I
recently visited Guillermo del Toro’s Bleak House – his offices and
library and work area – and one thing I learned is that the man is
prepared to work at all times. Every room in the house offers Guillermo
a chance to sit down and start typing… even the bathroom.
That’s
just one of the man’s many secrets to being incredibly prolific, and
those secrets will come in handy in the months to come as he starts
serious pre-production on The Hobbit films and gets a couple of other projects off the ground. One of these is The Champions,
a film based on a British science fiction show. In the original, a team
of secret agents are rescued from a Himalayan plane crash by an
advanced race that bestows them with super powers.
Possibly
another secret to being prolific is working with other people on
occasion. To that end, Guillermo will be teaming up on The Champions with Christopher McQuarrie, the scribe behind the upcoming Valkyrie and The Usual Suspects. The two will be writers and producers on the United Artists film. There are no hard and fast dates for anything doing with The Champions at this point, though.
For
those of you out there familiar with the original: is it something
worth seeking out now, or should I wait until the inevitable deluxe
rerelease of the DVDs of the short lived show?
20 comments
it sounds like the missing link between Challengers of the Unknown and The Fantastic Four. I'm game.
Well, he'd have to work with another person on most scripts because his writing skills are shithouse.
Del Toro's a cocksmuggling fantasist douchebag. His concepts are always the same. Let's make a children's fairytale but show someone's cheek getting sliced open. So, so, so edgy.
The Champions is worth a look if you like other UK 60's/70's fare like The Protectors, Randall & Hopkirk, Dept. S, The Saint or anything else made by Monty Berman.
Nolan's Prisoner sounds better. However Devin, i'm sure everyone wants to know more about the Bleak House. maybe an article with photos? video? ehh?
Devin can't be a journalist if he wants to be friends with his modern film-making heroes. That is the reason why his reviews and opinions on so many films have been compromised. Sold himself up the shit river.
When the fuck is Del Toro making At The Mountains of Madness?
I can't believe he put aside a Lovecraft movie (his "dream project") for fucking Hobbits.
I love that Devin can post an article like this that amounts to "Guys, I know and like Del Toro; I've hung out with him at his office; now here's a bit of news," and some of you call him out for being "compromised" as though you've ferreted out some secret. Not sure if you've noticed, but here and there you might see some editorial commentary sneaking through in a few of the so-called "objective news articles" at this site. You have to read really closely, though.
Poster #3, I am impressed at how much you were able to tell us about yourself in only four short sentences. Not only are you staggeringly ignorant, but you also manage to reveal that you are both tasteless and quite the cunt hood. Well done.
The Usual Suspects is upcoming? Huh.
Christopher McQuarrie's "Way of the Gun" is one of the best crime films ever made. Why he hasn't seen more success is beyond me.
"Nolan's Prisoner sounds better"
That project has been scuttled ever since AMC got the new Prisoner mini-series into production.
I never said I "ferreted" out some secret. Don't be so melodramatic. I just said that Devin is no objective journalist.
The Challengers is good 60's sci-fi fare, a little"Mission Impossible" meets "voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," but, you know, the opposite of the bottom of the sea. And if i'm correct, you can already find it on DVD.
i thought it was a great show, the powers were really good, telepathy between each other etc. Alexandra bastedo – was about 17 so they put her hair up to make her look older. but in the age of watchmen and heroes etc. super powered spies (not that they were spies exactly) might be a bit weak. the question is whether to do it straight or with a campy wink wink.
There is no such thing as objective journalism. The reporter as objective observer is a ridiculous pose. Human beings are not robots. Everything we perceive is filtered through the lens of our worldview — our past experiences and current expectations. We can't get objectivity from the dinosaur media that claim to provide it, much less from a film fan site. Wise up.
Gee, I'd think this whole deal is contingent on United Artists still exisiting after Valkyrie. Damn you Tom Cruise!!!
Poster #9, I am impressed by how much you manage to tell about yourself in only THREE short sentences. Not only are you a sheep, but you're fat, lazy, and like fat Mexican men who jack off to Spanish girls getting vomited on by frogs. Get a life. The movie didn't even look pretty and it had the most shallow story ever put into a movie that has even been NOMINATED for any sort of Oscar. That means it is shallower than First Blood Part II. Pan's Labyrinth is that bad of a film. Get over yourselves.
Poster # 18… I hope people acknowledge how cool you are for going against the grain and hating Pan's Labyrinth. Forget that it's a veritable screenwriting exercise in set-ups and payoffs, is filled with iconography and thematic depth, can be interpreted in multiple ways and is full of the details that elevate it above the average dreck. The fact is, too many people like it, and we need more subversive, trend-dodgers like yourself to remind us that we're all just sheeple.
I loved Way of the Gun too. Why doesn't that movie get more credit? Of course I ended up seeing it on a double date knowing absolutely nothing about it ahead of time, and half expecting Ryan Phillipe to gay it up tremendously so my initial expectations being at subzero may have had something to do with eventually loving it so much.
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