Guillermo del Toro’s fascination with fairy tale characters has always set his movies apart. A passionate filmmaker even in his senior years, del Toro won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film for Pinocchio in 2022. Earlier, del Toro’s feature film The Shape of Water earned the Best Picture Oscar, becoming the second fantasy film to receive this honor after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
The Mexican director, also a renowned writer, possesses the cinematic knowledge and the curiosity required for a great filmmaker. Whenever del Toro appears in interviews, his insights into movies offer golden wisdom.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pick For His Lifeboat Movie
Guillermo del Toro appeared in a Roundtable discussion with The Hollywood Reporter’s Stephen Galloway, alongside other esteemed directors. The panel included Angelina Jolie, Patty Jenkins, Greta Gerwig, Denis Villeneuve, and Joe Wright, besides del Toro. Galloway kicked off the discussion by asking everyone’s lifeboat movie – the one movie they would choose if stranded with only a DVD or Blu-Ray player on a lifeboat.
Galloway directed the question first to the Pan Labyrinth director. When asked why he chose del Toro first, Villeneuve chimed in, commenting that the Mimic director was the cinephile of the group. del Toro gave an unexpected answer, that surprised the host. The Pacific Rim director shared at the Full Director’s Roundtable:
“Emotionally, I will answer something completely non-prestigious. Yeah, it’s because of what it did when I was a teenager. The Road Warrior. It completely destroyed my brain.”
Galloway had expected del Toro to choose a more classic film like James Whale’s Frankenstein. del Toro revealed he would have picked that one if not for the fact that The Road Warrior was the film that piqued his interest in learning the craft. He also shared his admiration for the director of the film, George Miller.
Guillermo del Toro Wants To Talk About Films With George Miller
Mad Max, the Australian dystopian action film series, is George Miller’s best-known work. Mad Max 2, the second installment in the series starring Mel Gibson, was released in the U.S. as The Road Warrior. The fourth installment in the series, Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, won six Oscars for Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing. Mad Max 2 and Fury Road are considered among the best action movies of all time.
Guillermo del Toro shared that it was George Miller’s Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior that taught him about camera movements. Interestingly, like del Toro, Miller also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film for his film Happy Feet. The Nightmare Alley director revealed his intention to take a sabbatical to interview both Miller and Michael Mann. del Toro shared with Stephen Galloway:
“I met and I worship George Miller, and I intend, on my sabbatical this year I’m going to do two two-week interviews. One with Michael Mann and one with George Miller purely about the craft, to publish them in book form. Just because I wanna talk with them about what we never talk about, which is the craft. Lenses, cameras, why, why push, why not push, when crane, when dolly, why not?”
When Galloway asked about the one question he would ask George Miller, del Toro humorously replied, “Do you like me, Dad?”. The Roundtable burst into laughter at the Hellboy director’s response. It will take some time until fans see another del Toro film owing to his sabbatical; however, movie enthusiasts can look forward to the book he promised in the interview about filmmaking.
The Mad Max franchise earned a total gross of $526 million at the box office. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is now available for streaming on Max.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter – YouTube
