The famous geek + Oscar director Gilmour del Toro, affectionately known as "Fat Gyro" by fans. His works are popular, from "Blade Warrior 2", "Hellboy", "Pacific Rim", to "Pan God's Labyrinth" and "The Shape of Water", entertainment and literature and art, his works are full of fantasy, science fiction, monsters and other styles, imagination is wild, deeply loved by fans.
But this business achievement always seems to be less powerful, and it is very unlucky.
You know, debut so many years, fat gyro as a director of the work, the highest box office in North America, is only 2013 "Pacific Rim" 101 million US dollars (the film is 411 million in the world, is also its personal highest, but the film cost up to 190 million), such as "The Shape of Water", "Hellboy" these masterpieces, the North American box office has not broken 100 million, even the famous "Pan God's Labyrinth", the global box office is only 87 million.
PS, the Oscar-winning "The Shape of Water", North America is only 63 million, fortunately in the global market is relatively powerful, the cumulative result of 195 million is still good.
Along with the commercial unremarkable, it also led to the ups and downs of these projects. For example, a few days ago he revealed the original plot of "Pacific Rim 2" originally developed by him:
"The villain is a tech tycoon who invented things like Internet 2.0 (similar to more advanced networks). Later, they found that all the invention patents of this tycoon seemed to have been obtained by him overnight. Slowly, they began to piece together the truth: Oh, his inventions were actually given to him by the 'pioneers'—the "pioneers" were the ones who controlled the Juju Beast.
Then they discovered that the pioneers were actually us thousands of years later. They want to transform the earth, they want to 'harvest' the earth again for their own survival, wow. Then we'd wear that exoskeleton biochemical uniform and look like an alien, but it wasn't, and inside the uniform was us. This is a very interesting paradox. ...... It's really crazy that there are some elements that they made some tweaks to use in the final second part. ”
And Gyro also revealed that in his second film, Mako (played by Kikuchi Rinko) will be the main character, rather than dying shortly after appearing in "Ring Tai 2" today.
But the actual situation is that Fat Gyro quit the project halfway, and although "Ring Tai 2" was finally released, the movie story was completely different from what he envisioned. As for the reasons for Gyro's withdrawal from the project, the over-the-counter factors involved Wanda's acquisition of Legendary Pictures during the period, but the main reason was the weak commercial performance of the first part, which could not convince investors.
Pacific Rim 2 was made, but another project was not so lucky, and that was the permanent death of Hellboy 3. (The Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen, which I see today, is a reboot of another company and has nothing to do with him.)
If it is said that the adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's classic masterpiece "Crazy Mountains" has not been taken over by investors, it has become a difficult point for the director. Then, "Hellboy 3" is the eternal heartache of the gyro director.
The story of the film, the director filmed the second part of the film, Gyro set a grand world view for the series, which has the wind, fire, water, gold four elements of the ancient artifact, and the second "Hellboy: Golden Legion" only filmed the "gold" part (golden legion), followed by the story of the sea and the sky waiting to be discovered.
But it is also limited by cost and business prospects, because the first two "Hellboy" north American box office plus only 130 million, while the original plan of "Hellboy 3", the cost estimate reached 170 million.
Fortunately, the CEO of Legendary Pictures is a "Hellboy" fan, he promised Gyro that he could invest, but the boss still hopes that Gyro's "Ring Tai 2" can make money, only in this way can shareholders give "Hellboy 3" a green light. Everything that follows is known to everyone, Legendary Pictures changed the door, and Gyro withdrew from "Ring Tai 2", which failed miserably at the box office and word of mouth.
All of this led to the stillbirth of Hellboy 3, and in 2017, Fat Gyro publicly stated that Hellboy 3 was officially aborted: "There will be no more". There was a lot of frustration between the words.
Along with Hellboy 3, there is also a spin-off work - Hellboy: Silver Riding Gun
It is the personal film of the main villain Prince Ada in the second part, the plot tells the story of the mermaid Abel and the angel of death in the second part, resurrecting the crossbow Ada, making him the secret agent of B.P.R.D., and shaping him as another anti-hero, who is a bit like the Winter Soldier?
The film is even more tragic, and it is ready to shoot. But be told, because of the third miscarriage, the title to Hellboy's character was bought by other companies, and you can't shoot it. (The company that bought the rights was Lionsgate Pictures, and they figured out a "Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen" and successfully smashed the signboard.)
In fact, these movies directed by Gyro, many small partners have seen, not bad, why the box office has not been powerful? In addition to the relatively unpopular theme, there is another reason, that is, bad luck!
For example, when the first part of "Hellboy" was released, it coincided with Easter in the West, and at about the same time as "The Passion of the Christ", this "movie from hell" was boycotted by some fanatical groups, not to mention the box office, and it was not bad to be removed from the shelves.
When the second "Hellboy: Golden Legion" was released, it collided with Nolan's "Dark Knight" schedule, and there was also a "Iron Man" hit in front of the two giants, you couldn't get the schedule at all.
And when "Pacific Rim" was released, it looked like such a strong giant, it should always sell out. As a result, the producer Legendary Pictures and the distributor Warner were torn apart, and the latter did not work well for you at all, resulting in the film's box office failure.
The worst was his first film from Mexico to Hollywood, 1997's Mutant DNA. During the director's filming, his father was kidnapped. As a result, I was absent-minded about what I did, and of course I didn't shoot well.
But then again, since most of Gyro's works are not ideal at the box office, why does he still have so many filmmakers looking for him to shoot, and even the busiest filmmaker in Hollywood?
Quite simply, this person is really good at filming, and the brain hole is very large, and the most valuable thing is that he is good at creating IP.
For example, "Pacific Rim" and "Pan's Labyrinth" are not good at the box office, but the circulation is very widespread, at least even we on the other side of the ocean are very familiar with it, adapted from the comic "Hellboy", which is also popular all over the world after the movie. He is also the producer/screenwriter of popular film and television dramas such as the "Hobbit" series, "Kung Fu Panda 3", and the American drama "Blood Clan".
Sometimes the value of a work can not be simply reflected in the box office, especially this kind of commercial blockbuster, the "added value" and "cultural effect" generated by its global popularity cannot be measured by price. In this era of motionless comic adaptation and remakes, you say that hollywood filmmakers, who now dare to guarantee that they have the ability to create a world-class IP? Spielberg, Cameron, these can be, Gilmour del Toro is also a number one.
However, when it was released at that time, it did not sell well, and it lost money, and you said that metaphysics was not.
It can be seen that although the gyro director finally won the Oscar with "The Shape of Water", the director's level was recognized. But what happened to him in the field of commercial films...
Should I look for a master to calculate, see if it is a feng shui problem, do not understand feng shui, look at the tarot card can also ah, see if you are with something to mess with? Why movies are always twisting and turning.
The picture below is the ultimate dream of the director's home, the fat house
When the gyro director will be able to turn around commercially, and when he will really usher in a real blockbuster, we can only wait and see.
By the way, his new film, the suspense thriller movie "Jade Face Love Demon", was released on the same day as "Spider-Man: Heroes Of No Return", and it is estimated that it is enough to choke.