![\"\"](\"\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2011\/06\/2348_D049_00047R.jpg\" "\\"Guillermo")
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Most directors would have jumped at the chance to make the next instalment of <\/em>Harry Potter or<\/em> Narnia. But Guillermo del Toro is not most directors. And besides, this natural heir to Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam & Co had his own fairytale plans \u2013 namely <\/em>Pan\u2019s Labyrinth, the triple Oscar-winning box-office smash that turned him into a Hollywood sensation. Alan Jones<\/strong> meets the Mexican maestro on the set of his latest offering,<\/em> Hellboy II: The Golden Army.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m into eye protein, not eye candy,\u201d announces Guillermo del Toro as he watches actor Ron Perlman bound into view dressed as red-skinned demon Hellboy. Del Toro, a 43-year-old cuddly bear of a man who inspires Messianic devotion in all around him, is standing in the middle of what looks very like a Manhattan street. In fact we are on the massive Korda Studio back-lot in Budapest for Hellboy II: The Golden Army<\/em>. It\u2019s been four years since the first Hellboy outing and in that time everything has changed for del Toro. The sequel was dead in the water as far as the moneymen were concerned. Until, that is, Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/em> made del Toro box-office dynamite.<\/p>\n Before Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/em> del Toro had been crafting elaborate fantasy films for 13 years. His 1993 debut Cronos<\/em> \u2013 a south-of-the-border take on the vampire story \u2013 won critical acclaim but never found a mass audience. Mimic<\/em>, a Miramax-backed monster movie, was a text-book sophomore muddle. But del Toro returned to form with his next outing, The Devil\u2019s Backbone<\/em>, a ghost story set in the dying days of Spain\u2019s civil war. Two comic-book adaptations followed: Hellboy<\/em>, based on the paranormal investigator created by cult graphic novelist Mike Mignola; and vampire-slaying actioner Blade II<\/em>. Both were lost in a blitz of superhero cinema releases. Del Toro is philosophical about the hit-and-miss nature of his early CV. \u201cIt works like this,\u201d he explains. \u201cI do one film for Hollywood, then one for me. Mimic<\/em> and Blade II<\/em> were great dates, but the others are commitments for life.\u201d<\/p>\n Del Toro doesn\u2019t include Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/em> in this relationship analogy, instead describing it as a \u201cbeautiful daughter\u201d. Its combination of heart-wrenching wartime dramatics with exquisite monsters won over the multiplex-going public. But the film was not originally conceived with a crossover in mind: \u201cI wanted my hardcore audience to see genre possibilities beyond the easy scare,\u201d he says, \u201cto embrace its multi-faceted richness.\u201d<\/p>\n With Oscar glory, though, came a worldwide audience far beyond gore geekdom. Del Toro can now choose between A-List projects like the big-screen remake of The Hobbit <\/em>(which will be two films budgeted at $150 million each) and Universal\u2019s Frankenstein<\/em> re-brand. He can now return confidently to the Hellboy franchise, armoured with total creative control, commercial muscle and a $72 million budget.<\/p>\n Unlike other filmmakers who have made the jump to vast budgets, del Toro has changed neither his priorities nor his personality. He has remained fiercely loyal to a troupe of actors that includes ex-Bros singer Luke Goss, on whom del Toro gambled for Blade II<\/em>, and who now plays Hellboy II<\/em>\u2019s villain, elf-prince Nuada. And he has retained a highly contagious passion for every aspect of filmmaking. He refuses to start using a 2nd unit camera team, preferring to oversee every shot with trusty cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, who has shot all of his movies.<\/p>\n On Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/em>, del Toro did much more than just hang fire to make sure the film was right. He put his money where his mouth is. \u201cI ploughed my entire fee back into the film to complete it the way I wanted,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo far it\u2019s made over $150 million and I won\u2019t see a penny. My wife is more upset about that than I am, because it got me to the top of my game. It had the audacity not to fit into any category, yet be successful. I used that clout to benefit Hellboy II<\/em> and my list of people to help if I ever got into that position.\u201d<\/p>\n Top of that “People-To-Help List” were Ecuadorian director Sebasti\u00e1n Cordero (Cr\u00f3nicas<\/em>) and Spain\u2019s Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage<\/em>). Del Toro produced both films. \u201cIt\u2019s all about new talent,\u201d he insists. \u201cThat\u2019s what keeps our industry alive and fresh. On The Orphanage<\/em> I made everyone a first-timer from the director downwards, and it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n Brutality is something del Toro knows all about. He was born in 1964 during a particularly volatile period in Mexico\u2019s history. On the streets around his parents\u2019 home in Guadalajara, paramilitary troops regularly executed students, and drug barons dished out revenge. \u201cBlood, guts and violence were a way of life,\u201d he confesses. \u201cI saw my first corpse at four, I worked next door to a morgue as a teenager, I\u2019ve had guns put to my head and seen people killed in front of me. That\u2019s why I turned down directing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban<\/em> and The Chronicles of Narnia<\/em> \u2013 I don\u2019t understand youth because I\u2019ve never had one.\u201d<\/p>\n Violence has persisted into del Toro\u2019s adult life. In 1997 his father was kidnapped and held prisoner for 72 days. \u201cI lost 18 months of my life trying to find out who was responsible,\u201d he tearfully recollects. \u201cThen a cop said, \u2018Give me $10,000 and when we catch them I\u2019ll leave you alone with them and a steel pipe for an hour\u2019. I couldn\u2019t do it. I\u2019m not a perfect human being by any means but that wasn\u2019t the way to confront my pain.<\/p>\n \u201cI work in a genre most people don\u2019t take seriously yet, and I try to imbue it with meaning. I don\u2019t care if films like Hellboy II<\/em> are considered pulp fiction by most. I will always leave breadcrumb trails to follow into the darkest forests if people want to learn more about themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Words: Alan Jones<\/p>\n A full version of this article first appeared in<\/em> Wonderland #13, April\/May 2008<\/em><\/p>\n Hellboy II: The Golden Army is released on August 22<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most directors would have jumped at the chance to make the next instalment of Harry Potter or Narnia. But Guillermo del Toro is not most directors. And besides, this natural heir to Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam & Co had his own fairytale plans \u2013 namely Pan\u2019s Labyrinth, the triple Oscar-winning box-office smash that turned him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9416],"tags":[69,84,85,54,81,82,86,108,83,87],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n