Guillermo del Toro’s post Pacific Rim slate is filling up quickly, but as we near the landing date for his robot vs. monster epic he’s also pulling back the curtain on another of his upcoming projects: Crimson Peak. Here’s what Total Film was able to coax out of El Toro:
“It’s the turn of the century. So it’s at the turn of the century and half of the movie takes place in America, and the other half takes place in a crumbling mansion in Cumbria. And basically it’s a ghost story and gothic romance, trying to subvert the rules of the usual gothic romance.
“It’s very much… the first half is a love story, then that love story turns darker. And it’s at the same time a ghost story. I’m working at this moment with Lucinda Clarkson who is a really great playwright from the UK. She has the proper degree of perversity and intelligence to turn it into something interesting to watch.
“It’s sort of a very compelling version of the classic gothic romance, where you have the spookiness and the windswept landscape that dooms the characters, you know?”
Cumbria, a tiny town in Northeast England, seems like it could be a creepy, foggy setting for a fine ghost story. Del Toro’s currently tapping Emma Stone and Rim-jobber Charlie Hunnam as his leads. I’m interested in seeing Del Toro’s take on the haunted house subgenre, as not many filmmakers have seemed to do it justice as late. Peak has no release date and is currently in the earliest stages of preproduction. I have no problem with Guillermo making this his next film if he were so inclined.