While there seems to be a new story about possible Guillermo Del Toro projects every few days, this latest one is too juicy to ignore, although it's very much a rumor at this point, so judge it accordingly.
Guillermo Del Toro has always been a big fan of comic books, especially of the supernatural variety. His two Hellboy adaptations are a prime example of where his tastes lie, and apparently he's been keen on doing something similar but in a much bigger way. Latino Review, who you know I think are sketchy at best with their so-called "exclusives", are saying that Warner Bros. is so in love with Del Toro right now thanks to the incredible response to Pacific Rim that they've been throwing projects at him left and right, from a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sequel(???) to a feature version of V. Both rejected, thankfully.
But what they say Del Toro is really jonesing for is a crack at DC's superheroes, specifically the more magic-based heroes. They say he wants to do an "Avengers"-style film that would unite supernatural heroes such as Deadman, The Spectre, Swamp Thing, Constantine Hellblazer, Phantom Stranger, Zatanna, Zatara, Sargon, and Etrigan the Demon. Chances are you've heard of maybe three of these jokers. Swamp Thing has of course been in movies and TV before, and Keanu Reeves starred as Constantine in a decent but slowly-paced 2005 film.
This actually sounds a lot like DC's current Justice League Dark comic book series, so maybe that's where he's drawing the inspiration. Assuming this has even a kernel of truth to it, I mean. This would still be a long ways off, though, as Del Toro will be adapting his vampire novels The Strain for the small screen, and apparently Warner Bros. has some legal wrangling to go through to secure the rights to all of the characters Del Toro wants.
Something about this doesn't quite compute for me, though. WB has enough on their plate getting the Justice League ready for 2015, along with a number of other solo films they're working on. I can see why they'd want to stay in the Del Toro business and have him be a fixture in their comic book universe, but wouldn't you think they'd get the major heroes squared away first?
We'll see how this pans out, but right now I'm thinking this rumor's a bit shaky.
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