Guillermo Del Toro could have destroyed Singapore

SAN FRANCISCO - Do you ever look out the window at your lovely city, watch happy families go by and lazy cats bake in the sun, and say to yourself, “If only giant monsters from another dimension had crushed all of this to itty bitty pieces?”

Well, it almost happened here in Singapore.

The main battle in Guillermo Del Toro’s epic robots-versus-monsters flick, Pacific Rim, doesn’t happen in American cities with unbeaten reputations for movie alien invasions like New York, Los Angeles or Washington D.C. It happens in Asia, in the port city of Hong Kong, to be precise. Buildings are smashed, a cargo ship is used to bash a monster on the head, and terrified locals run shrieking in every direction. It’s what everybody wants for their country.

Why destroy Hong Kong and not Singapore, we asked Del Toro in a one-on-one interview recently in San Francisco where he and his Pacific Rim cast were promoting the film. If it’s a port you want, I reminded him, we beat them last year. Ask the World Shipping Council.

“I’ve been to Singapore. I like Singapore a lot. When I went to Singapore, I went to Hong Kong — it was the same trip,” said Del Toro.

So all that destruction and mayhem could have been inflicted on Singapore?

“What I liked about Hong Kong is that, visually, it has all these neon colours. There’s a moment at night when all the lights come on. And it has Stonecutters Bridge, which is amazing to look at, you know?”

If only we were more neon.

Q: Is it true that your student short film featured a toilet monster, and are you ever going to let anybody see it?

A: It’s probably destroyed. I may have it — I have a huge closet full of my crap — but it is probably destroyed. It literally was a monster that came out of the toilet. And it was just my hand covered in goo. It went through the whole school and then it went back into the toilet. It was terrible. Terrible.

Q: I’m sure it had a whimsical quality to it.

A: No, it was terrible. (Laughs) Horrible!

Q: You had two false starts with The Hobbit and At The Mountains Of Madness. How great was it to finally see a movie through to the end again?

A: I think it’s the most fun I’ve ever had on a movie. And it was also a lifesaver. I was so desperate. I’d gone three years without making a movie, and then Pacific Rim came like a rescue ship and picked me up from the ocean and took me to a beautiful place.

Q: Let’s talk about some of your other projects that have been in development for a while. Is Pinocchio still happening?

A: We’re having a terrible time financing the movie. I believe in the movie whole-heartedly. I think it would be a beautiful movie, but any time you try to do animation that is slightly darker, financiers get very scared.

Q: How about the Hulk for TV?

A: That, I think is gone.

Q: Hellboy 3?

A: It’s not happening yet, but if we find someone to finance it, we would do it.

Q: Is your horror movie Crimson Peak a definite go?

A: That’s happening in January. With Charlie Hunnam, Jessica Chastain, Benedict Cumberbatch and Mia Wasikowska.

Q: You like working with actors regularly. Do you appreciate the idea of a troupe?

A: Yeah, it’s a little bit like if you enjoy being with someone, you marry each other. You know what I’m saying? Let’s spend the rest of our lives together. I marry my actors, in a way. I love them and I want to see them again and again and again. Why do you need someone new? I don’t. Ron Perlman! (Laughs)

Q: Would it be an accurate assumption that you have a thing for eyes when creating your creatures?

A: Yes. I think that whenever I draw, I start with the eyes. I draw the eyes first and I’m constantly drawing eyes. You’ll have to ask a psychologist what that means. I don’t know. I just think eyes are a very important piece of the design. They give you something to focus on. And the absence of eyes is very scary.

Q: I really appreciate the fact that you have non-American actors speaking their native languages, instead of making it seem like everyone in the world speaks English like it usually is in most Hollywood movies. Why is Hollywood so allergic to subtitles?

A: I think that every choice is political. When you decide that a woman can be a character of her own and not have to fall in love with the f***ing guy, that’s a political choice. When you choose that they can speak in their own language and be subtitled, that’s a political choice. I think it’s very important for us to understand that we are all — the whole world — in the same robot. It’s this f***ing planet. No matter who you are, what you like to do, whatever your race or whatever your religion, we’re all human. And I think it’s really great to make a movie that celebrates that diversity.

Q: What to you are some of the coolest robots ever created?

A: From any medium? Maria from Metropolis, Robbie The Robot from Forbidden Planet, the B9 from Lost In Space, Astro Boy from Osamu Tezuka, Iron Giant from Brad Bird, the ED (Enforcement Droid) from Robocop, Huey, Louie and Dewey from Silent Running.

Q: Would you survive an actual alien attack?

A: I think so. Because I survived working with the Weinsteins. (Smiles)

Pacific Rim is in cinemas now.