Happy Birthday Guillermo del Toro!

 Happy Birthday Guillermo del Toro! His first film was Cronos (1993) which was a horror movie involving a device to keep owners immortal. It co-starred his long time co-star Ron Perlman. He moved from there to The Devil’s Backbone (2001) which began his collaboration with cinematographer Guillermo Navarro and composer Javier Navarette. Del Toro entered the studio system with the horror movie Mimic (1997) which was a brilliant film about a CDC doctor who uncovers a strange breed of insect underneath New York. Next, he directed Blade II (2002), a masterful entry in the vampire action franchise.  Guillermo then directed Hellboy (2004) based on the Mike Mignola comic book. It featured Ron Perlman as the demonic anti-hero.  

Guillermo del Toro with Geppetto and Pinocchio at the Variety screening of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, 2023, author’s photo. 

One of his best films is El laborinto del fauno or Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) as it is better known.  A dark fantasy that blends Alice in Wonderland, fairy tales, and the harsh reality of the Spanish Civil War. Long time colloborator, Doug Jones, played many of the creatures including Fauno. It won the Academy Awards for Best Art Direction, Cinematography, and Make-up. He followed it up with Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). In 2008 he formed the production company Cha Cha Films with fellow filmmakers, Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Del Toro worked on a television series and later turned into a trilogy of books starting with The Strain (2009) with co-author Chuck Hogan. In 2013, he directed Pacific Rim (2013) merging his love of kaiju and mecha. He directed the pilot, “Night Zero” (2014) of the series The Strain when the series arrived for FX. The Gothic horror movie Crimson Peak (2015) was his next film. 

Scultures of legendary make-up artist, Jack Pierce, working on transforming Boris Karloff into Frankenstein’s Monster, Guillermo del Toro: At Home With Monsters, 2017, photo by the author. 

Guillermo del Toro made Trollhunters into a book in 2015 with co-author Daniel Kraus. The animated series Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia with Dreamworks Animation was finally realized in 2016 for Netflix. In 2017, Del Toro opened his house, so to speak with the touring exhibition Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters. He finished the year with The Shape of Water which won him the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture. Del Toro directed the thriller, Nightmare Alley (2021). He accomplished another lifelong dream with Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature with co-director Mark Gustafson. Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities was hosted by Del Toro in 2022. He is currently making another personal dream, Frankenstein! Happy Birthday Guillermo del Toro!

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