The filmmaker who directed the original 2013 movie and produced the 2018 sequel refuses to watch the follow-up story because he dreads to see how it compared to the original.
- October 9, 2023
AceShowbiz - Guillermo del Toro has likened "Pacific Rim, Uprising" to "home movies from your ex-wife." The 58-year-old filmmaker didn't helm the 2018 sequel after making his 2013 movie and he admitted he's never seen Steven S. DeKnight's film, even though he was a producer, because he ultimately didn't want to know how it compared to his own film.
"I didn't see the final movie because that's like watching home movies from your ex-wife. 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," he told Collider in an interview to mark 10 years since the release of "Pacific Rim"
Guillermo was originally supposed to direct the sequel but pulled out of the project when movie bosses failed to pay a deposit to secure the sound stages he wanted to shoot in and he wasn't interested in their alternative option.
He explained, "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."
"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? I've gotta go do Shape of Water.' "