Well geeks, here's a scoop for you on BLADE 2 and THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE from our editors in Paris by way of Mexico City. This is just the type of story ol' Father Geek was hoping our Euro-offices would be landing for us. I've read the final DEVIL'S BACKBONE script folks and it kicks ass all over the place, its one spooky flick and I can't wait to see it on the big screen. As for BLADE 2 well as del Toro says, vampires ARE his thing. I've sat in that library he mentions staring at his framed "Dirt from Dracula's Castle" many times and I can tell you that he would not have taken the project on if he didn't feel he would knock our socks off with the end product...
Greetings people, Darth Bond here at EuroAICN HQ in Paris with some news for ya: It seems that Del Toro is in Spain right now 'till mid-July filming The Devil's Backbone. Del Toro won some awards at Cannes and several other Euro-festivals (Berlin, etc.). Here's some more info on this from Saviola:
This was published [yesterday] in the Mexican newspapers. Call me Saviola:
Guillermo del Toro is getting ready to film the "Blade" sequel. Just a few weeks ago, he was planning to film El Conde de Montecristo (The Count of Montecristo), that he had renamed "La mano izquierda de la oscuridad" (The Left Hand of Darkness), and in which he would direct Antonio Banderas.
Additionally, the director is currently filming, in Spain, "El espinazo del Diablo" (The Devil's Backbone) in collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar who'll be executive producer.
His recent contract with New Line Cinema forced Del Toro to delay his "Left Hand of Darkness" project, and start the pre-production of the black vampire film, starring Wesley Snipes (Blade), and Kris Kristofferson (Whistler). Filming should start in November, the script was written by David S. Goyer, who also wrote the script for the first part.
"This is the first project in which I didn't write the story" -said Del Toro-, "but it has a script that I really liked, besides, when I finished "Cronos" I still had a lot of vampire ideas that I couldn't develop in "Cronos" due to budgetary constraints."
The filmmaker added that he had had a meeting with the "Blade" writer, three weeks ago, to check the story page by page, so that he'd be allowed to make changes that would make everybody comfortable.
"I'm very excited with this project. Two and a half years ago I completed "Mimic" and vampires are my favorite characters. One third of my personal library consists of vampire literature, including The Blade comicbooks. They're characters that appeal very much to me, and Blade is all about vampires."
Interviewed while making a video review to check the color techniques, Del Toro mentioned that his version of the story will show the biological aspects of the vampire.
"We will show the story in biological terms, this is, we will place emphasis in the vampire's appearance, how they move and how they attack" "The first film explored [Blade's] interaction with society in a modern city and now the idea is to see how he functions from within."
Del Toro expressed that he's trying to make an action and horror film, but that he would show the dark side of the story and the internal fear it can create.
"We have action scenes just as impressive as the ones in the first version. I'm absolutely sure that we'll make an excellent sequel and a movie That will live up to the first one. My hope is that the new elements we'll incorporate and the character's broadening will lead us to a more multi-dimensional picture. It'll be a project in which I'll be very happy to be involved."
In relation to the "DEVIL'S BACKBONE" project with Almodóvar as a producer, Del Toro said that the movie, being filmed in Spain, was written by Del Toro himself, along with Antonio Trashorras and David Muñoz. "It's all about a terrible vengeful ghost, or spectre that haunts a isolated and troubled orphanage towards the end of the Spanish civil war. The cast will include Eduardo Noriega ("Abre los ojos") [a very talented young actor -DB], Federico Luppi ("Cronos") and Marisa Paredes ("Todo sobre mi madre") [who was also in "Life is Beautiful", it seems she's gotta to be in every Oscar-winning foreign film lately -DB]).
