Guillermo Del Toro Unveils New Pacific Rim Poster, Announces Graphic Novel Tie-in

By David Wharton | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

The New York Comic Con was in full swing this past weekend, and while it may not be quite as huge or well known as San Diego’s annual get together, there was still plenty of coolness on display. Case in point? Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro unveiled this snazzy new “propaganda” poster for his giant robots vs. giant monsters flick, and he also announced that a tie-in graphic novel is in the works.

The “Victory” poster was designed by artist Raul Monge, who del Toro says is one of Pacific Rim’s top concept artists. Here’s how the director described the poster at the con: “The idea with this particular piece was to emulate an old WWII propaganda poster/flyer that went along with the world we were creating. It symbolizes rationing – voluntary work force, no guts, no glory kind of heroism.”

It reminds me a bit of some of the imagery from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. With del Toro on board, I’m betting Pacific Rim will be quite a bit better than that one, however.

As for the graphic novel, del Toro says it will serve as a prequel to the film, and will consist of three parts. The tie-in is being written by Pacific Rim screenwriter Travis Beacham, a fact that definitely gets my attention. In addition to Pacific Rim, Beacham wrote the screenplay for the Clash of the Remake (which was much better than the version that made it to screen) and one of my favorite scripts I’ve ever read, a fantasy/steampunk detective story called A Killing on Carnival Row. It’s also good to see Beacham himself handling the project, rather than bringing in a different writer just for that project, as you often see with movie novelizations.

Pacific Rim is scheduled to hit theaters on July 12, 2013. You can read the official synopsis below.

When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes — a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) — who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.