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[b]Guillermo del Toro is not only a man who has dealt with his monsters, but has invited them in for tea. His life-long love for and obsession with fantasy has transformed into a very real and successful career as a screenwriter, special make-up effects artist, director and producer. The self-proclaimed family man, who lives with his wife and children, is elusive in relation to his private life, but open about his professional inspiration. [/b]

Del Toro’s inimitable filmmaking style can be traced back to his childhood. Born on 9th October 1964, he has described how he would retreat to a world of make-believe to counter and escape from the violence he witnessed in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, where he was raised. The prodigious director to-be, who was also plagued by a fear of purgatory and hell instilled in him by his devout Roman Catholic grandmother, accepted monsters as his own religion as a form of escape, welcoming them into his world in place of the reality he inhabited.

Fascinated by the workings of monsters and demons, his drawings of these creatures would frighten his grandmother and fueled her two attempts to exorcise him to cleanse his soul. As a further form of penance, she would also place metal bottle caps into his shoes so as to bloody his feet. However, far from deterring him, del Toro’s grandmother instead inspired the self-proclaimed "pale, introspective, creature of the shadows" to retreat further into those worlds which he would later share with international audiences.

Del Toro went on to study at the University of Guadalajara’s Institute of Sciences, but did not follow his childhood dream of becoming a marine biologist. He was instead interested in creating his own forms of life and indulged this fascination by enrolling in the Advanced Makeup Course of Dick Smith, of ‘The Exorcist’ (1973) fame. This led to his first incarnation in the film industry, as a special effects make-up designer.

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This period lasted almost a decade, during which del Toro developed these skills and also made his first forays into directing and producing. He made short films and Mexican television shows, including producing the 1986 film ‘Doña Herlinda and Her Son’ and four episodes of a horror series called 'Hora Marcada'. Del Toro also co-founded Guadalajara’s Film Studies Center and the Mexican Film Festival, taught film workshops and, in the early eighties, even formed his own make-up design company, Necropia.

In fact, del Toro has said that the main purpose of Necropia, and one which it fulfilled before the company was shut down, was to provide the make-up for ‘Cronos’, the film in which he made his directorial debut in 1993. A vampiric creation which showcased del Toro’s "fetish for insects, clockwork, monsters, dark places, and unborn things", ‘Cronos’ catapulted the budding filmmaker out of obscurity. In addition to winning nine Academy Awards in Mexico and subsequently being awarded the International Critics Week prize at Cannes, the film also marked del Toro’s first endeavour with actor Ron Pearlman, who would prove to be a recurring performer in his works.

‘Cronos’ gained del Toro the praise and the attention of Hollywood and led to his involvement in a project that he would come to regret. The 1997 film ‘Mimic’ told the story of two scientists who succeed in saving the world from an epidemic, only to find that the cockroaches which they engineered to exterminate the disease develop a taste for human beings. Whilst the film repeats a few of del Toro’s trademarks, such as the central role of cockroaches, the director disowned the film and still refuses to watch it. Creative differences with its producers and studio pressures led to him seeing it as "vulture leftovers from the screenplay that was". This experience was so harrowing that it incited his return to Mexico, where he set up his own production company, the Tequila Gang.

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Del Toro also experienced turbulence in his private life at that time, with the kidnap of his father in Mexico in 1998 and subsequent release only following the payment of ransom. Together with his two brothers, del Toro participated in negotiations for his father’s release. He has since said that his father’s decision to continue living in Mexico is a testament to the fact that he is "an extraordinarily strong man".

The incident prompted del Toro himself to return to the US, but he was not to participate in the making of another Hollywood film until 2002. In the meantime, he directed and produced a ghost story about Republican Army orphans called ‘The Devil’s Backbone’ (2001). The film was set during the Spanish Civil War, a conflict which Del Toro often incorporates in his work, viewing it as a ‘household war’, the brutality of which proves that the only real monsters are human. Del Toro’s intention was to show the children in the film as fallible mortals, rather than what he perceived as the two-dimensional portrayal of youth in other Hollywood films. This would not be the last time that del Toro would challenge the images found in Hollywood, but it remains one of his favourite achievements and one of those which he describes as closest to his heart.

Hollywood similarly praised the film as a success. Trade publication Variety decried that this film ‘reconfirmed del Toro’s artistic prowess’ and it also earned rave reviews when it opened in Toronto on 9 September 2001. However del Toro’s pride in his achievement was short-lived as global events unfolded two days later on September 11. He felt that the tragedy had changed his view of humanity to such an extent that he vowed to make a sister film to counter the brother that was ‘The Devil’s Backbone’, a feat he would achieve in 2006.

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Although describing ‘The Devil’s Backbone’ as a film which Hollywood would never have let him make, due to the violence perpetrated by and against children, it was the success of this project that imbued del Toro with the impetus to return to Hollywood and to direct ‘Blade II’ (2001) starring Wesley Snipes. He felt that Hollywood had glamorised vampires in films such as ‘Interview with a Vampire’ (1994) and used this comic book-based film as an opportunity to ‘reinvent’ a breed of vampires, in order to portray their true brutality.

Buoyed by the level of artistic control levied to him in the making of this film, del Toro turned his attention to the dream project of directing another adaptation. This came in the form of ‘Hellboy’ (2004), Mike Mignola’s comic book about a demon summoned by the Nazis during the Second World War who changes his allegiances to fight on the side of the Allies. Making this particular film was not a whim for the director, but a longstanding dream and, with his vision of the movie clear in his mind, del Toro was determined that Ron Perlman play the unlikely protagonist, Hellboy.

Del Toro was successful in convincing the studio to hire Perlman, despite the fact that they wanted a more recognisable actor for the role. This was a concession the studio would not regret. The film grossed approximately $60 million in the US box office, $100 million worldwide and cemented del Toro’s credibility in the industry. This acclaim did not satisfy him however and, determined to fulfil the pact he had made with himself in 2001, del Toro set out to make a movie that structurally echoed ‘The Devil's Backbone’, but from a female perspective.

Thus came the birth of ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ (2006), which won five Academy Award nods, including Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film, and which many consider to be del Toro’s masterpiece. The film, which shares ‘The Devil’s Backbone’s’ themes of innocence and childhood fantasy, saw the Mexican-born director’s return to filming in Spanish.

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The film focuses on a young girl, Ofelia, who struggles to cope with the reality of her life in post-civil war Spain and retreats into a world of fantasy. Del Toro, who views religion and politics as on a par with fantasy, sees the film as an allegory of his own view that fairy tales are a coping mechanism and a way for people to escape from dark realities. Following the release of the film, he confessed that he identifies Ofelia as an autobiographical interpretation of his own childhood. In fact, the faun which plays a central role in the plotline was inspired by a recurring dream he had as a child of a faun that would appear to him at midnight .

Del Toro’s sequel to ‘Hellboy’, entitled ‘The Golden Army’, sees Perlman reprising his role as the devilish superhero and took $34.5m in its opening weekend, eclipsing the original’s $23.2m opening and laying the ground for a third instalment. Excitement is also building in the world of film fanatics over his future projects, although one new project is halting all of del Toro’s other endeavours.

In April 2008, amidst frenzied rumours, it was confirmed that he has been handpicked to direct a screen adaptation of J. R. R Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’. Despite the fact that this job will mean moving to New Zealand for four years, del Toro is thrilled to fulfil yet another of his long-held ambitions and also excited to collaborate with fellow filmmaker, Peter Jackson. Jackson and del Toro met at an industry party where they bonded over (and together finished) a plate of shrimps. They have since become friends and a recent joint web chat with the pair relating to their new project prompted over 7,000 questions.

However, despite his popularity, del Toro’s ideas have not always been accepted by Hollywood. In particular, his idea to exclude the lion when he was approached to direct ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ (2005) meant that the job was instead awarded to Andrew Adamson. Nevertheless, the now Hollywood veteran is not disheartened by such rejection, but has learned, following his experience in ‘Mimic’, that he would rather stay faithful to his vision than compromise.

[b]Elli Lewis[/b]
Guillermo del Toro biography

Guillermo del Toro biography

Guillermo del Toro biography