Guillermo del Toro didn’t direct Pacific Rim: Uprising because of a clerical error
The Pan's Labyrinth director hasn't even watched the sequel to his 2013 blockbuster
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Hollywood isn’t all glitz and glam. It’s a business, staffed by human beings who sometimes forget to cross their t’s and dot their i’s. Those mistakes can be catastrophic, like neglecting to pay your actors and writers a living wage, or they can be relatively small things that spin out into very, very large things, like when a staffer missed a payment for a Toronto soundstage and ended up sinking an entire franchise.
In a recent interview with Collider to celebrate Pacific Rim’s ten-year anniversary, Guillermo del Toro revealed the pretty silly reason he stepped away from directing the film’s 2018 sequel.
“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 pm or we would lose the stages in Toronto for many months,” he shared. “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.’”
While The Shape Of Water, a film about a human falling in love with a monster, went on to net del Toro an Oscar for Best Picture, Pacific Rim: Uprising—a pretty empty, Steven S. DeKnight-directed sequel about robots fighting monsters—pulled only middling reviews and disappointed at the box office. Netflix tried its hand at an anime extension, titled Pacific Rim: The Black in 2021, but the universe has been quiet ever since.
But while del Toro clearly won this proverbial breakup, the hurt is still fresh. “I didn’t see the final movie because that’s like watching home movies from your ex-wife,” he said. “It is terrible if they’re good and worse if they’re bad, or the opposite. You don’t wanna know.” With a total pivot to animation in his near future, it seems like Del Toro has successfully averted his eyes.
18 Comments
Just imagine what happened to the assistant to the assistant to the associate producer that got blamed for the missed payment.
As a person who was himself prone to little clerical mistakes in his early twenties, I am horrified to learn this information. I also really like the first Pacific Rim movie, did not like the second. Doubly horrified. Maybe one day he can do his own movie and like Halloween ignore the previous sequel.
There’s rumours and speculation that it was done on purpose to shift production to China on behest of investors so I wouldn’t stress about it.I mean it sounds fishy that they left it to the last day, doesn’t it? As a big client guaranteeing work and saving them having to chase a replacement, you’d think the people leasing out the stages would have sent them at least one reminder prior to the very last day, wouldn’t you?
Hey, at least you’re not the guy(s) who let the lease at Park City ski resort lapse after 50 years running the place, then see it snatched up by Vail Resorts. There are clerical errors, then there are catastrophes.
It sounds like a joke to me, honestly, and he just didn’t want to do the sequel (and hasn’t watched it because he’s got plenty of other shit to do).
His involvement or lack thereof would not likely have changed the sequel given that the first is also pretty damn awful.Personal opinion, whatever, fine, I get it. But I fucking HATE Pacific Rim. Especially the “comedy” subplot with Charlie Day and Burn Gorman.
The second is waaaaaaay worse than the first (it’s like the porno version of the original) but I agree, the first is a big, stupid, noisy turd.
You’re not wrong. I wouldn’t call it awful, but there was a good idea in there that turned into an okay movie. I like Charlie Day but the comedy subplot was weird with the rest of the movie.
My appreciation for most of Del Toro’s other work made me particularly critical of Pacific Rim. And some of its weaknesses are things that annoy me more than others. The comedy in particular… I find that comedy in genre films has to be really strong and balanced to not annoy me.
We agree on many things on these boards my friend but this is a line I can not cross. I love the original Pacific Rim with a passion. Its big, dumb and cheesy and that is what makes it great. The sequel is just really really bad.To be fair to Pacific Rim and your opinion, I saw the original movie in theaters, in 3D IMAX, at what may have been one of the hardest weeks of my life. My sister was dying of cancer and I was in Arizona visiting her for the last time in hospice. I was also there to just help with my nephews who were obviously in a lot of pain. My solution was distraction and for 2 hours one afternoon this big dumb movie did just that for them and me. To this day when I am having a really tough day or week or month, I will put Pacific Rim on the biggest screen I can find, turn the volume to ten and just let it drowned out the outside world.
The first one is a hollywood budgeted love letter to SuperRobot genre,
The second one is a american saturday morning cartoon adaptation of the first, who miss most things that makes the first one good.
And to be fair to your opinion, I can be hyperbolic when a movie hits specific buttons for me. The comedy subplot really, really rubs me wrong and colors the whole experience.
I’d agree that Charlie Day’s portion was a bit… much. Like they could’ve gone with Charlie or Burn individually but having both just seemed excessive. Cutting their parts a bit could’ve given the Jaegers like Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha more screen time so that their defeat later on would have more impact. Cherno Alpha in particular had a lot of detail put into it’s design that never went on screen but goes a long way to explain why it’s pilots were the most experienced and successful of the bunch.
What I loved about the first movie was that it was essentially a love letter to giant robot anime, kaiju films, and even some Sentai series.
The second movie seemed to want to lean more into the Sentai said.. but chose to emulate the Western adaptations of such while simultaneously wiping out the previous film’s protagonists for no apparent reason.
That subplot also leads to Ron Perlman in a role that seemed like a real waste of his talent. Which is crazy given how well he’s been served by Del Toro before.
Yeah he was really wasted. They could’ve gone into how his attempt to drift with a Kaiju brain is the reason that the Kaiju suddenly became more effective when Gipsy Danger was first defeated. It could’ve been a plot point that would have meshed well with the unstated plot that Newt accidentally gave them the knowledge of the weaknesses for all of the Jaegers except the rebuilt Gipsy Danger (which was Mako’s personal rebuild project and received upgrades beyond the initial design) when he first drifted with the brain. In the next encounter, the Kaiju show up and have abilities and knowledge that specifically counter and instantly defeat the Jaegers. The Kaiju Leatherback in particular should not have known that Cherno Alpha’s cockpit was in the chest rather than the head like every other Jaeger. Stuff like that needed more development rather than a focus on Newt going full Charlie Day. Also would’ve been nice to see Cherno’s nuclear flamethrowers in action.
I saw theorising that it was deliberately allowed to lapse because the production company wanted to shift it to China anyway and there might have also been pressure from investors as Pacific Rim did best or at least very well in China and that’s where a lot of money was coming from to make the sequel.
The Pan’s Labyrinth director hasn’t even watched the sequel to his 2013 blockbusterGuillermo Del Toro: He’s just like me! In this one respect!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!I’m trying to think of a similar drop in quality from one franchise entry to another. Jaws to Jaws 2 (and all the rest)? Burton’s Batman to Schumacher’s Batman and Robin? Alien and Aliens to Alien vs Predator and Prometheus?Pacific Rim is one of my favorite movies of all time. To think the sequel was so shitty… because of bungled paperwork? We could have had Mako’s continuing adventures, and instead they killed her off in the first 5 minutes? The weight, the bulk and majesty of those incredible machines in the first… replaced by weightless Michael Bay-style shenanigans? And the legitimately interesting ideas (drones vs live pilots, Newton turned to the enemies) totally squandered by a half-baked, half-assed sequel… I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed by a movie.The original is still around though. I ought to rewatch it one of these days. It’s one of those films that just doesn’t get old.