A New 'Strain' of Horror

'Hellboy' and 'Pan's Labyrinth' director Guillermo del Toro makes his debut as a novelist and says it's bloody good fun

By Don Kaye
Special to MSN Movies

Guillermo del Toro pretty much needs no introduction to anyone interested in the world of geek culture. The Mexican-born director, producer and screenwriter is a proud flag bearer for the fields of horror, science fiction and dark fantasy, and every single project that bears his name brims with his passion for whatever genre it inhabits. He is also that rare filmmaker who is able to jump effortlessly back and forth between commercial, action-heavy spectacles, such as "Blade II" and the "Hellboy" movies, and more lyrical, beautifully unsettling fare, like the award-winning "Pan's Labyrinth" and the masterful ghost story "The Devil's Backbone."

Del Toro writes, produces and develops projects at a ferocious clip, but has somehow found time over the past four years to try his hand at a completely different medium, the novel. He and acclaimed crime novelist Chuck Hogan have collaborated on the newly published "The Strain," the first in an epic trilogy with which del Toro hopes to reinvent the vampire mythos. In del Toro and Hogan's relentlessly paced and macabre tale, vampirism is a virus, a biological nightmare that threatens to overrun the entire world. Like "Blade II" and his first film, "Cronos," del Toro's take on vampires has little room for "Twilight"-like pretty boys or overwrought romance.

The pair is already at work on the second book, "The Fall," with the concluding entry, "The Night Eternal," looming as well. Del Toro is also attached to numerous film projects, including his own version of "Frankenstein." But all those have to wait, since he is about to embark on the biggest project of his career to date: directing the two-part film version of "The Hobbit," the prequel to "The Lord of the Rings," under the watchful eyes of producer Peter Jackson. We caught up via phone with del Toro, a man who seemingly needs no sleep, as he bounced between Los Angeles, London and "Hobbit" headquarters in New Zealand.

MSN Movies: I read that "The Strain" was originally conceived as a television series. Is that right, and how did it evolve into a novel?

Guillermo Del Toro: Yes, originally it was. It was going to be like a three-season limited series. But, little by little, I've been losing my patience with people meddling with the stuff I do, and I really felt it would become rapidly endangered by keeping it in that format. But yet I didn't want to change it or turn it into a feature film structure. I knew I wanted a long story arc, character developmentha, and -- you know, I've been writing all my life. I've written abundantly: screenplays, short stories, a book about Hitchcock that was published in Spain and Mexico. So I decided to take the leap into longer-form fiction and try my hand at a novel for the first time.

How did you get together with Chuck Hogan?

I knew I needed a partner. I had been thinking about the anatomy and biology of vampires for 37 years, but I really wanted to concentrate on doing the horrific stuff and leaving the biological and procedural stuff to someone else. When I talked with my literary agent, there was a pile of novels that he sent me to help find candidates. But Chuck shone like a beacon. The other stuff I was reading was actually very disappointing. I had it clear in my mind that I wanted sort of a medical thriller writer and not a horror guy, because that would be two horror guys too many. We needed only one, and I was going to try and supply that. (Laughs.) Little did I know that Chuck is actually a horror freak in sheep's clothing. But if you read his novels, especially "Prince of Thieves," he has an incredibly immersive writing quality, and I loved it. I became an instant fan.

You've written screenplays, you draw and paint, you direct -- what makes writing a novel unique unto itself?

I think it's such a joy to write fiction because the screenplay is such a restrictive form of writing. It's incredibly rigid. Most people don't realize it; they think that screenplays must be really fun to write or read. But in fact they're a very dry form of narrative, where you are trying to describe everything as dryly and as matter-of-fact as possible. You cannot use metaphor. You cannot use introspection. You cannot use any number of literary tools that are so delightful. For me to unleash "the purple prose of Cairo" (laughs) onto the page was a delight. I really enjoyed being able to do an entire chapter on a kid sitting by the window, where really, objectively, nothing happens. It's a really liberating experience and I'm addicted to it now.

I'm glad to hear that, since you've got two more to write!

Well, we are way, way into the second one. We're gonna deliver it before I start shooting "The Hobbit." And the third one will be done after that. Everything's falling into place, because the second one will be out at the end of 2010, and the third one will be out at the end of 2011 or in early 2012. So it's worked out very fortuitously.

So much of the vampire fiction and cinema out there seems to center on beautiful, sexy, young vampires, with an emphasis on this "forbidden romance" angle, especially in things like the "Twilight" books. Yet your movies about vampires and this book take their cue from much more ancient mythologies and portray the vampire as a truly horrific creature.

That's correct. It's not a turn for me; if you watch "Cronos," it essentially portrays the vampire as an addict. And in "Blade II," they're basically creatures with monkeys on their backs, riding them, with a need for blood. I have never been attracted as a reader or a writer to the romantic vampires. Not that there's anything wrong with the idea, because it's genuinely one of the original branches of vampire fiction. But I feel that the brutal vampires were so much more fun to read when I was a kid, and so much more fun for me to write. I really think it's kind of boring to write the vampire as a bad boy.

Any chance of this going full circle and coming to the screen at some point?

If it eventually made it to TV or cable, I would love to be part of it, but I'm not rushing. People have been calling about the rights, but I've been refusing to even entertain a conversation, because I want to finish it as a series of books first and then see what happens. There's plenty of my favorite horror fiction that has been turned on-screen into condensed versions of the novel, and I really miss the long arc narrative of some of that stuff. I think we'll do the best for the story, so right now we're avoiding anything else studiously (laughs).

Let's move on to "The Hobbit." It was reported last week that you told the BBC that Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Andy Serkis (Gollum) and Hugo Weaving (Elrond) were all back on board for this movie. Can you confirm that?

Well, the truth is that none of them are confirmed. All I said, which I've been saying for months, is that they should be back on board. Whether their negotiations are on the way or not, they should all be coming back. But the tragic news is that there is no news yet.

So no one has actually signed on the dotted line.

No, not yet. I know there are talks in progress, but how far in progress and how deep they are is more of a question for business affairs. I have had meetings with Ian and I've had meetings with Andy, and they are very interested, as I hope Hugo Weaving would be, but there really is no news to announce yet. [Editors note: since conducting this interview, all three actors have signed on for the film.]

There have also been reports that you've got your sights on a potential Bilbo Baggins (the younger version of the character played by Ian Holm in the "Lord of the Rings" movies).

Well, we are down to the last few choices. But, again, it's a process that's slow to mature because we are still finishing the screenplay and there's a lot of stuff that has been cleared. Now we are starting the casting and approaching actors, but it's been taking a while.

You are scheduled to begin shooting in early 2010?

Yes, that's right. Spring of 2010.

How's living in New Zealand treating you?

It's absolute paradise, man. If you can, come and visit.

I'll work on that! One last thing, I understand that Doug Jones (Abe Sapien in the "Hellboy" movies) is doing makeup and design tests to play the creature in your version of "Frankenstein."

Yeah, that's the plan. We are doing a lot of research and development with Doug. We're testing makeup on him and testing material for the makeup on him, and technical solutions and so forth. We are doing it on him, so I think that makes a strong statement! (Laughs.)

But you won't be shooting that for a few years.

Oh no! Not for at least three years. As a director, I won't be involved in anything but "The Hobbit" for the next three years at all. I can't. I can write and produce and help with this and that, because I've always been like that. I've always been multitasking through the good ones and the bad ones and the tough ones and the easy ones, but I've never directed more than the feature I'm occupied by, which is the best way.

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Don Kaye covers movies, TV, and entertainment for MSN.