guillermo del toro Archives

Del Toro: “Ditching Silent Hills Made “No Fu***** Sense”

Ben-Dutka October 14, 2015 PS4 16 Comments

After Konami canceled Silent Hills , horror fans were understandably peeved.

After all, Konami had already delivered that decidedly creepy P.T. demo that everyone seemed to love. And yet, the project died.

If you were confused at this turn of events, you might be happy to know that you weren't the only one. Accomplished film director Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth," "Hellboy"), who had been working on the new Silent Hill project with Metal Gear Solid guru Hideo Kojima, was also surprised and disappointed. In speaking to Bloody Disgusting , Del Toro said the game was going to be pretty sweet:

"We had a great experience and had great story sessions with hundreds upon hundreds of designs. Some of the stuff that we were designing for Silent Hills I've seen in games that came after, like The Last of Us, which makes me think we were not wrong, we were going in the right direction, The thing with Kojima and Silent Hills is that I thought we would do a really remarkable game and really go for the jugular."

And why did Konami cancel the project? Del Toro honestly has no idea and in fact, he sounds pretty pissed about it:

"We were hoping to actually create some sort of panic with some of the devices we were talking about and it is really a shame that it’s not happening. When you ask about how things operate, that makes no f**king sense at all that that game is not happening. Makes no f**king sense at all."

After Konami axed the game, they said they remained "committed to new Silent Hill titles" but wouldn't give any reason as to why the Del Toro/Kojima project wasn't happening. Well, Konami has sorta been in the gamer doghouse for some time now, and this probably won't help matters.

Del Toro: If I Do Another Game, “World War III Will Start”

Ben-Dutka August 14, 2015 PS4 8 Comments

Noted film director Guillermo del Toro thinks he's cursed.

His ambitious inSane trilogy never really got off the ground and then, things sadly fizzled with Hideo Kojima and Silent Hills .

So now, when asked about his next foray into video games, the "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Hellboy" director says he just can't do it. As per a recent ShackNews interview :

"I have proven to be the albatross of video games. I joined THQ, and THQ goes broke. I join Kojima, and Kojima leaves Konami. I have decided, in order not to destroy anyone else's life, I will never again get involved in video games. Otherwise, I'll join someone and his house will explode, or something."

Del Toro added that he "learned a lot" from Kojima and THQ and the experiences "changed the way" he looks at storytelling. As for Kojima, Del Toro said "I love his work and I will continue to learn from him as a friend." However, he fears that if he joined up with another game project, "World War III will start."

Gee, that's too bad; we've scared him off. Both of his projects were immensely promising, too.

Kojima And Del Toro Might Still Produce Something Together

Ben-Dutka July 24, 2015 PS4 10 Comments

One of the reasons Silent Hills was so promising was because it combined the talents of Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro.

A video game legend and an accomplished film director should produce something pretty amazing, right? Well, as we all know, the aforementioned project was unfortunately canceled .

But that doesn't mean the two guys are calling it quits. According to an IGN report , del Toro mentioned that he and Kojima are still close and chat often. He added that they're discussing working together in some capacity:

"I love working with Kojima-san. We are still in touch. We are still friends and working into doing something together, but that's not going to be [Silent Hills]."

del Toro added that they were in the planning stages for Silent Hills when the project got axed, and they were "talking about really pushing the boundaries of the new consoles, and making the game really mess with your head." Maybe they can try something fresh now? Don't forget that Kojima is probably done with Konami for good so he's probably free to do as he pleases…

del Toro: Bioshock Infinite Is Beautiful, A “Great Mindfu**”

Ben-Dutka June 13, 2013 Archive 4 Comments

We told you that Bioshock Infinite was an excellent game with a fantastic story.

And it seems noted film director Guillermo del Toro agrees. The "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Pacific Rim" director told Polygon that Irrational's masterpiece is a "great mindfu**."

"Two days ago, my daughter and I finished–she finished it before me–Infinite, BioShock Infinite. It's such a great mindf*ck. It's also beautiful and I think, obviously, Levine always has such beautiful cross-cultural references, like Comstock and the Civil War and all that, I have to explain them to my daughter–I don't explain Comstock, that's a little heavy. I did explain, you know, he's a puritan guy, blah, blah, blah. I love the richness of those worlds. He's one of the best world creators in any of the visual forms, period."

We agree wholeheartedly with that assessment. del Toro was hard at work on a proposed game trilogy entitled inSane , but scheduled publisher THQ went down and the project has apparently disappeared. Still, the director wouldn't mind trying to make a "proper" game based on "Pacific Rim." As for Bioshock Infinite , it was the highest rated game of 2013 (via Metacritic), until The Last Of Us blew critics away.

Bottom line- play both.

Related Game(s): Bioshock Infinite

Del Toro Talking To A “Very Big Company” To Revive inSane

Ben-Dutka January 7, 2013 Archive 11 Comments

Noted film director Guillermo del Toro must've been disappointed when his proposed game project, inSane , had to be ditched by a floundering THQ.

But it seems he isn't interested in letting the title fall by the wayside (remember, this is supposed to be a trilogy), and now he's talking to a "very, very big company" that will help resurrect the temporarily derailed project.

Or at least, that's what he told the Toronto Sun last week:

We are in talks with a very, very big company. I can’t say who, but it’s one of the big ones. They really responded to the game, they responded to what we were trying."

Any idea which company might pick up inSane ? He has been quoted as saying he'd love for Half-Life developer Valve to be involved, but we're not sure they qualify as a "very, very big company." At this point, though, we just want to hear a little more about the game; i.e., just the baseline details. Like, knowing the genre, intended platforms, and general theme, concept and style…

Related Game(s): inSane

inSane Finds A New Home, Still At Least Two Years Away

Ben-Dutka November 22, 2012 Archive 4 Comments

After THQ dumped Guillermo del Toro's proposed video game trilogy, inSane , we all figured we wouldn't hear about it again for a while. After all, it takes time to find a new publisher, right?

Well, according to what the acclaimed film director told IGN , it didn't take long at all to find a new home for inSane :

"We were going to go to a lot of developers after THQ, but it seems like we’re going to be developing it after the first meeting we had. I can’t disclose where it was, but we went to a great developer on the first meeting and it seems that they’re picking it up because they love the package."

Now, we're not sure if he means to say "publisher" there, but I figure we'll learn the details in due time. As for a time frame, del Toro believes the first game will require another two years of development, which would presumably put the title into the next generation of hardware…right? Here's the progress update:

"The development span of a game like this is three years. We put a good year and a half into it and we have the universe quite figured out, but we are now going to take that and start doing all the leg work with coding it, creating the engine, and starting to test it. The basic tenants of the game is that it’s created, but now we’re going to need to start actually making it. It’s going to take a good two years of modeling and rendering and creating the environments and all of that."

We still have no idea what this game (or these games) are even about. No details concerning the genre or platforms have been released just yet but hey, it's very early going. We can be patient.