Guillermo del Toro is one of the most identifiable directors out there, having a distinct creative style that’s carried over to most of his projects. This includes his Hellboy adaptations based on Mike Mignola’s comics, Pan’s Labyrinth, and even FX’s The Strain.
Pacific Rim, his big-budget Kaiju monster flick, was one of his most ambitious projects yet. It helped bring old school giant monsters back to Hollywood, and fans have ever since been wanting more.
A sequel was finally announced years after its predecessor, and unfortunately for most of those waiting for it – it was revealed that Guillermo del Toro would not be directing.
In an interview with Collider about the next season of his animated Trollhunters series, he had this to say about Pacific Rim: Uprising and why Legendary Pictures chose Steven S. DeKnight to direct:
“The timing started to suck. I had this little movie that I wanted to do—The Shape of Water—very, very much,” del Toro said. “At one point it was Justice League Dark or Pacific Rim, I said, ‘Let’s go to Pacific Rim.’ The reality is they said, ‘We’re gonna need to postpone,’ because they were changing hands—Legendary was going to be sold to China, to a Chinese company [called the Wanda Group]. They said, ‘We’ve gotta wait nine months’ and I said, ‘I’m not waiting nine months, I’m shooting a movie,’ and I went and shot [The Shape of Water] and we chose Steven DeKnight.”
While del Toro is only producing the film, he’s still excited for what he’s been shown as more footage is shot each day.
“It’s going great. I see dailies every day, I see early cuts, I see teasers. They’re doing great,” del Toro said. “It lets him have his style, lets him have his notion of the characters. I wrote a screenplay, developed two or three drafts of that screenplay—this is different than what I developed, and I’m OK. A producer is in the corner, the director is in the ring. The producer’s not getting the punches, the director is, so shut up, wait in the corner, refresh the towel and wait for the director to come to you.”
His latest project is The Shape of Water, which is currently set for a 2017 release.
Meanwhile, Pacific Rim: Uprising will be released 2018.
Source: Collider