Guillermo del Toro talks Crimson Peak, Pacific Rim, and Steampunk

NewsMike Cecchini7/24/2014 at 1:42AM

Guillermo del Toro shows off his creations at San Diego Comic-Con, and talks a little about what he wants to do next.

Big booths at SDCC are often a mixed bag, but Legendary aims to give fans something a little more immersive. And when it's something immersive curated by Guillermo del Toro, well, it's tough to resist. Visitors to the Legendary Booth get to walk through the Crimson Peak Gallery, a "haunted house" experience designed by del Toro.

We were greeted by the director, who pointed out some finer details in the items on display. "You can put together some of the story if you pay attention," he said.

When asked by another journalist why establishing Crimson Peak's atmosphere this early was so important, the director had this to say:

"It's important that people know that we are going for the same kind of painterly, fairy tale, gothic visuals that I want in my European movies, rather than an all out scary horror movie, we're doing a really beautiful gothic romance. It has elements of romance, thriller, supernatural. The ghosts in the movie are scary, but the scariest thing in it are the humans. I wanted people to see the attention to detail in the props, to the wardrobe that uses original fabric from Victorian times."

Mr. del Toro proudly instructed us to take a few steps back, to show how portions of the interior was constructed to look blurry or out of focus when seen from the right angle. It's a seemingly simple optical illusion, but it works.

Transitioning to the Pacific Rim: Jaeger Pilot Oculus Rift experience, del Toro described why he felt the need to be so hands on with the development of these ideas. "Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim...are sort of the left and right hemisphere of my brain, so Pacific Rim was also designed with me and ILM and my sound designers. Everything you see in the two attractions is supervised by me, it will give you a good sense of what Pacific Rim was and is going to be and what Crimson Peak is."

With the stark differences between Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim ("I get off as much on gothic romance as I do on robots vs. monsters," he quipped), I couldn't resist asking if there is a genre he still wants to work in.

"I'm very eager to do steampunk. You can see steampunk touches in Hellboywith Kroenen. You can see steampunk touches in Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak. The Russian robots and pilots (in Pacific Rim) are very uber-steampunk. That's a genre that I haven't been able to do, but I'm dying to do one day."

I then strapped in for the Pacific Rim: Jaeger Pilot Oculus Rift. Having never touched the Oculus Rift technology, I wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was a 3D experience where I was dropped right into the cockpit of Gipsy Danger. Look up, look down, look behind you...it was all there. This may have just made me a believer in Oculus Rift. Sadly, it doesn't sound like this particular Pacific Rim experience will be available to consumers any time soon.

But you're damn right I'm a Jaeger Pilot.