Just prior to the release of his masterpiece The Shape of Water (which just earned 7 Golden Globes nominations), Guillermo Del Toro revealed that he would be taking a year off from directing. While that still seems to be the case, you wouldn’t know it by the number of projects he’s got on the backburner. And now that he’s adding one more it throws his sabbatical further in question.
Del Toro is set to direct a remake of 1947 crime film, Nightmare Alley. The film noir starred Tyrone Power as a con man who takes great joy in fleecing people with his mentalist act, hooking up with a female psychologist to aid in the scheme. While they make a great team, it soon becomes clear that she is even more corrupt than he, and the tables are quickly turned on him.
It’s an interesting move for Del Toro, taking on a genre he’s never really tackled before. As for when this will shoot, that is still up in the air. He and Kim Morgan need to write the script first, so this may not be his next movie. As an unabashed fan of the original, which was based on William Lindsay Gresham’s book, I’m curious to see how Del Toro puts his stamp on this. Something tells me this won’t be a purely faithful adaptation.
Meanwhile, Del Toro will produce Antlers, a supernatural horror that has Hostiles director Scott Cooper in talks to helm. The story, penned by Henry Chaisson and Nick Antosca from Antosca’s short film, centers on “a young teacher who discovers that her troubled student’s father and younger brother harbor a deadly supernatural secret. Taking the boy into her care, the teacher must fight for their survival against horrors beyond imagination.”
Honestly I’m just excited to see Cooper trying something new. He’s done a series of bleak, moody dramas and could use the change of pace. [Variety]
