influential People in the world
TIME named Nigerian physician Tunji Funsho to the 2020 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The full list and related tributes are available now at time.com/time100, and Mr Funsho’s TIME100 profile is available here. The list, now in its seventeenth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals. Mr Funsho, a cardiologist based in Lagos, Nigeria, is the first Rotary member to receive this honour for the organisation’s work to eradicate polio, having played an essential role in ensuring Africa’s certification as wild polio-free in August of 2020. “I’m honored to be recognized by TIME for my part in ensuring that no child in Africa will ever again be paralyzed by wild polio, a disease that once disabl...
The Problematic Lovecraft and How We Can Flip the Script
H.P. Lovecraft In the 21st century, the horror genre is as deeply indebted to the works of H.P. Lovecraft as generations before were to Poe and Shelly. He’s hiding in the background of every strange tale in modern pop culture. Even when his influence isn’t obvious, dig into any work and you’ll find it; a mycelial network of literary tendrils, all leading back to the weird tales of a peculiar writer from the 1920s and ’30s. His name has become emblematic of a certain kind of terror: “Lovecraftian” — meaning an unknowable, cosmic horror where all experiences and understandings that humankind hold dear melt away into a gulf of incomprehensible sensations and existential panic. But don’t take my word for it, even Stephen King, our very own Master of Horror, admits his Lovecraftian lineage: “Lo...
