Guillermo del Toro talks about Pacific Rim and the future of Madness

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro probably learned a valuable lesson on THE HOBBIT: don’t hang around too long. After spending a couple of years waiting for all the complications behind the Tolkien adaptation to get resolved, GdT has more readily accepted that his pet project AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS isn’t happening for him either. At the moment, anyway.

Del Toro has switched gears to work on Relativity’s monster movie PACIFIC RIM, since Universal wasn’t confident in the director’s vision for the material (or star Tom Cruise, or producer James Cameron). GdT officially had this to say: “We started developing PAC RIM a while ago with the mad passion and enthusiasm of a project unwatched and unchecked by politics or comparisons. We designed and shepherded the movie we want to make. We start shooting in September and we hit the ground running because we are so in sync. My partnership with Legendary represents, both in scale and creative demands, a huge step forward for me.”

PACIFIC RIM starts production in September for a Summer 2013 release, and although del Toro isn’t giving out further details, he’s still holding some hope that he’ll get to bring Lovecraft’s tentacled terror tale to screens someday: “It will remain a timely premise for years to come, so I don’t have to do it next month,” he tells MTV. “As long as the idea stays fresh and no one beats me to it, in terms of the origins of the monsters, the scope and the aspect of Antarctica where these creatures are discovered, I will continue to press forward. I’m knocking on wood. I have great partners in Jim Cameron and Lightstorm, and Don Murphy and Susan Montford, great partners in this adventure who are not giving up and not letting me give up.”

Cruise is also apparently still on board for the Arctic horror, whenever it might happen. Del Toro remains optimistic: “So we have good legs to travel on, if the time and the opportunity present itself. But we’re going to fight for that to happen.”