Guillermo del Toro is talking about the Pacific Rim sequel and opening up as to why he didn’t end up directing it.
Del Toro directed the 2013 film about sea creatures emerging from the ocean and to defend human life, humans create giant humanoid mechas. The film starred Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Rober Kazinsky, Charlie Day, Max Martini and Ron Perlman.
Although the director was signed up to direct the sequel, he ultimately didn’t due to the sound stages he wanted to shoot at not being available.
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“We were getting ready to do it, it was different from the first, but it had a continuation of many of the things that I was trying to do. Then what happened is—I mean, this is why life’s crazy, right?—they had to give a deposit for the stages at 5 p.m. or we would lose the stages in Toronto for many months,” Del Toro recalled during an interview with Collider to mark the films 10th anniversary of its release.
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He continued, “So, I said, ‘Don’t forget we’re gonna lose the stages,’ and five o’clock came and went, and we lost the stages. They said, ‘Well, we can shoot it in China.’ And I go, ‘What do you mean we?’ [Laughs] ‘I’ve gotta go do Shape of Water.'”
Del Toro went on to direct The Shape of Water which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture in 2017 with the director also picking up an award in the Best Director category.
Pacific Rim: Uprising would go on to be released in 2018 with Steven S. DeKnight as the director and Del Toro signed up as a producer. Del Toro said that he has not watched the sequel and has a particular reason as to why he has not seen it.
“I didn’t see the final movie because that’s like watching home movies from your ex-wife,” he explained. “It is terrible if they’re good and worse if they’re bad, or the opposite. You don’t wanna know. So, I didn’t see it. I did read the final script, and it was very different. Some of the elements were the same but very different.”