I’m head over heels in love with the idea of Guillermo del Toro directing a new version of Kurt Vonnegut‘s Slaughterhouse Five with a script by Charlie Kaufman. The presumption is that GDT would direct in his adult mode — i.e., not overshooting and just letting the material stand on its own, as George Roy Hill did for his 1972 version. GDT has worked out an adult take on the material “that is perfect for it,” my excellent source says. GDT is pushing Universal to belly up and pay Kaufman to bang the script out, but Uni won’t pay CK’s fee unless GDK assures that Slaughterhouse Five will be shot within 12 months.

Except GDT’s next two projects, both adult, will first be made back to back. Crimson Peak is a strong R-rated ghost story that’s basically “an examination of the mechanisms of all the fake Romantic Gothic stories and the essentially fake mechanisms of the Victorian Romance that culminates with marriage,” I’m told. This will be followed by an FX production of The Strain, based on GDK’s books. Strong character stuff.