Guillermo del Toro

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Guillermo del Toro (2015)

Guillermo del Toro Gómez (born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara , Mexico) is a Mexican director , film producer , writer and screenwriter . In 2018 , he received the Oscar for Best Director for the fantasy film Shape of Water , and he was also awarded for Best Film .

For many of his films he took over the production and also wrote the script for his more personal projects. The director calls himself bibliophile , and according to his own statements, he bought his first book at the age of four.

He works regularly with actors Doug Jones , Ron Perlman , Luke Goss and Federico Luppi, as well as cameraman Guillermo Navarro , who won an Oscar for best cinematography for Pan's Labyrinth .

Life

Early life

Guillermo del Toro (early 1990s)

Before he made his own films, del Toro studied at a film school, which he said he co-founded. There he learned the basics of directing and scriptwriting, which has shaped him to this day. He works out an extensive biography for each character in his films, which he bases the character conception on and makes it accessible to the actors. Other elements that he regularly refers to in interviews and audio comments are his preference for elements from fairy tales, especially the fairy tale illustrations by Kay Nielsen and Arthur Rackham , which he uses in films both in the construction of the script and in the production design, as well as a preference for monochrome color use. The characteristic amber yellow that emanates from the street lamps in Cronos is also prominently used in The Devil's Backbone , Blade II , Hellboy (both parts) and Pan's Labyrinth . Gear motifs characterize the equipment of both Cronos and Hellboy , Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy II . When his first film, Cronos , didn't seem affordable at first, del Toro started his own special effects company to prove that his concept was workable. He worked as a makeup artist for several years .

Working as a director

Del Toro had his breakthrough as a director in 1993 with his debut horror film Cronos , for which he a. a. won a golden Ariel and was awarded the Mercedes-Benz Award. His first Hollywood production was Mimic in 1997 . He was only half satisfied with this film - the studio's interventions had severely restricted him.

The first of his films that he was totally okay with is The Devil's Backbone . The film is set in an orphanage in 1939. Del Toro sees Pan's Labyrinth as a sister film to The Devil's Backbone .

With Blade II del Toro continued the Blade comic book adaptations franchise . The film was used in many ways as an experimental field for Hellboy . Mike Mignola worked on the design for the first time .

Up to this point, his films could be divided into two groups: personal projects, which are a mixture of art and horror films, and more commercial projects, which made further personal projects possible. Hellboy broke with this scheme . Del Toro had tried unsuccessfully to finance the script for this for ten years and was finally able to bring it to the cinemas in 2004, largely uncompromisingly with the cast of his choice ( Ron Perlman as Hellboy ). For this purpose, he worked closely with the author and illustrator Mike Mignola to film the aesthetic and content-related expression of the comic template. The film is the prelude to a planned trilogy .

With Pan's Labyrinth , del Toro filmed one of his original scripts again in 2006. The story of a girl who escapes from the horrors of post-civil war Spain of 1944 in a fairytale dream world illustrates del Toro's humanistic view of war. The film contains content, dramaturgical and stylistic parallels to The Devil's Backbone : Both films are set in Spain under the influence of the fascist regime and the civil war, both times the plot is told from the perspective of a child and both times central supernatural plot elements are used metaphorically. In the audio commentary of the film, he points out that the film was made five years after The Devil's Backbone - during this time, the world and his view of war changed significantly as a result of the aftermath of September 11, 2001, which is clear in the film whose plot also takes place five years after that of The Devil's Backbone .

Hellboy , the sequel to the 2004 Hellboy film, premiered in the United States on June 28, 2008 .

On April 24, 2008, he was confirmed as the director of the film adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit . He expressed himself several times in interviews about his views on the style and intent of the two films, which will be released in 2012 and 2013. At the end of May 2010, del Toro announced that he was giving up directing due to repeated time shifts on the part of MGM studio , which has financial problems. He did this in order not to endanger his other film projects. Del Toro will continue to work on the scripts, together with Philippa Boyens , Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson .

For many years del Toro has tried to film HP Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness . After retiring from directing The Hobbit , he worked for a few months with James Cameron , who was to produce the film. Funding from Universal Pictures failed in early 2011, as it was requested to shoot the film for an age rating of 13 and over ( PG-13 ), which del Toro declined. In May 2012, del Toro stated that resemblances to Ridley Scott's film Prometheus made it unlikely that he would pursue his project of a Lovecraft film adaptation anytime soon.

Another project of the heart of Del Toro is a remake of Pinocchio . After the project had not been realized for years, it was finally announced in October 2018 that the director was filming a stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio for Netflix. Del Toro will also work on the script and produce the film.

In 2012, del Toro directed the science fiction film Pacific Rim , based on a script by Travis Beacham . In 2013, del Toro guest-directed the animated series The Simpsons . He took on the design of the opening credits for the annual Treehouse of Horror episode. He is the producer and co-creator of the television series The Strain , which has been broadcast on FX Network since June 2014 . The vampire horror series is based on the novel of the same name by del Toro and Chuck Hogan (2009-2011). In October 2015, del Toro's horror film Crimson Peak, starring Jessica Chastain , Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska, was released in theaters. Del Toro is the director and co-writer of the script. In 2017 he received the Golden Lion of the 74th Venice Film Festival for the fantasy film Shape of Water with Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones in the leading roles . In 2018 he received the Golden Globe Award and the Oscar for best director and another Oscar for producer for the film . In the same year, del Toro was selected as the jury chairman of the 75th Venice Film Festival .

further activities

Del Toro wrote his first novel together with bestselling author Chuck Hogan . The vampire novel with the title Die Saat was published in Germany in September 2009. It is the first part of a trilogy; the other volumes are titled Das Blut (Orig. The Fall ; published in September 2010) and Die Nacht (Orig. The Night Eternal ).

In the James Bond film Quantum of Solace , del Toro made a cameo as a soldier, although his voice can only be heard in the original.

In 2010 it was announced that del Toro had signed a contract with publisher THQ to create a video game. The project is called inSane and is inspired by the work of HP Lovecraft. The horror game should appear in 2013 and was developed by the Volition studio . After the project had remained silent for a long time, THQ announced at the beginning of August 2012 that development work on inSane had been discontinued and all rights to the brand had been returned to del Toro.

In May 2012 he presented the re-release of the Alfred Hitchcock films The Invisible Third (May 16), Frenzy (May 8), In the Shadow of Doubt (May 15) and Notorious (May 7) as part of Toronto International Film festivals .

At GamesCom 2014 , the collaboration between del Toro and video game developer Hideo Kojima ( Metal Gear Solid ) on Silent Hills , the newest offshoot of the Silent Hill series, was announced. The survival horror game with Norman Reedus in the lead role was planned for the PlayStation 4 . After a disagreement between Kojima and publisher Konami , del Toro and Kojima left the project in April 2015. The contract with Reedus was not extended. After InSane , Silent Hills is del Toro's second failed video game project. After leaving Konami, Del Toro is now working with Hideo Kojima on the game Death Stranding. The actors Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) and Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal) are also involved in this project .

For his first youth book Trollhunters , which was published in October 2016 by Heyne Verlag , del Toro teamed up with the writer and also in the film business Daniel Kraus. Based on this book , the animation series of the same name , produced by Dreamworks, was published by streaming provider Netflix in 2016 .

Private life

Del Toro was married to Lorenza Newton from 1986 until their divorce in 2017. The couple has two children.

Filmography (selection)

Director
producer
executive producer
Screenwriter

Works

Awards (selection)

Oscars

  • 2007 : Nomination in the category Best Original Screenplay for Pan's Labyrinth ( El Laberinto del Fauno )
  • 2018 : Nomination in the category Best Original Screenplay for Shape of Water - The Whispering of Water ( Shape of Water ) (together with Vanessa Taylor )
  • 2018: Award in the category Best Director for Shape of Water - The Whispering of Water ( Shape of Water )
  • 2018: Award in the category Best Film for Shape of Water - Das Whisper des Wasser ( Shape of Water ) (together with J. Miles Dale )

Golden Globes

  • 2018 : Nomination in the category Best Screenplay for Shape of Water - The Whispering of Water ( Shape of Water ) (together with Vanessa Taylor )
  • 2018: Award in the category Best Director for Shape of Water - The Whispering of Water ( Shape of Water )

British Academy Film Award

Further awards and nominations

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with Del Toro  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , March 18, 2008@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.hobbitblog.org  
  2. ↑ http://deltorofilms.blogspot.com/2008/04/gdt-on-fairy-tales-part-1.html
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated November 4, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deltorofilms.com
  4. ↑ http://deltorofilms.com/wp/2007/07/31/films/mimic/mimic-se-dvd-in-the-works  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically defective marked. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / deltorofilms.com  
  5. ↑ http://deltorofilms.com/wp/2010/11/03/films/mimic/gdt-twitter-qa-with-digital-spy  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically defective marked. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / deltorofilms.com  
  6. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411477/releaseinfo
  7. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  8. ↑ http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2008/04/25/28747-guillermo-del-toro-chats-with-torn-about-the-hobbit-films/
  9. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/07/110207fa_fact_zalewski?currentPage=all
  10. ↑ Director del Toro leaves , May 30, 2010
  11. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/07/110207fa_fact_zalewski?currentPage=13
  12. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/03/guillermo-del-toro-madness-has-gone-dark.html
  13. ^ Guillermo del Toro Talks Prometheus and its Relation to At the Mountains of Madness
  14. ↑ After the Oscar rain, Guillermo del Toro is making his next film for Netflix . In: moviepilot.de . October 22, 2018 ( moviepilot.de [accessed October 24, 2018]).
  15. ↑ Crimson Peak in the Internet Movie Database , accessed April 27, 2015
  16. ↑ http://www.randomhouse.de/book/edition.jsp?edi=311770
  17. ↑ http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/359889/september-22-2010/guillermo-del-toro
  18. ↑ Hitfix: Del Toro, Cuaron do voices in new Bond film. (No longer available online.) November 10, 2008, formerly in the original ; accessed on January 19, 2016 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.hitfix.com  
  19. ↑ http://www.videogameszone.de/Video-Game-Awards-Event-120281/News/Insane-erscheint-fuer-PlayStation-3-Xbox-360-und-PC-803856/
  20. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.insanegame.com
  21. ↑ IGN EN - Insane: Horror game by Guillermo del Toro canceled. ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 7, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / de.ign.com
  22. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fangoria.com
  23. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tiff.net
  24. ↑ Silent Hills - Kojima and Del Toro end collaboration on GameStar , accessed April 27, 2015
  25. ^ Trollhunters In: randomhouse.de. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  26. ^ Science fiction awards database - Guillermo Del Toro . Retrieved November 24, 2017.

Web links

Commons : Guillermo del Toro  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Toro, Guillermo del
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Toro Gómez, Guillermo del (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mexican director, film producer, writer and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Guadalajara , Mexico