Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who recently released his Frankenstein film on Netflix, recently shared more details about what his vision was for his scrapped Justice League Dark film.
If you recall, del Toro confirmed he was attached to the film back in January 2013 and that he was “writing the outline” and “was already in talks with a writer, a very, very good writer.” He went on to share that the film was likely to feature Swamp Thing, Etrigan, Constantine, Deadman, the Spectre, Zatanna, and Zatara.
By March 2013 he shared some specifics about the film’s plot in an interview with Collider, “The route we’re going is Constantine is our lead. Constantine is the guy who leads us in and out of the plot. We have Swamp Thing, Etrigan, we have Zatanna, we have—I will spoil it—the Floronic Man. We have stuff that those who love the darker side of the DC Universe are going to appreciate, and we’re trying to be true to the origins of the characters.”
In November 2014, Forbes shared that the screenplay had been completed and was sent to Warner Bros. to review.
Less than a year later, and Deadline reported that del Toro was no longer attached to the film albeit it was still in development at Warner Bros. In July 2015, del Toro confirmed the report sharing that he chose to do Pacific Rim Uprising. He said, “Warners liked the script, they were very enthusiastic and wanted to greenlight it but they wanted it to coincide with Pacific Rim 2. I was put in a very difficult place facing a difficult choice, and I chose to do Pacific Rim 2.”
He ended up not directing Pacific Rim Uprising either.
Now, in a new interview with Josh Horowitz discussing his Frankenstein film, del Toro shared more details about the Justice League Dark movie.
On the film’s cast, he confirmed that he wanted Doug Jones to play Deadman. He explained, “Because physically I could do the suit and I know his mannerisms and all that.”
As for the script he said, “I loved that screenplay. I was in love with that screenplay. I thought it brought everybody in effortlessly.”
He went on to confirm that Constantine was the main lead saying, “The plot made absolute perfect sense. I really loved how they got tangled into-. Floronic Man was one of the villains and it was really great because Swamp Thing was very fleshed out. There was a moment where Batman came in briefly. They said, ‘We need a plane.’ And he said, ‘A friend of mine has a plane.’ And then you were in Bruce Wayne’s office.”
Speaking on one of the film’s set pieces he shared, “My favorite one was a chase. Deadman chasing. [He was] on a long chase, jumping from one body to the next. It would be an 80-year-old lady in Central Park running after the protagonist. And then jumping into a traffic cop, a mounted cop. It was a really thrilling thing.”
Del Toro also shared that while he would have loved to have done it at the time, he’s moved on, “I would have loved to have done it, but now I wouldn’t.”
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Sorry, this guy has reached his expiration date. That Frankenstein movie was an abomination that I turned off halfway through.
His obsession with creepy weirdness could have worked for that story, but like all of Hollyweird, he has no sense of moderation, scale, or restraint, and not even a hint of understanding anachronism and suspension of disbelief.
In order for Frankenstein to work, it has to be plausible--one man playing God, but still a man's accomplishments in that time and with that time's technology, NOT magical science fantasy futurism with unlimited resources cause plot reasons. I rolled my eyes so hard watching his version that they almost came up Triple Cherries.
If he can't contain himself for such a well known story about one man's twisted hubris (that Hollywood has never once gotten right by the way despite dozens of efforts), what on earth would he do with superheroes?