Guillermo del Toro is set with a long-term commitment of four directing projects, including remakes of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Slaughterhouse-Five. We already have heard about The Hobbit.
The next project added to his dance card is an adaptation of “Drood”, a Dan Simmons novel that will be published in February by Little, Brown.
Of course, del Toro’s first priority is New Line and MGM’s The Hobbit, to which he has committed the next five years. He has begun writing Hobbit with Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.
If anyone knows about the film industry it is rather hard or near impossible to plan projects for five years, but the hope is Drood will be the next del Torro project after Hobbit. At least, that is what Universal hopes since they are funding Drood.
“Drood” is a gothic novel where Simmons weaves a presumption that survival from a catastrophic train crash changed author Charles Dickens, plunging him into the depths of London depravity and possibly turning him to murder before he wrote his final novel, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”
If all goes well in film land, the director will belong to Universal after The Hobbit wraps.
If that isn’t enough for the director’s dance card, the studio has its hopes set on del Toro’s pet project, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness.”
There is even another project Universal wants del Toro to produce, not direct, an adaptation of David Moody’s apocalyptic novel “Hater.” Let’s not forget Crimson Peak, a gothic romance spec script by del Toro and his Mimic collaborator Matthew Robbins, which del Toro will produce but not direct.
According to Variety (where I got all this information), while he busies himself with Hobbit, del Toro will outline the other projects and hire writers. The films will be supervised at del Toro and his manager, Gary Ungar will be exec producer of the films and will oversee the slate with others to see the projects through to completion.
Variety article on del Toro’s projects through 2017 is worth a read if you are a fan.
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