Guillermo del Toro is famously overbooked, and it seems silly to discuss any of his half-dozen upcoming projects now that he's signed the next four years of his life to The Hobbit. But ShockTillYouDrop couldn't resist asking about Frankenstein when they caught the Mexican auteur on the red carpet for the Hellboy II premiere. And, as always seems to be the case when del Toro is involved, the answers were quite interesting.
"For the monster I would love to have Doug Jones," del Toro said about casting the big green guy. Jones, of course, is the actor who has created some of del Toro's most amazing creatures, from Pan's Labyrinth's Faun and Pale Man to Hellboy's Abe Sapien. "I think he can do a fantastic job. The only vision of the Frankenstein monster I've ever latched onto is Berni Wrightson's [an illustrator who depicted the monster for an edition of Mary Shelley's novel]. He's lanky and long and it's gorgeous in a tragic way. Doug has all of those qualities." Anyone who remembers the Faun knows that very well.
Jones was apparently unaware that del Toro had him in mind, but when Shock Till You Drop's correspondent mentioned it to the actor, he responded, "You've just made my day!"
Del Toro is referring to Frankenstein as "a fairy tale, a strange, weird fairy tale," which is right in line with what he's done before. Basically, all this does is serve to make us all excited for del Toro's Frankenstein, even though it's many, many years off. I know del Toro is a friend to online fans and geeks out as much as the rest of us, but sometimes, I feel like he's just looking to torture us. Can't he try and make just one teensy extra movie while he works on The Hobbit?
