Guilluermo & Josh
"You're never as open to wonder and horror as when you're a child," Orphanage producer Guillermo del Toro tells MTV.com's Josh Horowitz. "When you're a child, you can really be enthralled and reach an absolutely ecstatic stage of joy with any wonder in the world. And by the same token, you can reach an incredibly deep paroxysm, like a panic of horror, deeper than any adult.
"It [therefore] takes a lot for an adult to regress to those intense emotional stages. And in the movies, obviously, the best way to present a fable or a myth is through the eyes of somebody that can experience it fully."
Also: "I openly like to embrace the fantastic. Actually, I try to give the fantastic a very mundane feeling. I would love monsters to exist...I would love to see Godzilla on my way to work, destroying a city a mile or two away. I would love that." Or at the very least, a Godzilla building being part of the Tokyo skyline, which Del Toro could enjoy while visiting that city for press junkets.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 28, 2007 at 9:21 AM
comment #1
Sean
says ...
Yeah, this guy's way deeper than the guy who made the giant ape movie. "I would love it if monsters were casually destroying the city I lived in." Genius!
Posted by Sean
at December 28, 2007 9:32 AM
comment #2
hatchetface
says ...
Give the guy a break. So what? He loves monsters, I do too.
I've liked del Toro ever since The Devil's Backbone, and I've loved Mike Mignola's Hellboy since its first issue.
That said, I hated the film version of Hellboy, one of the big disappointments of my last several years watching films. And after Pan's, which I really enjoyed, I am sorry to see del Toro back butchering one of my favorite comic characters. I don't care how much he claims to love the big red guy: his Hellboy is a fucking wise-cracking jerk, totally unlike the guy on the page. Leave him alone and get thee to the Mountains of Madness already, yeesh.
Posted by hatchetface
at December 28, 2007 10:55 AM
comment #3
giantman
says ...
Gosh, I for one loved Hellboy and can't wait to see #2. Del Toro is the perfect Director for that franchise. And I totally "get" what he's saying here, it would be totally cool to see Godzilla stomping some city (especially Cleveland!) but not in a 'real world' way, total fantasy wish-fulfillment. Which is really what a good monster on the loose story is all about.
Posted by giantman
at December 28, 2007 1:29 PM
comment #4
Sean
says ...
hatchet - I shouldn't have to explain this, but that joke was a knock on Jeff, not del Toro. Del Toro's comment shows exactly the same sort of "WOW! COOL!" thinking with no attachment to reality that Jeff always criticizes in Peter Jackson. And Jeff recently tried to say that del Toro is more of an artistE than Jackson. You may have missed that over the holiday.
Posted by Sean
at December 28, 2007 2:29 PM
comment #5
lipranzer
says ...
I liked HELLBOY. Don't know yet about the sequel, but if Del Toro's back...
Having said that, I must join with those who was disappointed with THE ORPHANAGE. Some good scares, and I appreciate any movie that avoids torture porn, but the plot got very silly at times.
Posted by lipranzer
at December 28, 2007 8:24 PM
comment #6
The Winchester
says ...
The Orphanage had some scares, but mostly it creeped the shyte out of me. I'm still a little chilled right now. It does the usual ghost story trimmings, but does them well.
That being said, the marketing guys did a great job of covering the fact that it's in Spanish, as I noticed several people getting up and leaving once they found out the movie required reading.
Posted by The Winchester
at December 28, 2007 9:16 PM
comment #7
qwiggles
says ...
"Del Toro's comment shows exactly the same sort of "WOW! COOL!" thinking with no attachment to reality that Jeff always criticizes in Peter Jackson."
In reference to his enduring love for monster movies, sure -- he's big on the 'wow, cool.' But The Devil's Backbone shows a much more sophisticated rapport with reality than you're giving him credit for here. It seems unfair to use his fanboy love of Godzilla to stand for his entire approach to filmmaking.
Posted by qwiggles
at December 29, 2007 12:13 PM
comment #8
qwiggles
says ...
As a sidenote...Anyone who hasn't done so already ought to check out his audio commentary for The Devil's Backbone. His thoughts on the ghost story as an ideal genre through which to approach historical traumas like the Spanish Civil War are pretty interesting. (At least, if you're of the academic masochist disposition that sees you flipping through Derrida and Levinas every so often.)
Posted by qwiggles
at December 29, 2007 12:25 PM