"To fight monsters...We created monsters"
Guillermo del Toro is by far one of our finest directors, and the man is certainly no stranger to
Hall H was virtually transformed into a command center for Pacific Rim with a super-wide screen, no doubt intended to mimic being in control of a Jaeger, the mammoth mechs that will be the focus of del Toro’s film as mankind combats alien menaces known as Kaiju. Along with the man himself, cast members Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi took the stage.
The screening of the first clip, which was basically a trailer, literally shook the conference center as they blasted a giant monster clash on the massive Hall H screens. Considering it was the first time the actors have seen any edited footage, they were understandably just as excited to see it as the crowd.
The footage itself had a cartoonish quality to it, but was also very realistic, precisely what we would expect when looking back at the aesthetics of del Toro's “Hellboy” films (think The Iron Giant if it was live action). The Kaiju on display was mostly all claws (and you couldn’t see the body in whole), but it was akin to Godzilla with six arms.
Idris Elba was the one main cast member absent, but he still got an epic speech in the trailer: "We're at the edge of hope and the end of our time, but we choose to believe in each other. Today, we face the monsters at our door. Today, we cancel the apocalypse!" Epic stuff!
When the question period began, it was del Toro who took center stage, so to speak, but not before Hunnam praised the director, saying he is one of maybe two filmmakers in the world that he would sign on for a project with without seeing a script.
Del Toro went on to say that in this movie universe two pilots are needed to control the giant robots to which the men are “mind melded” – one pilot controls the left side of the robot and the other controls the right. Apparently, the energy surge from piloting the robot will kill a single operator. He expanded by saying that it will be shown in the film what happens when only one pilot attempts it. Essentially, if a Kaiju leaves one pilot alive and he can still bring the robot to safety — that’s a big deal.
The director then called
There are nine Kaijus throughout the film and seven robots. Del Toro says he designed more and then did “an American Idol on them. Some come from the water, some can fly – we have monsters up the wazoo.”
The giant monster mayhem continued with a surprise visit from director Gareth Edwards (Monsters), who brought with him a teaser trailer for the remake of Godzilla, a project which has been kept very secretive since it was announced over a year ago.
In his brief piece, Edwards says that “he doesn't think of it as a sci-fi movie because it's very, very real and like the original, this isn't going for camp on any level.”
Very cool stuff indeed. Well, that’s all we have for this panel. Look for
