Guillermo del Toro sets up deal at DreamWorks Animation, will direct Trollhunters

Guillermo del Toro is rolling out Stage 3 of his “Take Over Hollywood” plan with yet another production deal at a studio. After setting up “Disney Double Dare You” at Disney (which will produce the upcoming HAUNTED MANSION remake), del Toro has moved to a Disney competitor, DreamWorks Animation, for his next partnership. Del Toro will work as an executive producer/consultant on a number of projects already in development (including KUNG FU PANDA 2 and PUSS IN BOOTS) while directing his own animated feature TROLLHUNTERS.

Del Toro has already begun work writing the script for TROLLHUNTERS, a project he describes as combining “fairy tales with modern times.” In other words, it will probably feature trolls and the people that hunt them. With AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS nearing a greenlight at Universal, del Toro will need to wrap the script for TROLLHUNTERS soon so that animators can begin work on the project. While it may seem like a massive bit of multitasking, remember that Zack Snyder developed and directed by LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS and SUCKER PUNCH.

So how is it that del Toro came to work at DreamWorks? Turns out he took a meeting with the studio after seeing HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and that meeting led to uncredited editing/producing work on MEGAMIND. Stop that sentence and read it again. That may seem odd but is it any weirder than Charlie Kaufman working on the script for KUNG FU PANDA 2?

So for those of us who’ve been disenchanted by some of DWA’s recent releases (like SHREK 4, MONSTERS VS. ALIENS and MADAGASCAR 2), does the involvement of del Toro give you hope that we’ll see less movies like BEE MOVIE and more HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON?