When you think of horror master Guillermo Del Toro, the idea of family entertainment doesn’t exactly come to mind.
Still, in addition to the three million movies he currently has in development, Del Toro also has executive producer credits on Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda and Rise of the Guardians.
Guardians is a bit like an animated fairy tale edition of The Avengers where Jack Frost, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy team up to battle a mythical demon named Pitch. (Chris Pine, who is now Captain Kirk, is the voice of Frost).
Del Toro has been working behind the scenes on family films for DreamWorks for some time now. As he explained to Collider, the movies he worked on, like Megamind (where Del Toro has a creative consultant credit), Panda and Boots “were earnest, really romantic movies. Puss in Boots is a really great spaghetti western combined with a fairy tale, Kung Fu Panda was a really great martial arts movie with a psychopathic villain, and [Guardians] felt timeless and really classic in a way.” Del Toro also hopes to direct his own family film for DreamWorks, Trollhunters.
There will also soon be a trailer ready for Pacific Rim, Del Toro’s big sci-fi epic that’s coming next July 11. Although he’s been attached to many projects, and has worked behind the scenes on a few as well, this is Del Toro’s first film he’s directed since 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
There’s of course hopes for Pacific Rim sequels, and Del Toro and Rim screenwriter Travis Beacham are tossing out ideas for one, but Del Toro’s not totally sure what he wants to do next now that he’s back in the director’s seat.
“I want do something else,” he said. “I want to do something in a different genre that’s not so big.” Del Toro certainly has plenty of projects to choose from, and he’s hoping to be on to Pinocchio, and his series The Strain for the FX network, after Rim comes out in July.
There’s also been news that Del Toro may do a project called Heaven Sent, which would be the darker side of The Avengers with Swamp Thing, Constantine Hellblazer, and Etrigan the Demon.
As Del Toro told MTV, “I’ve been discussing with the fans and I’ve been very, very open about how much Swamp Thing was key when I was a kid. Comics in Mexico came on the first two days of the week. Around Tuesday and Wednesday I would go to the newsstand on my bicycle and I would get Swamp Thing every time it was available. I’ve been pursuing doing something [Swamp Thing and Constantine] for man, many years. Hopefully it’ll come to pass.”
