And when the Count gets the mechanical hand, he becomes the fastest gunslinger in the West, because I had set it in Mexico, so the film became kind of a steampunk, Gothic Western. But there’s a moment where the Count goes too far and becomes a monster. I wanted the audience to feel sickened at that moment by the fact that they’d been rooting for this guy for an hour and a half.
NOTEBOOK, PAGE 3B
Ty’s first drawing.
First drawing in new type of notebook
“The hand of God” for Montecristo
Nineteenth Century.
Drawing: Guillermo del Toro
Original Design: TyRuben Ellingson
The move to Austin was a bitch for everyone involved.
14 aug
No doubt the need to fill all available space is Freudian and very serious
Good luck in the meeting with GH in TT—O
16
17 “ 1
Possibly painful and lethal
Date to fill
Who knows why I’m obsessed with the void.
Notes for the glove
This drawing presents new empty spaces.
Thirty-three and with debts. Leave your fears in this [?]
Bullshit to fill up space
But it gives rhythm to the image
Apparatus that the count will use
More bullshit to fill up space
Guillermo del Toro 7/18/98 Austin
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS
GDT: I’ve been trying to do At the Mountains of Madness for almost twenty years. Right after Cronos, I wrote a version of it set during the time of conquest of the New World with a bunch of conquistadors arriving at the Mayan ruins and finding another city beneath. It’s never been far away for me. In terms of imagination and the creation of worlds, it’s one of the most compelling projects. But I also think it’s a very commercial horror film.
In the notebooks, I’m really thinking about Mountains more than drawing it. The funny thing is, Lovecraft excelled at being ambiguous about the way his creatures look. The creatures that he’s very specific about, once you draw them, are kind of clunky. When you’re drawing the flying cucumbers that are the Old Ones in Mountains, you have to go, “How are we going to make this work?” But the less Lovecraft describes, the more beautiful the creature. And I think the ambiguity provides the opportunity to make them shape-shifters.
What is funny, though, is that this sketch of a character in Mountains with tentacles over his mouth predates Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean by about two years. When I saw Pirates, I was like, “OK, I’m screwed.”
BLUE NOTEBOOK, pAGE 49
E* Fetuses in jars of marmalade.
* A day hasn’t gone by in which I haven’t thought about death.
* National Geographic’s EXPLORER.
G* Hey, what about X? (grave news about someone). Well, it depends.
T* DRAGGED UNDER BY A SUBTERRANEAN RIVER.
G* Someone does something “very special” and/or receives it at once and then (saves it with, throws it among, sticks it amid, or places it among) a pile of objects or things just like it.
T* As he goes down the “subterranean river,” the explorer sees the female octopus and the ceiling littered with clusters of bones.
BLUE NOTEBOOK, pAGE 7B
–Between anguish and hope, pain is the exit.
–Check out the locations for VOOI for the M.M.
–The SCARLET city in the middle of the white one.
–Green water / Scarlet and corroded walls
—Dietist: The key is to avoid eating large portions. Woman: Ah—yes that makes sense, D: Tomatoes, lettuce, celery, non-fat dairy products . . . W: Well-that-that’s good. But what about lunch? D: Well at lunch you can give yourself a treat. W: Sure. D: Or you’ll go crazy. W: A treat! That’s a good idea, thank you. D: You are welcome. CUT A: The woman pigging out.
—A mass hallucination. Suggestion or mass hysteria.
—An empty shell that is a ghost.
–Normally ghosts bring the living warnings or premonitions.
–The husband takes a photograph of it.
–One of the researchers is a nun.
–A ghost is visible at the edge of the photo and a phenomenon occurs that she is the only one to see.
–Record it in small NAGRA recorders to give the images depth to give a catalog to the U.
–The husband thinks that they’re radio waves or waves from a nearby CB and pleads with them to use their common sense.
–She asks for proof and it tells her: “Anna, I’m dead, tell me why?”
–An Arkham sailor
–Perhaps Pabodie, like Holly, knows how to build automatons
AFTERWORD
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MAGNIFICENCE
TOM CRUISE
I WOULDN’T SAY AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS didn’t work out—I have worked on and postponed many films before they were finally made—it’s just going to work out when it’s supposed to.
While it was painful to watch Guillermo go through the experience of having to put on hold a project that was so close to his heart, I knew he would move on to extraordinary things, and he soon did with Pacific Rim. As I told him at the time, it’s not over, it’s just on pause for now. I’m still determined to work with him, and one day it will happen.
A drawing of one of H. P. Lovecraft’s Elder Things from del Toro’s Blue Notebook, Page 151.
Over the years I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of truly great filmmakers, and each and every one of them has their own unique tone and voice, which emanates from every frame of their films. This is particularly true of Guillermo’s work. When you look at his movies, you know instantly that you’re seeing a del Toro film, whether it’s Pan’s Labyrinth or Hellboy. His films are very much an extension of who he is and his ideas. It’s in the design, it’s in the lighting, it’s in the composition. It’s in every single creative decision. That’s what makes him an artist. It’s not analytical. It is instinctual; it permeates his work, his life. He has a vivid imagination that remains free against all odds.
Guillermo is a true artist, but he’s also a hard worker. He’s not someone who just talks the talk—he’s actively going out and making things happen, constantly striving to be better at communicating with an audience. He’s discovering what it is that interests people. He’s smart about it, and I think that’s why he’s accumulated a very faithful audience.
He’s very interested in people and hungry for life, he has no sense of self-importance or arrogance. You can always tell someone who’s very competent, because they have an ease in talking about their craft and themselves; there’s no defensiveness or overbearing confidence.
Lovecraftian symbols from Notebook 3, Page 30A.
I’ve admired Guillermo’s work since Cronos, and when we finally had an opportunity to sit down and talk, we started discussing the films we could make together. At that point he was going to direct The Hobbit, but we talked about At the Mountains of Madness and another film based on a British television series called The Champions. Really the whole conversation was about movies, cinema, stories, and comic books—all the things that we both love.
Then I went to Bleak House, which is just sensational. Guillermo surrounds himself with things that inspire him and provoke him and he’s interested in so many different aspects of cinema, literature, art, and storytelling. He’s one of the most fascinating people to sit down with, and his imagination is Absolutely extraordinary. When the conversation came back to At the Mountains of Madness, I said, “Great, I’m in.” I knew the story, and the concept artwork he had created for the movie was stunning and unique.
A series of Cthulhu-like profiles from Notebook 3, Page 30A.
While this project that we were both so passionate about didn’t work out the first time round, I know that it’s going to happen one day—why? Because Guillermo will never stop creating, or caring, no matter what. He will keep at it against all odds. An
d when it finally happens, it will be infused with all the things that make a Guillermo del Toro movie so distinct and unforgettable: images, emotions, vistas, and characters no one else creates.
Guillermo will permeate every frame of the movie in the same way that he can be found in every room of Bleak House, in every illustration of his journals, and on every page of this book. It’s a beautiful thing to witness, and I look forward to being a part of his exceptionally imaginative world.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Guillermo and Lorenza del Toro (center, always together) surrounded by family and friends at the start of the shoot for a 16mm animated short film.
This book represents only a fraction of the notes in my diaries and the items in my collection at Bleak House, but it offers a great start to a dialogue with those who appreciate the work that I do. We took hours of interview tapes and spent many days archiving, photographing, editing, and designing the pages you now have in your hands. It is only proper that we thank some of the people that made this book possible.
To start, thank you to all the friends and creative confidants who contributed pieces to this book: James Cameron, Tom Cruise, Alfonso Cuarón, Cornelia Funke, Neil Gaiman, John Landis, Mike Mignola, Ron Perlman, and Adam Savage.
Without the collaboration of these artists, my films and this book would not be nearly as rich: Mike Mignola, Wayne Barlowe, Oscar Chichoni, Guy Davis, TyRuben Ellingson, Carlos Giménez, Carlos Jimenez, Rob McCallum, Raúl Monge, Sergio Sandoval, Keith Thompson, Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Raúl Villares, Tanja Wahlbeck, Simeon Wilkins, and Doug Williams. The presence of their work here, of course, does not supersede the rich partnerships I’ve forged with many other artists, whom I value equally as much.
At Insight Editions, I am indebted to publisher Raoul Goff, without whom this book would still be an idea. And thank you to Marc Scott Zicree, with whom I share many affinities. Behind the scenes, editor Jake Gerli and the rest of the book team—art director Chrissy Kwasnik, designer Jon Glick, translator Mike Engle, and editorial staff Chris Prince, Rachel Anderson, and Elaine Ou—did a wonderful job molding my predilections into this fine presentation.
Thank you, too, to my representatives Richard Abate, George Hayum, and Gary Ungar, for standing by me and guiding me through this book development process.
Without these kindred spirits in the world of filmmaking, there would be much less of a story to tell about the notebooks and my films: Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar, Belén Atienza, Álvaro Augustín, Arthur H. Gorson, Elena Manrique, Bertha Navarro, Bernard Nussbaumer, Alejandro Springall, Telecinco, Paolo Vasile, and Jorge Vergara.
Thank you all,
CREDITS
Cover design by Jon Glick
COPYRIGHT
Guillermo del Toro: Cabinet of Curiosities
My Notebooks, Collections, and Other Obsessions
Copyright © 2013 Guillermo del Toro.
“Ode to a Master” copyright © 2013 James Cameron.
“Casa del Toro” copyright © 2013 John Landis.
“Guillermo and Me” copyright © 2013 Alfonso Cuarón.
“Resurrection” copyright © 2013 Ron Perlman.
“The Collecting Instinct” copyright © 2013 Adam Savage.
“Notebook Thoughts from Abroad” copyright © 2013 Neil Gaiman.
“The Magician” copyright © 2013 Cornelia Funke.
“My Days with del Toro” copyright © 2013 Mike Mignola.
“At the Mountains of Magnificence” © 2013 Tom Cruise.
“Guillermo’s Mainstays of Horror” adapted from the Foreword by Guillermo del Toro to The White People and Other Weird Stories by Arthur Machen (Penguin Classics), copyright © Guillermo del Toro, 2011; and the Penguin Horror series editor introduction by Guillermo del Toro, “Haunted Castles, Dark Mirrors: On the Penguin Horror Series” (Penguin Books), copyright © Necropia, Inc., 2013.
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities © Guillermo Del Toro 2014. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Cronos © Producciones Iguana, S.A. and October Films Inc and Universal Studios
Mimic © Dimension Films
The Devil’s Backbone © El Deseo S.A.
Blade II™ & © New Line Productions, Inc. (sl3)
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Pan’s Labyrinth © Telecinco Cinema and Tequila Gang, S.A. de C.V.
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Guillermo Del Toro, Cabinet of Curiosities
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