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Guillermo del Toro says he would love to make another kaiju movie.
The Oscar winner took fan questions Wednesday in a Reddit AMA on r/movies, his first since The Shape of Water. One fan asked if there is any chance he would do a kaiju or giant robot movie again.
“I would love to go back. A kaiju-mecha intersection is my sweet spot,” del Toro answered.
“That’s why I agreed to do Pacific Rim based on the outline by Travis Beacham. The only thing I immediately said is that it should be two pilots for the robots, so that the story is about two people that need to learn to trust each other,” he continued.
Del Toro said the 2013 movie remains one of his favorites.
“Oh my god, I tried so many new things in the way we shot the kaiju, that now I see in other kaiju movies, like the night and the rain, the neon lights. It was such a joy. To me, it’s one of my favorite movies I ever shot. I adore it.”
GothTech and ‘Smart-Stupid’
Del Toro also revisited the two terms he coined while making the film.
“I remember when we were starting, I coined two terms. GothTech, meaning Gothic and tech combined. The other one was ‘Smart-Stupid,’ meaning the premise makes no sense but we have to treat it with the utmost seriousness,” he said.
“Because, of course, there are a hundred ways you would go about killing a monster that size before you say, Why don’t we build a giant robot? But I said we should seriously render this really silly idea,” del Toro added.
Knifehead, Guiron, and Planet Guillermo
Del Toro said there are two things he loves about kaiju movies, starting with the designs.
“There’s an ornamental, abstract beauty to some kaijus. Some kaijus are based on a natural creature — a lobster, a reptile, a shark — but others are based on architectural, beautiful, ornamental designs that are almost like pieces of pop art,” he said.
“Take a character like Guiron, which is based on a knife. I wanted to bring all that into the movie.”
Guiron is the blade-headed monster from the Gamera movies.
“Some of the kaijus are very close to an animal — there’s one that looks like a gorilla — but there’s another one that is completely crazy and has a knife on its head, but it’s made of bone. There’s love and affinity,” del Toro continued.
Pacific Rim fans know those two as Leatherback and Knifehead.
Del Toro closed by pointing to the Japanese shows that started it all for him.
“The Ultraman series even has a planet that they dedicated to me, called Planet Guillermo. Because I love them so much. I love those creatures: Ultra Q and Ultraman, and Ultra 7. They have the greatest creatures, because they are on the verge of being silly but they are always beautiful.”
Pacific Rim remains del Toro’s only kaiju movie. The 2018 sequel, Pacific Rim Uprising, went ahead with him producing but not directing.
The AMA also comes on the heels of del Toro shooting down his announced Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum appearance with “Not me. No voy.”
And there is more del Toro on the way: Pan’s Labyrinth heads back to the big screen October 9-15 in 4K 3D for its 20th anniversary, and tickets are on sale now.
