Guillermo del Toro chats to us about Crimson Peak, Pacific Rim 2 and Pan’s Labyrinth…
The latest film by Guillermo del Toro isCrimson Peak.
Heres how our chat went down.Crimson Peakfeatures a lot of elemental elements.
What was the thinking behind this?
Some of the gothic romance elements are even more extreme.
I always say that in gothic romance, geography is destiny.
The moors are linked to Heathcliff inWuthering Heights, they define who he is.
InGreat Expectationsthe moors, again, define who Pip is.
Stories likeJane Eyre,Great Expectationsand many more end with a conflagration, with fire consuming the buildings.
I think the elemental thing is fairy tale like, and I wanted to include that.
I wanted to tell this Henry Jamesian story about the modern and the past, about America and England.
Theres only been three of us.
We didnt find the proper support while we did four drafts, and then it lay dormant.
It was in stasis until Legendary reactivated it.
Then I called Lucinda Coxon to do one pass on the screenplay, one draft.
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Originally I thought that Lucinda had a good sense of the perverse, you know?
She seemed to be very connected to Victorian perversity through her miniseriesThe Crimson Petal And The White.
I had a good time, but it was just one draft.
The chemistry is all-important.
Its like furnishing a room.
Then you decorate around that.
Tom Hiddleston struck me as a really good balance to Jessicas strengths.
Then Mia struck me as a really good counterpart.
She has a very different, much more quiet, deeply centred strength to Jessica.
Jessica has a neurotic strength, but Mia would bring a stillness and depth to her part.
You furnish around the first item, the anchor of the casting.
And that was the order?
Jessica to Tom to Mia?
There was a sort of musical chairs.
We started with Benedict Cumberbatch, Emma Stone and Jessica.
The first anchor was Benedict.
Do you wonder What if?
Does it cause you frustration?
Constantly you’re gonna wanna deal with this sort of thing.
For a war movie.
They said If you have one explosion, we will evict you.
We had to deal with that.
Its never, in my opinion, that big a deal.Why Dan Lauststen as your cinematographer this time?
And can you remember some of the key pointers you came up with to control the look?
My collaboration with Dan on Mimic was very, very pleasant.
I remember that in the middle of all of the studio turmoil, we had a very happy set.
I was very impressed by our partnership, by how convivial it was, and also creatively.
Dans sense of light is very sophisticated and beautiful.
I always do a first pass on the set when I do windows with the production designer.
It was a single source light, which gives the movie a very beautiful period feeling.
I told him that I wanted a movie that was very colour saturated, not the normal desaturated look.
I wanted it to be Mario Bava-style super saturated colours.
That gives us a beautiful look that is very painterly.
I dont want to hear if, I want to hear when.
I know, my friend.
Me too, but its above my pay grade at this point.
I turned the screenplay, I turned the budget, and now its their decision to make it.
I hope we do.
I think the screenplay is more interesting for me than even the first.
It would be quite the playground.
If you ask me right now, Im optimistic.
Theres a specific role in the screenplay that you think she would be ideal for?
Oh yes, of course.
That was the purpose of the meeting.
I think this is a very strong actress, with an incredible centre that I admire.
They have power, and Maisie has really great power.Would you allow her to keep her own accent?
and I said North London is fine.
Are you definitely doing the Amazon version ofA Killing On Carnival Row?
Is there something else thats definite?
I would have killed to doBeauty And The Beastat Warners, which went away.
I would have killed to doThe Witchesat Warners that went away.
God knows there are many, many of them.
The worst case scenario could be sharing your visions for the films that way.
Im having a lot of fun on Twitter, tweeting about books.
It would take a lot more characters than 140.Youve immediately delivered so much value on Twitter.
I hope you’re free to not get bored and keep doing it.
It is my intention.
I do it very diligently every morning.
Guillermo del Toro, thank you very much.
Crimson Peak is released in the UK and US on October 16th.
