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Guillermo del Toro Sets Up 'Trollhunters' at DreamWorks Anim

by Alex Billington
September 27, 2010
Source: Heat Vision

DreamWorks Animation / Guillermo del Toro

Well I'll be damned. Heat Vision announces that Guillermo del Toro is setting up shop at DreamWorks Animation (aka DWA) for a few side gigs. It seems as if DWA's head Jeffrey Katzenberg has been trying to bring in as many big creatives as possible and del Toro is the latest to be sucked in. After visiting the campus in Glendale, CA over the summer, he now has an office and is working as a creative consultant and will write and direct his own feature for the animation house called Trollhunters. He's even been helping them with Megamind, working on the editing and structure of the movie, "hoping to give it a brisker rhythm." Wow.

There's a very big story behind all this which doesn't sound too atypical for Hollywood. Del Toro will serve as a consultant and exec producer on several projects already in development, including Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and another unrevealed project, in addition to Megamind. He was also impressed by How to Train Your Dragon, like many people, saying: "They took risks with that movie with pathos and imagination and structure. It made me pay attention." He then met with Katzenberg and "they immediately clicked," so he started helping them with Megamind and their relationship grew to where it is now with an office and all.

Del Toro's Trollhunters, a temporary working title for his project, is based on a young-adult book del Toro submitted to publisher Hyperion about two weeks ago. He originally came up with the idea around the time he sold The Strain, the vampire trilogy he wrote with Chuck Hogan. "I wanted very much to develop a story that could be written for kids but dealt with a genre that was scary," he said. "It essentially combines fairy tales with modern times and is about how difficult it is to be kid. Normally, kids are idealized in animated films. But the growing pains, married with the notion that there is a world right next to us that is completely plagued by creatures of ancient lore, it's thematically fitting with the rest of my stuff." Sounds pretty good.

I'm not the biggest fan of DreamWorks Animation, as most readers know, and I feel like this is Katzenberg's plot to introduce some new creativity into the company, but as long as the results are there, maybe it's worth it. As in, if these movies do turn out better because of del Toro's involvement, then I'll be happy to see them, but I'm not sure if that's going to be the case. It sounds like we won't see Trollhunters for a while, especially if they actually want del Toro to direct, but we'll let you know. Thoughts on del Toro at DreamWorks?

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

David Banner

Hmmm....I see a small problem here: http://www.firstshowing.net/2010/08/30/awesome-teaser-for-norwegian-mockumentary-trollhunter/
Voice of Reason

Honestly, Dreamworks needs to make better movies, and they must be aware of that fact. Burdened with the non-stop competition at Pixar, this actually seems like a good move. Not one that I would've predicted or opted for, but it hints that Dreamworks is aware and trying to be more than just a shitty-CGI-factory.
Mr.Cookie

Doesn't Del Toro have At The Mountain Of Madness and Haunted Mansion already in development? Isn't his schedule tight enough? Nice move for Dreamworks, though.
Big Boss

Great point, #2. Dreamworks Animation has always been about quanity over quality, kinda like Marvel to DC movies. If DWA could actually land an authentic franchise, then it could start to give Pixar and the rest of 'em some decent competition for once.
jah p

I'm with #1, this movie is already being done in Norway and it looks phenomenal!!Just seeing those giant troll feat makes me excited for that Godzilla remake and Monsterpocolypse!