Guillermo del Toro Gives HAUNTED MANSION and HELLBOY III Updates

Guillermo del Toro is the kind of filmmaker that likes to keep himself busy. He always seems to have several different projects in development, and there's a reason for that. 

One of his projects that I'm most excited for is his feature film adaptation of Haunted Mansion, which is based on the classic Disneyland ride. Ryan Gosling is set to star in the film, but it doesn't sound like it's going anywhere anytime soon. 

While talking to the press at the Television Critics Association panel last week he gave an update on the movie, and at the same time gave the reason why he's always developing multiple film projects.

"All you can do is develop the screenplays, send them in, get a reaction, get the budget, agree or disagree on budget and so forth. Every project goes through the same thing. People say why do you have five [movies in development]? I have five because one happens. Whenever I have dedicated myself to a single project for any length of time, I end up having three, four years where I don’t shoot. It’s happened twice already, so I live in a life of realities. I have to have these projects alive to hope and pray that one of them happen."

Sounds to me like maybe Haunted Mansion is in development hell. Maybe one day it will finally get pushed into development, but if it doesn't, the director is making sure he has something else lined up to work on.

Another project we'd all over to see Del Toro finally do is Hellboy III, which as you know, Ron Perlman has really been pushing hard for recently. When Del Toro was asked about it, he made it clear that the studios aren't keen on doing it. He explained,

"Same status. I think that the fans want it, we want it, but studios… it’s a big movie, bigger than the first one and the second one. The numbers on the Hellboys made a lot of sense because of video. Hellboy II exists not because a studio head said. ‘I’m a big fan.’ The first one made money, made much more money on the Blu-ray and DVD than it did theatrically. It made money. Now that market is done."

Regardless of that, Perlman continues to keep fan hopes alive. Over the weekend, he posted the following photo of him with Del Toro along with a caption that is sure to keep fan excitement brewing. 

"Whatever we do re: Hellboy III, we do it together!
2pals... GdT&me....."

Perlman went on to said in separate interview,

"There is still a digital streaming market that should correspond to the sales a movie would formerly make on DVD and Blu-ray, but del Toro said they’re not tracked well enough to give studios confidence in ancillary sales."

Del Toro went on to explain,

"We live in an era where getting those exact numbers is still not that easy. I think that by the time you catch up with the numbers, the platforms have changed. The way you distribute movies is faster and faster evolving into something different.”

Del Toro is currently prepping to start shooting Pacific Rim 2, which should be great! /Film asked the director if Charlie Hunnam would reprise his role or if his character would kind of take a backseat this time around to focus more on Charlie Day's character. He replied,

“No, no, no, Charlie Day has a great part but so does Charlie Hunnam. I think that everybody or most everybody that survived is back. The rest we killed. We killed half the cast.”

We know Pacific Rim 2 is a go, so now we can only hope that one day Haunted Mansion and Hellboy III move forward as well. 

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