Acclaimed horror-fantasy filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro – the mind behind Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape Of Water, Hellboy and loads more – snapped earlier this morning and tweeted out a list of cool-as-hell projects he’s written scripts for. Like, completed. And never got made.
2/2 SECRET PROJECT (UNTITLED), SUPERSTITIOUS, NIGHTMARE ALLEY, HAUNTED MANSION, THE HULK pilot, THE BURIED GIANT, THE COFFIN, DROOD, LIST OF 7 (Mark Frost) and a few others…
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 26, 2018
The thing is- each script takes about a year, so- more than a decade of work lost (in the case of mountains, much more, since we scoiuted and designed etc)
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 26, 2018
Let’s break a couple of those down.
The Witches is likely a remake of the Roald Dahl story that made you terrified of Anjelica Houston as a kid.
Justice League Dark is the supernatural offshoot of DC’s evil-fightin’ crew, with characters like John Constantine and Swamp Thing.
If Guillermo Del Toro's Justice League Dark actually would've happened we would've gotten the best DC movie since The Dark Knight without a doubt
— Beware the Batman (@Batman_Beware) November 26, 2018
Beauty And The Beast, I mean, come on. Instead we got this:
At The Mountains Of Madness is an H.P. Lovecraft story, and arguably nobody else could possibly do that eldritch s**t any justice. GDT reportedly had Tom Cruise and James Cameron on board at one point.
Fantastic Voyage – yes, the 60s one where scientists shrink down and explore the human body like it’s space or something. Isaac Asimov wrote the novelisation.
The Count Of Monte Cristo, but a version where he had a totally sweet steampunk mechanical hand.
A “very different” Pacific Rim 2, whatever that means, could have been a sight to see.
To be clear these screenplays are WRITTEN, done. Each of them took months or years of my life. Meetings, synopsis, beat sheets and were all written, features- 90-130 pages each.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 26, 2018
Drood is a novel based on a “fictionalised account” of Charles Dickens’ last years.
“SECRET PROJECT (UNTITLED)” will haunt my dreams.
Haunted Mansion: I mean, imagine what fun GDT could have had with the blank slate of a Disney theme park ride adaptation?
And a The Hulk pilot? Are you f**king kidding me?
He also mentions a Wind In The Willows script “which I loved”.
He added a few hours later that there’s still hope for a couple of these:
The list I published answers why you have to keep several projects alive – hooing one gels- like right now, active, alive are PINOCCHIO, BURIED GIANT, NIGHTMARE ALLEY and FANTASTIC VOYAGE plus one I did not write but I’m exploring…
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 27, 2018
But that still leave a lot of couldabeens to be a little bit mad about forever.
So yeah, nice work, Hollywood. None of those projects sound like something that would have been amazing in the hands of the man who can turn a story about a mute, mousy woman banging a fish-dude into a Best Picture Oscar winner.
