News

Interview: Guillermo del Toro on Hellboy II

Director Guillermo Del Toro talks the benefits of Blu-Ray, DVD extras and locking down a lunch with Viggo Mortensen.

Are you a big purveyor of the Blu-Ray format?

I love it because the experience the collector gets with the Blu-Ray transfer is optimum. It's the only way you're really going to experience the movie that closely [to the cinematic experience] again and again. More hours went into the cinematography, in this case, on the production of the film than any of the others I've done. I tortured the guys in the color correction facility longer than I used to in order to get this right. Sound-wise, we had the advantage of having one of the main sound designers be at the mixing stage at all times, locking down the audio experience.

Do you feel like the extras bring the fans closer to the creative process behind the film?

Aside from the archival definite form of a film, I believe it's the only other way people will truly experience the movie. Other than that, it's also a great testimonial, and a way for a lot of young people who have no money or access to a film school to learn the craft of storytelling on film. We try to provide not a glamorous look, but a very thorough and very technical look at the way movies are created. The best way of doing this is Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray offers the possibility of much more content. Sometimes, it's a pain in the ass to navigate. [Laughs] But, the content can never look better. It looks as good as it does in the theater, and with the sound, we take great pains to scale down the theatrical experience. You can get an incredibly beautiful experience.

What's it like documenting everything?

From the first day, when there wasn't even an office, we started recording the process of the creation of the movie in an obsessive-compulsive and sometimes horrifying way in order to provide a behind-the-scenes that is very powerful, very candid, and also shameful to witness. [Laughs] You'll see everything real about the entire process. A lot of times you get obscene requests from friends and family like 'When are you going to invite me to the set?' You tell them, 'It's boring as fuck!' They don't believe you. [Laughs] They think that moviemaking is all champagne, caviar, and whatever. It's not. It's really gritty work. It's like carpentry without the head injuries. [Laughs]

What's next for you?

I'm doing The Hobbit for the next three-and-a-half years. We really don't have more information because we're writing. If the time comes for me to have lunch with Viggo though, I hope New Line pays. [Laughs] Every week it changes. We're writing every single day. I'd love to do a third Hellboy film, though, and finish this incarnation of the character. We'll see.

—Rick Florino
11.24.08