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11-12-2007, 07:28 AM
November 9, 2007
What happened to BORN?
It was supposed to star real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as a stop-motion artist and his wife, the former of whom uses supernatural clay for his figures that come to life, acting out future threats. Clive Barker was down as executive producer. And Guillermo del Toro was going to produce. But as per the latest reports, Bettany and Connelly never wound up committing to the project, and now it seems del Toro has let it go as well.
From the new Korda Studios in Budapest, Hungary, where he’s currently filming HELLBOY II, the acclaimed PAN’S LABYRINTH director tells Fango, “I was only involved in that very briefly. I liked the idea, but in the course of it also being circled by Connelly and Bettany, my new production outfit Cha Cha Cha came to be formed. I knew I couldn’t juggle too many new projects together as a producer—there were more in my other company, Tequila Gang, too—so something had to get dropped. BORN was one of those. I had to choose which were the more urgent ones to concentrate on.”
These include the English-language redux of the current record-breaking Spanish blockbuster THE ORPHANAGE, which he executive-produced. “[Juan Antonio] Bayona did a great job on that film, but the New Line Cinema remake has to be a new proposition. If we get the writer/director I want, it won’t be the same movie at all and will definitely make a big difference.”
Meanwhile, ORPHANAGE scripter Sergio G. Sanchez has written del Toro’s next Tequila Gang production, 3993, utilizing the directors’ favored Spanish Civil War theme. “That’s a really big baby,” he says. This feature looks likely to be his next movie, following the July 11 premiere of HELLBOY II—and although del Toro’s just-announced big-screen adaptation of the cult ’60s British sci-fi TV series THE CHAMPIONS will be for United Artists, the one property he has always wanted to make has just been acquired by Universal, his HELLBOY II studio.
“H.P. Lovecraft’s AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS is not in limbo anymore,” he reveals. “I’ve self-financed the designs, the maquettes, everything—so I’d be overjoyed if it worked out with them. But it’s definitely R-rated, is very expensive and doesn’t have a happy ending. I’m waiting patiently for big tentpole horror coming back into fashion, like THE EXORCIST and ALIEN, so I can do it justice.”
Universal being home to the pantheon of classic monsters like Dracula, The Wolf Man and the Mummy also means the studio might be able to fulfill another of del Toro’s ambitions. “The movie I would kill to do—and I’m very conscious that it has been done many times already—is FRANKENSTEIN. My version would take it back to the Miltonian tragedy it truly is. I remember reading the Frank Darabont screenplay, saying, ‘That’s it! I’m screwed—I’m never going to be able to do it.’ But thanks to Kenneth Branagh, I can still do that version!”
What happened to BORN?
It was supposed to star real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as a stop-motion artist and his wife, the former of whom uses supernatural clay for his figures that come to life, acting out future threats. Clive Barker was down as executive producer. And Guillermo del Toro was going to produce. But as per the latest reports, Bettany and Connelly never wound up committing to the project, and now it seems del Toro has let it go as well.
From the new Korda Studios in Budapest, Hungary, where he’s currently filming HELLBOY II, the acclaimed PAN’S LABYRINTH director tells Fango, “I was only involved in that very briefly. I liked the idea, but in the course of it also being circled by Connelly and Bettany, my new production outfit Cha Cha Cha came to be formed. I knew I couldn’t juggle too many new projects together as a producer—there were more in my other company, Tequila Gang, too—so something had to get dropped. BORN was one of those. I had to choose which were the more urgent ones to concentrate on.”
These include the English-language redux of the current record-breaking Spanish blockbuster THE ORPHANAGE, which he executive-produced. “[Juan Antonio] Bayona did a great job on that film, but the New Line Cinema remake has to be a new proposition. If we get the writer/director I want, it won’t be the same movie at all and will definitely make a big difference.”
Meanwhile, ORPHANAGE scripter Sergio G. Sanchez has written del Toro’s next Tequila Gang production, 3993, utilizing the directors’ favored Spanish Civil War theme. “That’s a really big baby,” he says. This feature looks likely to be his next movie, following the July 11 premiere of HELLBOY II—and although del Toro’s just-announced big-screen adaptation of the cult ’60s British sci-fi TV series THE CHAMPIONS will be for United Artists, the one property he has always wanted to make has just been acquired by Universal, his HELLBOY II studio.
“H.P. Lovecraft’s AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS is not in limbo anymore,” he reveals. “I’ve self-financed the designs, the maquettes, everything—so I’d be overjoyed if it worked out with them. But it’s definitely R-rated, is very expensive and doesn’t have a happy ending. I’m waiting patiently for big tentpole horror coming back into fashion, like THE EXORCIST and ALIEN, so I can do it justice.”
Universal being home to the pantheon of classic monsters like Dracula, The Wolf Man and the Mummy also means the studio might be able to fulfill another of del Toro’s ambitions. “The movie I would kill to do—and I’m very conscious that it has been done many times already—is FRANKENSTEIN. My version would take it back to the Miltonian tragedy it truly is. I remember reading the Frank Darabont screenplay, saying, ‘That’s it! I’m screwed—I’m never going to be able to do it.’ But thanks to Kenneth Branagh, I can still do that version!”