Is Guillermo Del Toro Right for The Deathly Hallows?

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 29, 2007

MTV caught up with Director Guillermo Del Toro on the set of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army this week and somehow ended up talking about whether or not Del Toro would be down for a run at one of the remaining Harry Potter flicks. Del Toro, who has brought us such fantastic wonders as Pan’s Labyrinth and the first Hellboy confirmed that he was approached for Potter in the past. “They came to me once, for the third one,” he told MTV. “I’ve read them all, and when I read the books before the movies were done, I always pictured Charles Dickens – they were very Dickens-ian. The situation of Harry Potter reminded me a lot of Pip from ‘Great Expectations.’ I saw them as deeper, more creaky, more corroded; then [the stories] were textured very differently when the first two movies came out. They were so bright and happy and full of light, that I wasn’t interested.”

Of course it was Del Toro’s good friend Alfonso Cuar³n who went on to make the third Potter film, Prisoner of Azkaban. That film turned out to be the most visually compelling of all the films in the series thus far, a fact that could lead one to believe that a Del Toro helmed final installment could turn things up a notch. Could you imagine what sort of creepy incarnations of J.K. Rowling’s characters lie in the head of Del Toro, the man responsible for Pan’s Labyrinth, one of the most stunning fantasy adventures of the past few decades?

It could be all too perfect, to say the least. But as for now, Del Toro is just expressing interest in the possibility of it all. There is nothing else that would lead us to believe that he is even being considered. Director David Yates, who helmed Order of the Phoenix, is currently filming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which is set for release in November of 2008. So the question at this point isn’t whether or not the studio will want Del Toro to direct the final Harry Potter, but whether or not you think it is a good idea. Personally, I can’t see any reason why this wouldn’t be a good choice for Warner Bros. and the Potter franchise, but then again that’s just my opinion, and I’m just a Muggle.

On the Side: Del Toro also said of his possible involvement in The Deathly Hallows, “I’m up to be the one who kills twenty guys.” — Cool.