Del Toro interview (video) on Hobbit, Mountains of Madness, Dr. Jekyll/Hyde

[Phoenix Dark]

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1596908&vid=288742

Speaks on Smaug, WWI's influence on the book, and the adaption process. Del Toro wants Todd Jones and Ian Holm in some form

Interesting comments on Jekyll/Hyde, and mentions he really wants to bring Victorian horror back to prominence

Sounds like he's already written the scripts - or started writing the scripts - for Mountains of Madness, Jekyll/Hyde, and Frankenstein. Which is interesting because initially it sounded like he'd be bogged down with the Hobbit for a few years before starting work on anything new.

The other film he mentioned was Saturn and the End of Days...

“It’s like, what would happen if the Apocalypse was viewed by you [while] doing errands. You go back and forth and nothing big happens except the entire world is being sucked into a vortex of fire.” Del Toro said. “The small movies you have much more control. If I say this is the design of the fawn and the girl is going to do this or do that, that’s me. In Big Hollywood movies, you get a 50-page memo. It’s horrible. Independent filmmaking is like drawing a comic book, the Hollywood movie is like having five hands holding your hand while you’re drawing the comic book.”

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/04/20/guillermo-del-toros-saturn-and-the-end-of-days/

...so it sounds like those are the four films he's doing with Universal. Previous comments (according to wikipedia) suggested he'd be doing an adaption of Slaughterhouse-Five and Drood. The fact that he didn't mention those two films may suggest he's instead focusing on Saturn, Jekyll/Hyde, Mountains of Madness, and Frankenstein.

[Eric P]

Victorian horror back to prominence

good luck

victorian horror worked because a lot of it was based on mood, romanticism for an age lost and also heavily on censorship.

you could cut up a harlot if she wore a poofy dress, but it was harder to do if she was dressed like someone you'd see on the street.

there's a rather fascinating look at the British horror film through Rigby's English Gothic, a Century of Horror Cinema (focusing on british horror history).  It serves as a chronology of sorts but with great era specific mainstream reviews as sidebars.

[Cormacaroni]

I don't see how any of that would prevent del Toro from making a great pic based on those properties. The fact that they've been done to death already is more of a concern. But since he seems to be working almost entirely on retread properties anyway...why not?

Are we now less nostalgic for the Victorian age? Films/books/tv series continue to get churned out every year in that milieu. I presume he will nail the mood - he certainly managed historical fiction ok in Pan's Labyrinth. I don't get your point on censorship at all. He can show people getting cut up wearing whatever he wants. Unless you're trying to say that we're desensitized to graphic violence now or something.

Or is your point that you have read that book and we haven't