Guillermo del Toro

Gina McIntyre’s interview with Guillermo del Toro for Hero Complex covers the spectrum from Pacific Rim’s larger-than-life ambitions —

He shot the film almost entirely on eight soundstages at Pinewood Toronto Studios; the scale of the production was massive. “We built parts of the robots, and the only thing that would fit in the largest stage in North America was the feet,” he said.

to del Toro’s most wounding setbacks —

He came to direct “Pacific Rim” only after two other efforts fell apart. First, he had set out to direct a two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” which ultimately became a trilogy helmed by Peter Jackson. Then there was his long-held passion project, a big-budget adaptation of “At the Mountains of Madness” by H.P. Lovecraft. The story of a scientific expedition to Antarctica that uncovers ancient life-forms collapsed after Universal declined to finance the film, a $150-million R-rated 3-D horror epic.

“When it happened, this has never happened to me, but I actually cried that weekend a lot,” Del Toro said. “I don’t want to sound like a puny soul, but I really was devastated. I was weeping for the movie.”

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]