Lost in the excitement of the news that Guillermo del Toro would direct a Charlie Kaufman script of a Kurt Vonnegut novel that I never read (shhh, don’t tell Vince!) is the news that the Pacific Rim director isn’t done lining up his dream projects just yet. While he admitted that Slaughterhouse-Five would be his “next movie” as soon as there is a screenplay, del Toro is also looking ahead at casting for another film – Frankenstein.
According to The Daily Telegraph, del Toro is looking to build on his new relationship with Benedict Cumberbatch by making him the star of his Frankenstein project that has been generating buzz since 2009. Cumberbatch is the star of del Toro’s next film, Crimson Peak, which opens next year.
There are many more tapestries to come. Del Toro is so prolific that he typically works on seven or eight huge projects at a time, either as a writer, producer or director. After the disappointment of The Hobbit, he was even hungrier to get something off the ground, so at this moment, he’s immersed in all kinds of things.
Two are confirmed: a vampire series for TV called The Strain, which he is writing; and a horror film, Crimson Peak, starring Jessica Chastain and Benedict Cumberbatch, which he is due to direct in 2014.
But the “Maybe” list is even more tantalising. He’s looking for funding for The Mountains of Madness, a classic HP Lovecraft horror story about aliens in the Antarctic – “I’ll show you the art and your heart will break,” he says. He is also raising money for a new version of Pinocchio and he is hoping to direct Cumberbatch again in a new film version of Frankenstein.
Cumberbatch would presumably play Dr. Frankenstein, as del Toro has mentioned wanting Doug Jones to play the famous monster, but he has actually played both the monster and his creator in the theatre version with Johnny Lee Miller. Of course, the film will go into a holding pattern with like 10 other movies and TV shows for the time being, but hopefully it will convince Steven Spielberg to get serious about my remake of Frankenhooker.