Guillermo del Toromay indeed be cancelling the apocalypse—as far as thePacific Rimsequelgoes, at least. It was reported yesterday that Universal Pictures hadputPacific Rim 2on holdwith the potential for scrapping the movie altogether. The development reportedly arose as an indirect result of tension between Universal and Legendary Pictures presidentThomas Tull, although greenlighting thePacific Rimsequel wasn’t necessarily an easy decision given the first film’s box office, which at $411 million worldwide wasjust enoughto make a follow-up possible.
But now, speaking withEW, del Toro saysPacific Rim: Maelstromis not cancelled altogether and he nevertheless remains committed to working on the film:
“We are still turning in a screenplay and a budget in three weeks. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not gone. We’re still on it.”
After months of pre-production, the follow-up was to begin filming this November in anticipation of an August 2017 release date, but whether the film is scrapped or not, that won’t be the case. Del Toro tells EW he may actually tackle a different movie first:
“It moved further. I may do another movie in the middle.”
For those that criticize del Toro for attaching himself to too many projects,thisis why. In Hollywood, you never know what film is going to get the greenlight when, which is why filmmakers like del Toro,Martin Scorsese, andDavid Fincherdevelop multiple projects at the same time.
Rumors have swirled that del Toro is in line to make a smaller scale film for Fox Searchlight very soon so that could be this in-between picture he’s referring to, but that project has yet to be officially announced. WithCrimson Peakmarking del Toro’s first “adult drama” in the English language, however, it does feel like he’s keen on doing something different, so a smaller scale movie for Fox Searchlight would certainly fit that criteria.
Regardless, if del Toro had his druthers, all of his passion projects would have been made by now:
“I can tell you this, if I was a billionaire, I would definitely doHellboy 3,Pacific Rim 2, andAt the Mountains of Madness.” He laughs. “And I would quickly become a millionaire.”
