On the occasion of the release of Guillermo Del Toro's new film: The Shape of Water, Golden Lion in Venice, the editorial team has decided to offer you an update on the various aborted projects of the Mexican filmmaker. Let's take a look at three of Del Toro's most iconic projects that never saw the light of day and probably never will.
The Hobbit
Let's start this "retrospective" with the most famous project, simply because it was born but in a different way. We will indeed talk about The Hobbit, which was born with three opuses, all directed by Peter Jackson. But first: what exactly is The Hobbit? The Hobbit is Tolkien's first novel, in any case the first to be set in the universe of Middle-earth. It is the matrix work of all of Tolkien's work, putting him on par with Robert.E.Howard (author of Conan the Barbarian) as the father of modern heroic-fantasy. Designed as a children's book, The Hobbit is a worldwide success, whose sequel was expected for almost 20 years (The aptly named The Lord of the Rings). It is this sequel that will be adapted in the early 2000s thanks to the New Zealander Peter Jackson. Following the international success of this trilogy (including 13 Oscars for the third opus: The Return of the King), the adaptation of The Hobbit is set in motion. After some legal and financial problems between Peter Jackson and his producer, the filmmaker gave up directing the film, but remained as producer. The latter refusing to return to directing, he offers the job to Guillermo Del Toro. Little information exists about what Del Toro's vision should have looked like. But it is known that one of its main sources are historical novels and archival documents on the First World War. He considered Tolkien's experience as a soldier during this war to be fundamental. Extrapolating, we can assume that this research was intended to be primarily a source of inspiration to be able to represent The Battle of the Five Armies (which although only a short-time in the novel, is a momentous moment in the mythology of Middle-earth).
Apart from that, Tel Toro's vision would have been very different from an aesthetic point of view compared to the final result. The world of The Hobbit must be much more innocent and "pure" than that of the Lord of the Rings, corrupted by Orcs and Saurons. The other difference would have been in the presence of many more monsters and creatures, as well as a different design of Smaug, the dragon, which would have been much closer to a snake. A choice that caused controversy among Tolkien fans. Finally, come the choice to cast Sylvester McCoy, in the role of Radagast, one of the few successes of the trilogy, McCoy being excellent in his role of mad magician. Guillermo Del Toro eventually abandoned the position due to MGM's financial problems, preventing filming from starting. Skyfall also paid the price since the 23rd James Bond was for a long time postponed. Eventually, Peter Jackson took over the reins of directing for the very average result we all know. As for Del Toro, he will be credited as co-writer.
Silent Hills
One of the projects that we regret the most not having seen it born. Silent Hills is a myth in the world of horror video games. This saga has marked the spirits by its extremely creepy and terrifying atmospheres, as well as by its writing. However, it was the first parts developed by a Japanese Konami team that mainly marked. The other opuses, although nice, developed by Western studios, will be more freshly received.Let's take a step back. Cologne 2014. There, Gamescom takes place. Hideo Kojima, god among geeks for the Metal Gear Solid saga, is one of the most famous and famous creators of video games. One of the few that can be described as an "author" of video games. He is present on stage and announces the launch of a demo on Playstation Store. This is called P.T. For Playable Teaser. A playable teaser. The demo ignites the powder and terrorizes more than a million players. Very quickly they discover that P.T. is actually the first demo of Silent Hills. The mythical horror saga is back.
The expectation is mounting more and more. Guillermo Del Toro must co-lead the project by infusing his science and knowledge of horror. Then the cleaver falls! Silent Hills is cancelled. Konami prefers to restructure towards pachinkos and phone games, much more profitable in the eyes of the firm than making video games on a big budget. Kojima is fired from Konami, finds himself independent and implements his next project: Death Stranding with Mads Mikkelsen and Norman Reedus (the latter to appear in Silent Hills). Guillermo Del Toro will not recover from this failure and will announce his intention to no longer participate in the creation of a video game… Before making an appearance as a guest star in Death Stranding.
The Hallucinated Mountains
Last project chosen and this one is an exception. We could have chosen Hellboy 3, but we decided to keep a little hope with a film that can always see the light of day. This film is The Hallucinated Mountains, an adaptation of Lovecraft with a budget of $170 million. Conceived as an R-Rated project (forbidden to under 17s in the USA), this epic horror film project was canceled because of a budget too high for the classification of the film, the studios being rather reluctant to put colossal budgets for adult and violent films. The film was to tell the story of explorers who stumble upon a civilization of extraterrestrials, including Cthulhu. However, the project had a number of safe values. First of all, the producer of the film was to be none other than the man who directed the two biggest successes in the history of cinema: Avatar and Titanic : James Cameron. Given the basic premise and the presence of Cameron, Aliens (the second installment of the Alien saga) was to be one of the main sources of inspiration for the film.The main actor? Tom Cruise himself, probably the last real Hollywood superstar.
The film would have seen the light of day if it had been rated PG-13 (forbidden to under 13 years old unaccompanied by adults, the classification of most blockbusters). But the Mexican filmmaker wanting to make a film in his own way could not do anything other than Rated-R. Moreover, according to the director and studios, the film was extremely similar to Prometheus in synopsis, design, scenes and a joint final reveal. But let us not lose hope. There is regular talk of a return of the project for several reasons. First of all, the success of several projects classified Rated-R (Deadpool, Logan, That…) which have had excellent financial and critical success. Then comes the success of Del Toro's latest film: The Shape of Water. It was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and grossed $100 million, an honorable success given the film's modest budget. If successful at the Oscars, maybe Del Toro can launch his Hallucinated Mountains for good.
Guillermo Del Toro is undoubtedly one of the most creative filmmakers of his generation. Enjoying a real cult among geeks, this one has however experienced many setbacks. Some of them are listed in this article but this is only a representative sample. One thing is certain: This sample shows how talented the Mexican filmmaker is. And this is an opportunity to find him on the screens since his latest film The Shape of Water has just been released and it is acclaimed by critics (including ours). Also released on March 21 (in France) will be the sequel to Pacific Rim: Pacific Rim Uprising. A year 2018 that will be marked by the seal of Del Toro. Which in itself is quite encouraging.
