Guillermo del Toro - Cabinet of Curiosities

And when the Count gets the mechanical hand, he becomes the fastest gunslinger in the West, because I had set it in Mexico, so the film became kind of a steampunk, Gothic Western. But there’s a moment where the Count goes too far and becomes a monster. I wanted the audience to feel sickened at that moment by the fact that they’d been rooting for this guy for an hour and a half.

Ty’s first drawing.

First drawing in new type of notebook

“The hand of God” for Montecristo

Nineteenth Century.

Drawing: Guillermo del Toro

Original Design: TyRuben Ellingson

The move to Austin was a bitch for everyone involved.

14 aug

No doubt the need to fill all available space is Freudian and very serious

Good luck in the meeting with GH in TT—O

16

17 “ 1

Possibly painful and lethal

Date to fill

Who knows why I’m obsessed with the void.

Notes for the glove

This drawing presents new empty spaces.

Thirty-three and with debts. Leave your fears in this [?]

Bullshit to fill up space

But it gives rhythm to the image

Apparatus that the count will use

More bullshit to fill up space

Guillermo del Toro 7/18/98 Austin

GDT:I’ve been trying to do At the Mountains of Madness for almost twenty years. Right after Cronos , I wrote a version of it set during the time of conquest of the New World with a bunch of conquistadors arriving at the Mayan ruins and finding another city beneath. It’s never been far away for me. In terms of imagination and the creation of worlds, it’s one of the most compelling projects. But I also think it’s a very commercial horror film.

In the notebooks, I’m really thinking about Mountains more than drawing it. The funny thing is, Lovecraft excelled at being ambiguous about the way his creatures look. The creatures that he’s very specific about, once you draw them, are kind of clunky. When you’re drawing the flying cucumbers that are the Old Ones in Mountains , you have to go, “How are we going to make this work?” But the less Lovecraft describes, the more beautiful the creature. And I think the ambiguity provides the opportunity to make them shape-shifters.

What is funny, though, is that this sketch of a character in Mountains with tentacles over his mouth predates Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean by about two years. When I saw Pirates , I was like, “OK, I’m screwed.”

E* Fetuses in jars of marmalade.

* A day hasn’t gone by in which I haven’t thought about death.

* National Geographic’s EXPLORER.

G* Hey, what about X? (grave news about someone). Well, it depends.

T* DRAGGED UNDER BY A SUBTERRANEAN RIVER.

G* Someone does something “very special” and/or receives it at once and then (saves it with, throws it among, sticks it amid, or places it among) a pile of objects or things just like it.

T* As he goes down the “subterranean river,” the explorer sees the female octopus and the ceiling littered with clusters of bones.

–Between anguish and hope, pain is the exit.

–Check out the locations for VOOI for the M.M.

–The SCARLET city in the middle of the white one.

–Green water / Scarlet and corroded walls

—Dietist: The key is to avoid eating large portions. Woman: Ah—yes that makes sense, D: Tomatoes, lettuce, celery, non-fat dairy products… W: Well-that-that’s good. But what about lunch? D: Well at lunch you can give yourself a treat. W: Sure. D: Or you’ll go crazy. W: A treat! That’s a good idea, thank you. D: You are welcome. CUT A: The woman pigging out.

—A mass hallucination. Suggestion or mass hysteria.

—An empty shell that is a ghost.

–Normally ghosts bring the living warnings or premonitions.

–The husband takes a photograph of it.

–One of the researchers is a nun.

–A ghost is visible at the edge of the photo and a phenomenon occurs that she is the only one to see.

–Record it in small NAGRA recorders to give the images depth to give a catalog to the U.

–The husband thinks that they’re radio waves or waves from a nearby CB and pleads with them to use their common sense.

–She asks for proof and it tells her: “Anna, I’m dead, tell me why?”

–An Arkham sailor

–Perhaps Pabodie, like Holly, knows how to build automatons

IWOULDN’T SAY AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS didn’t work out—I have worked on and postponed many films before they were finally made—it’s just going to work out when it’s supposed to.

While it was painful to watch Guillermo go through the experience of having to put on hold a project that was so close to his heart, I knew he would move on to extraordinary things, and he soon did with Pacific Rim. As I told him at the time, it’s not over, it’s just on pause for now. I’m still determined to work with him, and one day it will happen.

Over the years I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of truly great filmmakers, and each and every one of them has their own unique tone and voice, which emanates from every frame of their films. This is particularly true of Guillermo’s work. When you look at his movies, you know instantly that you’re seeing a del Toro film, whether it’s Pan’s Labyrinth or Hellboy. His films are very much an extension of who he is and his ideas. It’s in the design, it’s in the lighting, it’s in the composition. It’s in every single creative decision. That’s what makes him an artist. It’s not analytical. It is instinctual; it permeates his work, his life. He has a vivid imagination that remains free against all odds.

Guillermo is a true artist, but he’s also a hard worker. He’s not someone who just talks the talk—he’s actively going out and making things happen, constantly striving to be better at communicating with an audience. He’s discovering what it is that interests people. He’s smart about it, and I think that’s why he’s accumulated a very faithful audience.

He’s very interested in people and hungry for life, he has no sense of self-importance or arrogance. You can always tell someone who’s very competent, because they have an ease in talking about their craft and themselves; there’s no defensiveness or overbearing confidence.