The Strange Case of Guillermo Del Toro

Don't give Lovecraft to this man.

Variety reports on "Pan's Labyrinth" director Guillermo Del Toro's ridiculous project schedule, which should take him through 2017 without much time away from the lens. 

Among the projects in hand, remakes of "Frankenstein" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" for Universal. Note the message boards do not light up when films from the 1920s and 1930s are remade ... there is something about the passage of time, and the status of the original film as incontrovertible classic that seems to inure it from such commentary. (And note Variety's annoying use of the letter "U" in place of the word "Universal." Bloody-Disgusting adopts this one-letter idiocy, for some reason, while gushing. Ugh.)

He is also slated to helm an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness."

"It's the fantasy and gothic horror world Guillermo finds comfortable," Universal spokeswoman Donna Langley is quoted at Bloody-Disgusting.

Well, that's half-accurate.

While Del Toro is unquestionably a fantasy visionary, his horror films have been shaky at best. "Cronos" devolved into a mess by the time Ron Perlman hefted his first pipe-club, he lost the big-studio battle with "Mimic" from the get-go, and those are about the sum of his straightforward genre oeuvre. 

Del Toro is suited to sentimental fantasy with a twisted mythos, making him perfect for "The Hobbit" and its sequel, one supposes. And his comic book films (the Hellboy pictures, "Blade 2"), while at times groaningly sincere, are again appropriate to the subject and content. And based on the one comment about Del Toro's schedule at Mania, it's the comic book films that make the man (the poster laments the now-inevitable delay of "Hellboy 3" and a rumored Dr. Strange adaptation). 

Del Toro's strength lies in the depiction of wide-eyed and haunting worlds other than our own. And yes, such strength could carry him through (treacly) versions of Shelley's and Stevenson's source material. 

But the Lovecraft project is wrong for Del Toro, and the current apparent modus operandi of give-Del-Toro-every-genre-project he likes does not reflect his track record with the form. 

A visuals master? Yes. A capable director of the horror film: Not evidenced. And no one seems to be referencing his problematic horror projects. I guess the genre media swallowed all their Kool-Aid.