I would say Guillermo Del Toro must have sold his delightful soul to become the most important man in Hollywood these days (seriously, he’s neck and neck with Tron for most news-producing subject), but I have a feeling the deal would have gone down differently, with Satan handing over his essence to Guillermo in exchange for still being able to rock and roll over the damned. In any event, whatever the source of his growing power, I’ve created a new Guillermo Watch banner called Guillermo Del Todos. This banner could have applied to any number of stories in the last few months, including the announcement that he would be retackling the Haunted Mansion for Disney, the news he would finally be making his dream Lovecraft film, an interview that cemented his mega-producer status, his support for an under-performing instant classic, his video game deal, a Hulk TV show he’s producing for Marvel, and of course, his little horror project arriving next year.
Today though, is not news from Guillermo himself, but rather a truly excellent celebration of his work. The often-covered Mondo company out of the Alamo Drafthouse is initiating a new poster line called the “Director’s Series” which will release entire sets of beautiful screen-printed posters for a director’s films. Del Toro is the first director to be honored, and in true Guillermo form, he made sure he had his hand in the project all the way down to the design level. The first taste of these posters, which will be released (and immediately sell out) on Mondo’s site tomorrow, was given to Entertainment Weekly (kind of disappointing, that). The posters are as beautiful as you may hope, and we’re only seeing Hellboy II and Blade II so far. I can’t wait to check out the Pan’s Labyrinth piece. The line will cover each of Guillermo’s films (except for Mimic), and will roll out progressively starting at whatever random time they choose tomorrow.
(and thanks to Tati for helping me decide on my Spanish diction)