"If you're not operating on an instinctive level, you're not an artist."
October 5, 2010 12:00 PM   Subscribe

 
At the Mountains of Madness will be in 3D. So will his pal Alfonso Cuarón's next movie. 3D is no longer a gimmick.

I'm eagerly awaiting atMoM, but I hope that the inference here wasn't supposed to be that those first two sentences imply the third.
posted by gurple at 12:07 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


I want to be del Toro when I grow up.
posted by brundlefly at 12:09 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oh! And I think my friend anoirmarie was at this event!
posted by brundlefly at 12:12 PM on October 5, 2010


It's not until the end, but the mention of delToro wanting to make videogames makes me so happy. Even if the list of games mentioned sounds like he's thinking more FPS than Myst.
posted by sawdustbear at 12:17 PM on October 5, 2010


I love this:
On adapting other peoples' work: "Once the material is out, it belongs to all of us." And: "Adapting material is like marrying a widow. You have to be very respectful of the late husband's memory, but at some point you've gotta fuck."

Possibly it would not have resulted in the version of The Hobbit people were hoping for.
posted by Artw at 12:17 PM on October 5, 2010 [4 favorites]


Short version: I'm fucking this hobbit; y'all just holdin' it down.
posted by Mister_A at 12:19 PM on October 5, 2010 [6 favorites]


It's not until the end, but the mention of delToro wanting to make videogames makes me so happy. Even if the list of games mentioned sounds like he's thinking more FPS than Myst.

Guillermo del Toro Making 'Lovecraftian' Horror Game With THQ

"It's horror...but it's a very different type of horror game," the director says. "It's not survival horror. It's truly a strange, geeky mix. It's a Lovecraftian thing. Let's leave it at that."
posted by naju at 12:20 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]


"Adapting material is like marrying a widow. You have to be very respectful of the late husband's memory, but at some point you've gotta fuck."

Note to future adapters: this pearl of wisdom does not end with the addition of the two words "it" and "up".
posted by Sparx at 12:27 PM on October 5, 2010 [13 favorites]


Is The Strain any good?
posted by gottabefunky at 12:29 PM on October 5, 2010


I've enjoyed The Strain and The Fall as light reading. They're competently written, and the characters are believable and do thing for believable reasons. The background of Setrakian (I will not spoil it, although the books deal with it early and repeatedly) is a bit cliche, although it weaves into the story well.

The vampires aren't glittering elfkin, and there's a lot of interesting setup as to why they are what they are.
posted by boo_radley at 12:33 PM on October 5, 2010


The real horror here is that he's working with THQ.
posted by 2bucksplus at 12:34 PM on October 5, 2010 [3 favorites]


"Adapting material is like marrying a widow. You have to be very respectful of the late husband's memory, but at some point you've gotta fuck."

I love this quote so hard. Loved Hellboy in print. Loved Hellboy as done by Del Toro on the screen. Hated Hellboy cartoons and motion comics.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 12:35 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


I loved the 1st book of "The Strain"; but the 2nd one that recently came out was a let down. I can only hope that things pick back up and the 3rd makes it all worthwhile.
posted by Jaymzifer at 12:35 PM on October 5, 2010


He said he went into debt so that he could have an entire house that serves only as a place for his books, with seven libraries in seven rooms. ("I"m a very, very organized hoarder.") He's currently building an eighth room, the "Rain Room," where it will rain 24 hours a day — rain and lighting will always be lashing against this room's windows, so that he can always write in a thunderstorm.

This... I...

There are no words for how awesome this is. I now have a crush on Guillermo del Toro's libraryhouse.
posted by specialagentwebb at 12:37 PM on October 5, 2010 [24 favorites]


He needs to be kept the hell away from Minecraft.
posted by Artw at 12:40 PM on October 5, 2010 [7 favorites]


I want to be del Toro when I grow up.

Allow me to introduce you to a Yithian friend of mine.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 12:41 PM on October 5, 2010 [3 favorites]


Guillermo del Toro is one of those guys that I'm just so glad exists; His love for what he does is actually infectious in a way that few others can achieve, I want to see his projects because if he loves them that much, I'm probably going to be an easy sell in comparison.
posted by quin at 12:45 PM on October 5, 2010 [3 favorites]


"We live in a world that creates impossible standards... I say to all of that, 'Screw you and die.'"
posted by incomple at 12:46 PM on October 5, 2010


If you break out of the embedded video and actually look at the YouTube page, say, for the first embed from the FPP, you'll find that there is a LOT more material from this del Toro Q&A session available.
posted by hippybear at 12:58 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


He needs to be kept the hell away from Minecraft.

I don't know. Given that list of games he admires, and the fact that he wants to make them, I'd say we need to introduce him to Minecraft as soon as possible.
posted by JHarris at 1:00 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


What, as a developer or player? I took the comment as player.

"Hmm..." *eyes production notes... eyes minecraft* "Maybe just down this one cavern."
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:02 PM on October 5, 2010


Yes.

Mincraft needs some unspeakable horrors lurking at +4 to +16.

They delved too deep, and woke the nameless fear...
posted by bonehead at 1:04 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]


Oh totally. It was a major disappointment to learn that the deepness of the delving had nothing to do with the baddies, and some eldritch horror is just the thing.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:08 PM on October 5, 2010


Yeah right, years from now, after he's disappeared and no movies are produced, they've find his infinite rain library on some server somewhere...

(I'd do it with columns of water draining from a top reservoir to a bottom reservoir. Lightning could be... I dunno, spitting rock from concealed lava vats? Thunder is a tricky one)
posted by Artw at 1:09 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


Wait, is that parenthetical you? I read it as channelling a minecraft-obsessed Del Toro.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:14 PM on October 5, 2010


Thunder is a tricky one

Jeepers! Creepers.
posted by bonehead at 1:15 PM on October 5, 2010


I just wish MineCraft had different colored translucent objects so you could make blasphemous congeries from no sane dimension! Which are great to break the ice at MineCraft parties.
posted by Mister_A at 1:19 PM on October 5, 2010


It was a major disappointment to learn that the deepness of the delving had nothing to do with the baddies, and some eldritch horror is just the thing.

Apparently the next update will shake up the delving with new monsters, limits on torch life, and portals to a hyperspatial Hell dimension.
posted by Iridic at 1:30 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


If you break out of the embedded video and actually look at the YouTube page, say, for the first embed from the FPP, you'll find that there is a LOT more material from this del Toro Q&A session available.

Wow. You are not wrong!
posted by Artw at 1:31 PM on October 5, 2010


Apparently the next update will shake up the delving with new monsters, limits on torch life, and portals to a hyperspatial Hell dimension.

Yep yep. I'm very excited! As I noted in another thread, my hope would be for some depth-dependent biomes -- maybe near-surface (where surface wanderers dwell), deep-earth, etc.. Also, hyperspatial hell dimension: yes, please. Can I do a puzzle box to get there?

posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:33 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


Your suffering will be legendary even in hyperspatial Hell dimension!
posted by Mister_A at 1:35 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


We have such sights to show you!
posted by Artw at 1:37 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


*chatters*
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:42 PM on October 5, 2010 [3 favorites]


Naww, his long lost videogame masterwork will be a hugely complex Dungeon Keeper 2 map with a custom Hellboy and Hand Eyeball Monster wandering around.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:44 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


We need a Godwin-type law concerning the probability of Minecraft-related derails.
posted by brundlefly at 2:05 PM on October 5, 2010 [4 favorites]


I did it to my own post, dammit.
posted by Artw at 2:14 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]




Minecraft will expand to fill and infect all threads because minecraft will expand to fill and infect all threads because minecraft will expand to fill and infect all threads because
posted by The Whelk at 2:25 PM on October 5, 2010


Seriously though, I am interested in that game he's talking about. There hasn't been a good SAN-losing game in quite a while. It's been quite a while since Alone in the Dark, Darkseed, Ancorhead or the Lurking Horror.
posted by bonehead at 2:31 PM on October 5, 2010


Peter Jackson Officially Directing The Hobbit

"You're my wife now!"
posted by Artw at 2:32 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


Upon replaying The Lurking Horror recently I found it... disappointingly arbitrary at points. Rather a lot of situations where you get an instadeath in X moves unless you do something intensely specific that you can only discover by trial and error.
posted by Artw at 2:35 PM on October 5, 2010


Artw: ""You're my wife now!""

* Watches artw wander off to use the toilet

Look, please, you've got to help me. No, I'm not his producer! He just... came into my studio one day, and before I knew it, my projects were... cursed! and then he was running everything!
posted by boo_radley at 2:40 PM on October 5, 2010


One ring to rule them all!

I guess this really makes Papa Lazarou the official loa of all film adaptations.
posted by Artw at 2:47 PM on October 5, 2010


Minecraft needs some unspeakable horrors lurking at +4 to +16.

Yeah, you dig down too deep and some sort of weird, twisted temple rises from the depths, destroying everything above it. You might be able to live if you run it, but most likely you will be crushed by the rock above. Or, you could enter the twisted temple and ride it as it breaks into sunlight for the first time in aeons.

Inside the temple is a sealed door. You can't open it, but after the first night, it opens briefly by itself, unleashing strange shambling creatures. If you mined enough of the strange rocks from the temple's interior, you might be able to construct a dark altar, a special crafting table that demands blood sacrifice. If you build it and bloody it in time, the eldrich things never leave the temple grounds. But if you let the blood dry, or worse, the second door opens, who knows what may be unleashed. The only way to contain the things beyond the second door are with dark torches, black flame born of skeleton bones and spider silk.

Your only hope to end the horror is to delve deep into the temple and gather the materials needed to craft the Key. Only then can you seal the door, only then can you start the dark machinery that will return the temple to the slumbering depths.

Where you will dig no more.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:11 PM on October 5, 2010 [5 favorites]


You might be able to live if you run it

I think you would find my administration reasonable, if horrifying.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 3:16 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]


hey dave....
posted by The Whelk at 3:23 PM on October 5, 2010


Thanks for this post.

I enjoyed this which was mentioned on the io9 article.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 3:28 PM on October 5, 2010


There hasn't been a good SAN-losing game in quite a while.

I've heard good things about Amnesia: The Dark Descent
posted by empath at 3:31 PM on October 5, 2010


"I do not do homework with my life."

I've got to tell myself this more often.
posted by benzenedream at 4:15 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]


I've heard good things about Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.
posted by bonehead at 4:22 PM on October 5, 2010


"Yeah, you dig down too deep and some sort of weird, twisted temple rises from the depths(...)"

No, it's not *quite* the same thing... the game is in Alpha, after all, but... have you not found a dungeon in minecraft yet? On your slow descent through the earth, mining all the stone and some where close by there are noises that have been slowly getting louder with each block you eliminate. And you hit that one block. The one above the dungeon, that lets the torchlight down into the cavern and there are so many giant spiders down there with their glowing eyes trying to jump up to the hole you've made, and there's at least a mile of stone on top of you, and there they are, running around the burning cage that spawns them. Hating you.
All those glowing eyes.
posted by Zack_Replica at 4:33 PM on October 5, 2010


del Toro + Lovecraft? I'm amazed mefi didn't just explode.
posted by ciderwoman at 5:02 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


He said he went into debt so that he could have an entire house that serves only as a place for his books, with seven libraries in seven rooms.

I...I...I suddenly feel like an underachiever, somehow.
posted by thomas j wise at 5:15 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]


A lot of his advise is easy when you're a director that's actually made it. Unfortunately, for the rest of the people stuck in the grind, that life-as-homework is a lot more necessary.

Although, I have to say, creating a room of perpetual storm is a pretty god-damn awesome thing to do.
posted by codacorolla at 5:38 PM on October 5, 2010


Dude.

Because yes.

OK, I'm drinking a little at the moment, but that is absolutely the thing.
posted by Artw at 6:14 PM on October 5, 2010


Upon replaying The Lurking Horror recently I found it... disappointingly arbitrary at points. Rather a lot of situations where you get an instadeath in X moves unless you do something intensely specific that you can only discover by trial and error.

They were different times back then, son. Times when a poorly entered command could throw an entire sequence, and you had better hope you'd saved your game at every conceivable turn, because, by the blubbering chaos, you'd need every iffy .sav file you could fit on your old Carmen Sandiego floppy with the tape ripped off its write-protect notch.
posted by Sparx at 6:20 PM on October 5, 2010


There are no words for how awesome this is

specialagentwebb, I was about to write that very same thing. Had it copied already. How lovely! I just swooned. It helped that he was so kind to the people in the audience, apparently.
posted by theredpen at 6:35 PM on October 5, 2010


Minecraft needs some unspeakable horrors lurking at +4 to +16.

Dwarf Fortress already has that. Dig deep enough and you'll find veins of adamantium. Great! But if you dig in too deep you'll break through into hell. Demons pour out of the hellmouth you've opened, spewing necrotizing gas and/or breathing fire.

The game procedurally generates bizarre and possibly disturbing descriptions of them. Unfortunately, they all look like this:

&
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:15 PM on October 5, 2010


The game procedurally generates bizarre and possibly disturbing descriptions of them. Unfortunately, they all look like this:

&


Dude. Be careful with the ampersands, you'll give me nightmares.

can't sleep. juiblex will eat me. can't sleep. juiblex will eat me. can't sleep. juiblex will eat me. can't sleep. juiblex will eat me. can't sleep. juiblex will eat me. can't sleep. juiblex will eat me. can't sleep. juiblex will eat me. can't sleep. juiblex will eat me. can't sleep. juiblex will eat me.
posted by 256 at 7:54 PM on October 5, 2010


"I want to be del Toro when I grow up."

Ah, to be Yuggoth again.
posted by Eideteker at 9:31 PM on October 5, 2010


pts, you just made me squeak aloud and do a little chair-dance in the middle of the library. Holy fuck, I want del Toro's Perdido Street Station SO MUCH NOW.
posted by honeydew at 4:25 PM on October 6, 2010


Tangentially related—I picked up Neonomicon #2 last night! Tonight I'll be smokin' hash and listenin' to devil music! Woot!

And if Del Toro directed Perdido Street Station, I hope he doesn't stay too true to the book, because I could do without another bloated & repetitive disappointment.
posted by Mister_A at 6:46 AM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]


The Scar is better because it's tighter and more cohesive, IMHO. That goes out of the window with Iron Council though.
posted by Artw at 7:41 AM on October 7, 2010


Maybe I'll give The Scar a try when I'm feeling more generous; right now I just want my 600 minutes back!
posted by Mister_A at 2:51 PM on October 7, 2010


Tangentially related—I picked up Neonomicon #2 last night!

it's, um, a little intense.
posted by Artw at 4:51 AM on October 8, 2010


Mister_A: I guess that's where you and I part ways.

Perdido Street Station inspires strong emotions. I loathed it, while still being happy to acknowledge the Mieville as a good writer.
posted by Sebmojo at 1:42 PM on October 17, 2010


it's, um, a little intense.

Yeah. I lent my friend #1 and am not sure I should lend her #2. Cuz yeah. A little intense.
posted by Mister_A at 7:01 AM on October 25, 2010


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