Guillermo del Toro is sticking to his art form, regardless of “assholes” in Hollywood.
The Oscar winner called out the film industry for being “geared toward grinding out shit and destroying your art” during the Annecy animation festival (via The Hollywood Reporter). Del Toro revealed that five of his projects were turned down by studios in the last two months.
“They still say no to me,” the “Nightmare Alley” director said. “In the last two months, they said no to five of my projects. So it doesn’t go away. Making movies is eating a sandwich of shit. There’s always shit, just sometimes you get a little more bread with yours.”
He added, “The rate of productivity against your efforts will remain frustratingly difficult, and frustratingly long. And you will always encounter assholes. But have faith in the stories you want to tell and wait until someone wants to buy them.”
Del Toro also said that he will be focusing primarily on animated feature films going forward following his stop-motion adaptation of “Pinocchio” and the upcoming “Buried Giant,” based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel. Both films come from Netflix.
“There are a couple more live-action movies I want to do but not many,” del Toro said. “After that, I only want to do animation. That’s the plan.”
The “Shape of Water” director continued, “Animation to me is the purest form of art, and it’s been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums. We have to rescue it. [And] I think that we can Trojan-horse a lot of good shit into the animation world. I believe you can make an adult fantasy drama with stop-motion and move people emotionally. I think stop-motion can be intravenous, it can go straight to your emotions in a way that no other medium can.”
Del Toro previously told IndieWire’s Eric Kohn in November 2022 that the experience on “Pinocchio” led him to rethink his past films in terms of animated potential.
“I want to focus on animation a lot more. It is much more my speed,” del Toro said. “Could you do an animated version of ‘The Shape of Water?’” he wondered before answering his own question. “I don’t think so. Could you do a version of ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’? Maybe, I think so.”
