Guillermo Del Toro Talks Pacific Rim 2 And Frankenstein

By Nick Venable | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

pacific rimWhile Guillermo del Toro is currently in some phase of production with the TV pilot for The Strain, the vampire trilogy he co-wrote with Chuck Hogan, the great director is having an otherwise busy month with both the Blu-ray/DVD release of Pacific Rim hitting stores this week and the upcoming coffee table extravaganza Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections, and Other Obsessions. As such, he’s come out of his memorabilia-laden belfry to talk a little more about some of his future projects that may never actually see the light of day, namely Pacific Rim 2 and his interpretation of Frankenstein.

While genre fans’ expectations for Pacific Rim were dashed by its U.S. box office, it’s still a worldwide hit and the most successful non-animated original property of the year. One might think that make its sequel inevitable, and del Toro points out that, regardless of how successful the home release is, the sequel is definitely getting written.

Travis Beacham and I are writing,” he told IGN, “so that is active. The decision to greenlight or not, that’s definitely above my pay rate.” To me, it seems impossible to imagine a world where Legendary Entertainment doesn’t throw money bags to get the sequel made. When asked if he thinks a second film would fare better now that viewers have already familiarized themselves with the world of Pacific Rim, del Toro says, “It does. To me, what was beautiful and flattering was how people saw the movie not once or twice but three, four times or more. People that love it, love it with great passion. So I would love to continue telling stories about that world.”

To me, it would seem like the number of viewers is even smaller if a good chunk of the film’s profits were just fanboys seeing it five times in theaters. But whatever. I’m all about more Kaiju and more Jaegers. Maybe a little less Charlie Hunnam though.

With del Toro’s love for James Whaley’s original Frankenstein film ever-present in interviews and even in his home decor, it seems inevitable that he’ll bring his own version of the big baddie to theaters. He’s certainly still up for it. Asked if he thought it’ll ever happen, del Toro responds:

You know, I hope it does, in the right way and the right moment. Every time I get with Universal, we talk about doing it, and then for whatever reason something else takes over. Right now, I’m busy for the next two years, between finishing The Strain and doing Crimson Peak…Your life leapfrogs a couple of years, if not more, when you’re a filmmaker.

Personally, I’m more interested in Crimson Peak than any of his other projects, except for maybe the never-happening At the Mountains of Madness. But I also don’t have hundreds of millions of dollars to fund these projects. Hell, I don’t even have enough money to buy the Pacific Rim Blu-ray. So I’ll just be watching the special features as they release. Like the one below.