Guillermo del Toro Wants to Direct THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Movie but Says He’d “Do It Differently”
With films like The Shape of Water and Crimson Peak, Guillermo del Toro has built a career exploring the beauty in darkness and the humanity within monsters.
His latest film, Frankenstein, continues that Gothic tradition, but the filmmaker already has his eye on another classic tale of obsession and tragedy with The Phantom of the Opera.
When asked which misunderstood villain he’d love to reimagine next, del Toro told Inverse:
"The Phantom of the Opera, because it's such a classic tale, but I would do it differently. I have a couple of ideas but for now, I’m going into crime and stop-motion."
Originally written by Gaston Leroux in 1910, The Phantom of the Opera tells the story of a masked figure haunting the Paris Opera House, obsessed with a young soprano named Christine. The tale has been retold countless times, from Universal’s 1925 silent classic to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long-running 1986 stage musical and even the infamous sequel Love Never Dies.
It’s not hard to imagine del Toro bringing this story to life as a new film. The story will fit right in with the filmmaker’s style… lush, romantic, and tinged with his signature empathy for the monstrous.
Before that project happens, though, del Toro is juggling several others. The “crime” he mentioned is likely Fury, a new violent thriller he’s currently writing.
"I'm writing it right now, and it's called Fury, and essentially it's going back to [the] sort of thriller aspects of Nightmare Alley – very cruel, very violent. Like My Dinner with Andre but [with] killing people after each course."
On top of that, he’s returning to stop-motion animation after his Oscar-winning Pinocchio collaboration with Netflix. Back in 2023, it was revealed he’s developing an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant, which will be his second stop-motion feature for the streamer.
Right now, fans can catch del Toro’s Frankenstein in theaters before it lands on Netflix on November 7.
What do you think about del Toro making a Phantom of the Opeara film?