Guillermo del Toro on X2

[Rac]

I was reading the December 2006 issue of Empire and there's an article about Pan's Labyrinth written by del Toro. There he mentions that X-Men 2, Harry Potter (and something else) was offered to him but instead he decided to do Blade II.

So was Fox gonna screw Singer already on X2? Wow. Fcking bastards.

 

[X-Maniac]

So was Fox gonna screw Singer already on X2? Wow. Fcking bastards.

A little harsh. We don't know the exact circumstances.

 

[Max Shrek]

Wow. I'm actually sad. Del Toro is one of the best DIRECTORS ever. He could've made X2 one of the best films ever. Sad.

 

[Rac]

I'm more sad that they didn't ask him for X3. But I think no one couldn't save that movie. Not after Singer left.

 

[phoenix_force]

i would've loved PETER JACKSON to direct the whole trilogy
with each movie 3 hours long!

 

[04nbod]

wow- that would've been amazing

 

[Obsidian]

I'm more sad that they didn't ask him for X3. But I think no one couldn't save that movie. Not after Singer left.

Remember...this is the same studio that refused to let David Fincher direct "Daredevil".

 

[Goddessreicho]

Like the "success" of King Kong 3 hr snoozefest... Sure LotR worked, but then again, how could someone mess that up?

Wait wait. Forget I said that. I said the same thing about X-men '98 when the cast list came out.

I say that Robert Rodriguez shoulda woulda coulda done something amazing with the X-men. Looking at the Desperado Trilogy and Sin City, he could have produced a movie that was real, emotionally grounded, and action packed.

 

[04nbod]

i don't think there are any directors who are passionate about x men comics like jackson with lotr or raimi with spiderman

 

[Boba_Fett_123]

Remember...this is the same studio that refused to let David Fincher direct "Daredevil".

I STILL can't get over that stupidity. I wasn't aware X2 was ever considered for anyone but Singer, though. Interesting. I haven't read the article, but perhaps he only WANTED to do X2, but it wasn't actually OFFERED to him?

 

[LastSunrise1981]

Like the "success" of King Kong 3 hr snoozefest... Sure LotR worked, but then again, how could someone mess that up?

Wait wait. Forget I said that. I said the same thing about X-men '98 when the cast list came out.

I say that Robert Rodriguez shoulda woulda coulda done something amazing with the X-men. Looking at the Desperado Trilogy and Sin City, he could have produced a movie that was real, emotionally grounded, and action packed.

Eh? Robert Rodriguez? No. Sin City, Desperado, and From Dusk Till Dawn are all great films and I enjoy them very much. I don't believe Roberts style fits the X-Men very well and I believe he'd make it all action with no story behind it.

I'm happy with what Singer did with the first two films. Considering how Fox screwed over twice in terms of the budget and time constraints, I'm quite happy that Singer managed to release/create two amazing films that I consider to be one of the best comic book films in history. It's not better than Batman Begins or V For Vendetta; but both are brilliant films.

I wonder what Toro would've done with X3 if it was offered to him? Blade II had some emotional moments and had a great story behind it.

 

[Goddessreicho]

Oh Lord. One day Last you and I will agree on something. Batman Begins was a major success in all sorts of ways. The cohesiveness of the protagonist cast was phenomenal. It was so reminiscent of Miller's Dark Knight.

Those X-movies were laughable. They were so dry. They ALL lacked chemistry with each other. Mardsen and Jansen had two scene with just the two of them and it was dry forced and contrived. Berry's Storm was forced on everyone because she had no real value. The lack of necessity for her character came from a lack of need for a maternal figure with balls. The scene with Rogue was sorta like watching Aunt Jemaima caring. Wolverine was turned into far more of an attention ****e than he ever was.

Overall most of the film came out dry and hallow.

The only bad thing about BB was Katie Holmes. Not only was the acting subpar, but her part was seriously unnecessary. It seemed like a love interest for Bruce is a contractual obligation. I got more emotional weight from all of Alfred and Bruce than from Rachel. But despite that, I still loved it. Oh not to mention that Morgan Freeman was BB's Ian Mckellen.

V was great but it was released at such a bad time. I loved it. I had fun with the dialog and references. I haven't read the comic, so I can't really say more.

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Wow. I'm actually sad. Del Toro is one of the best DIRECTORS ever. He could've made X2 one of the best films ever. Sad.

Correction, Del Toro is one of the WORST directors ever.

I don't know if I've ever seen larger piles of crap than Blade 2 and Hellboy.

I want Del Toro as far away from X-Men as possible. I don't even want him THINKING about doing X-Men.

 

[xmenfilesfan05]

Ha ha...I really couldn't agree more with you

 

[Pauluz]

Correction, Del Toro is one of the WORST directors ever.

I don't know if I've ever seen larger piles of crap than Blade 2 and Hellboy.

I want Del Toro as far away from X-Men as possible. I don't even want him THINKING about doing X-Men.

In terms of action, Blade 2 was awesome and the effects were really good + it had some good one liners. Can't you tell I love Blade 2! t:

 

[LastSunrise1981]

Granted Del Toro wasn't the first person I thought of for an X-Men film.

But I really loved Blade II and Blade II had some pretty nifty scenes, a good story, and I really loved the emotional scenes between Blade and Whistler towards the end.

Of course this is simply my opinion. If he was to ever do an X-Men film it would be interesting to see what he would do with the material. Certainly he can't do any worse than what Ratner did.

I'm not too fond of Hellboy myself. Out of all his films, Hellboy is the one that I watch the least and is the one that gathers the most dust in my DVD collection. Other than that I love Blade II.

Now see Nell? You hate Blade and Blade II, but did I attack you?

 

[Goddessreicho]

Or Singer's washed out dry cardboard cutouts which tend to be his style. At this point I'd take Del Toro, Vaughn, Cameron...anybody else.

But that would mean more X-men...do we really need a fourth that not enough people in production know nothing about?

 

[Rac]

Correction, Del Toro is one of the WORST directors ever.

I don't know if I've ever seen larger piles of crap than Blade 2 and Hellboy.

I want Del Toro as far away from X-Men as possible. I don't even want him THINKING about doing X-Men.

You should really watch The Devil's Backbone (and Pan's Labyrinth). But then again, you liked X3...

 

[LastSunrise1981]

Or Singer's washed out dry cardboard cutouts which tend to be his style. At this point I'd take Del Toro, Vaughn, Cameron...anybody else.

But that would mean more X-men...do we really need a fourth that not enough people in production know nothing about?

I liked Singers depiction and the emotional storylines he brought to the franchise.

However, I really don't think Toro would do X-Men at all. But if a reboot happens or a sequel happens in the future, I say either Singer, Cameron, Ridley Scott, or Sam Raimi should direct it.

Just as long as Cameron doesn't write the script I'm all for it. His script for Spider-Man was absolutely atrocious.

 

[Seen]

You should really watch The Devil's Backbone (and Pan's Labyrinth). But then again, you liked X3...

Exactly. del Toro is an amazingly gifted director who is extremely honored in his field. Just because TWO of his films were perhaps not to the "preferred" taste, doesn't mean he needs to be called one of the "worst" directors out there...

I mean, that's just horrible thinking.

 

[Rac]

I STILL can't get over that stupidity. I wasn't aware X2 was ever considered for anyone but Singer, though. Interesting. I haven't read the article, but perhaps he only WANTED to do X2, but it wasn't actually OFFERED to him?

Here's the scans. Everyone can make their own conclusions.

 

[Abaddon]

Like the "success" of King Kong 3 hr snoozefest...

Wtf are you talking about?

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Granted Del Toro wasn't the first person I thought of for an X-Men film.

But I really loved Blade II and Blade II had some pretty nifty scenes, a good story, and I really loved the emotional scenes between Blade and Whistler towards the end.

Of course this is simply my opinion. If he was to ever do an X-Men film it would be interesting to see what he would do with the material. Certainly he can't do any worse than what Ratner did.

I'm not too fond of Hellboy myself. Out of all his films, Hellboy is the one that I watch the least and is the one that gathers the most dust in my DVD collection. Other than that I love Blade II.

Now see Nell? You hate Blade and Blade II, but did I attack you?

I can't believe that for someone who preaches character development, and real character and emotion, that you actually find any semblance of that in Blade 2.

Blade 2 had absolutley none of that.

For the record, I absolutley LOVE Blade. It is one of my favorite superhero movies period. Hell, it's just straight up one of my favorite MOVIES, superhero or not.

Blade was something that was dark and visceral. Blade 2 was an absolute joke that I failed to be able to take seriously. Blade: Trinity was a little bit better, but not by much. It's a shame, that the franchise that spawned the amazing Blade movie could spawn 2 pathetic sequels to absolutley ruin the franchise for me. The first Blade was absolutley amazing.

Hellboy isn't as pathetic as Blade 2, but it's really not much better.

Apparently it's part of the source material (I've never even heard of a Hellboy comic before the movie), but to me, a story about a devil spawn who battles demonic forces should be a serious, dark movie, not light hearted camp-fest. I wanted something dark, visceral, and gritty. Instead, I got something campy, lighthearted, that joked around the whole time.

Perhaps that wasn't all Del Toro, but he was definatley a part of it.

From my experience with Del Toro, he makes cheesy, campy, light hearted flicks with no sense of seriousness, grit, or visciousness whatsoever. He is absolutley what I DON'T want for X-Men. Given his work with Blade 2 and Hellboy, he absolutley could do worse than what Ratner did. Like Ratner or not, at least he still maintained some kind of sense of darkness for the X-Men movies, and I think his movie was even grittier and more visceral than either of Singer's. Ratner did win too many points in the depth and character development department, but then again, Del Toro didn't do much with Blade 2 and Hellboy either, so I'm not exactly sure what the difference is.

I would take the half hearted effort of X-Men: The Last Stand over Del Toro's full efforts anyday.

As far as your remark for "attacking me" goes...

That's nice, I'm glad you didn't attack me. I wish you'd do that in the X-Men: The Last Stand forums as well. If you'd knock off all of your attacks towards me, we'd get along rather well, seeing as how my problem with you has nothing to do with your opinion of X3 (and I'd gladly agree with many of your complaints about the film as well, if you'd just get off my back and stop disrespecting me in every other post).

 

[LastSunrise1981]

I can't believe that for someone who preaches character development, and real character and emotion, that you actually find any semblance of that in Blade 2.

Blade 2 had absolutley none of that.

For the record, I absolutley LOVE Blade. It is one of my favorite superhero movies period. Hell, it's just straight up one of my favorite MOVIES, superhero or not.

Blade was something that was dark and visceral. Blade 2 was an absolute joke that I failed to be able to take seriously. Blade: Trinity was a little bit better, but not by much. It's a shame, that the franchise that spawned the amazing Blade movie could spawn 2 pathetic sequels to absolutley ruin the franchise for me. The first Blade was absolutley amazing.

Hellboy isn't as pathetic as Blade 2, but it's really not much better.

Apparently it's part of the source material (I've never even heard of a Hellboy comic before the movie), but to me, a story about a devil spawn who battles demonic forces should be a serious, dark movie, not light hearted camp-fest. I wanted something dark, visceral, and gritty. Instead, I got something campy, lighthearted, that joked around the whole time.

Perhaps that wasn't all Del Toro, but he was definatley a part of it.

From my experience with Del Toro, he makes cheesy, campy, light hearted flicks with no sense of seriousness, grit, or visciousness whatsoever. He is absolutley what I DON'T want for X-Men. Given his work with Blade 2 and Hellboy, he absolutley could do worse than what Ratner did. Like Ratner or not, at least he still maintained some kind of sense of darkness for the X-Men movies, and I think his movie was even grittier and more visceral than either of Singer's. Ratner did win too many points in the depth and character development department, but then again, Del Toro didn't do much with Blade 2 and Hellboy either, so I'm not exactly sure what the difference is.

I would take the half hearted effort of X-Men: The Last Stand over Del Toro's full efforts anyday.

As far as your remark for "attacking me" goes...

That's nice, I'm glad you didn't attack me. I wish you'd do that in the X-Men: The Last Stand forums as well. If you'd knock off all of your attacks towards me, we'd get along rather well, seeing as how my problem with you has nothing to do with your opinion of X3 (and I'd gladly agree with many of your complaints about the film as well, if you'd just get off my back and stop disrespecting me in every other post).

I'll explain it to you.

1. Blade II had a lot of character development. What I really loved about it is how Blade is forced to team up with a common enemy to fight an enemy far worse. The character development in the film is between Blade, Whistler, and Nyssa.

You thought Blade II was campy, light-hearted, and not dark? So you don't think vampires viciously attacking other vampires is dark? Seriously Blade II was so much darker than X3(IMO) it's not even funny.

You ask about the emotional parts? How about when Blade is being tortured and having his blood drained from his body, Whistler comes in to see the man who is like a son to him and says "You didn't give up on me, I'm not going to give up on you."

That line right there made me choke up as Kris Kristofferson(spelling?) delivered it brilliantly. If you think Del Toro makes campy light hearted material you need to watch The Devil's Backbone then.

Another sign of character development is Blade possibly developing a love interest. She was bitten by Nomak and he is forced to take her outside in the sun to destroy her before she becomes what Nomak was.

I am not going to list all of the character development within the film, however, it was definitely there and was much better than anything X3 had in my honest opinion.

 

[xmenfilesfan05]

The one thing about del Toro that got me thinking about X-Men, was the scene with Firestarter (is that her name), of Hellboy, in her bedroom in the clinic, she sets herself ablaze, and I thought that was an absolutely beautiful scene, be it short, but the way the flames flow from her body, down to the floor, defying any sort of normal physics of flames, that was stunning to me...one of the few parts of Hellboy that made me raise an eyebrow. It was very Phoenix-like, or at least my idea of Phoenix, that made me look forward to what X3 had in store for us, considering the ending of X2. But that's about it for me and a del Toro X-Men.