While Guillermo del Toro is globally celebrated as a titan of cinema, he has sometimes dabbled in the world of video games. Unfortunately, many of his videogame projects did not come to fruition and have been cancelled.
Following years of frustrating setbacks, Del Toro has adopted a cautious stance toward interactive entertainment. In a recent interview, the filmmaker made it clear that he is not interested in future video game projects, scarred by past failures such as the abrupt cancellation of his planned BioShock film adaptation.
Guillermo del Toro and His Failed Videogame Projects
Video game adaptations are more popular than ever and have become box office hits on several different occasions. It seems like the perfect setting for Guillermo del Toro to bring a popular interactive entertainment franchise to the big screen, but after multiple setbacks in the industry, he is no longer interested.
Recalling his efforts to translate the world of BioShock to film in an interview with IGN, Del Toro noted that his initial fascination with Rapture and its inhabitants in 2017 quickly dissolved as the film was plagued by unforeseen obstacles.
The filmmaker participated in a “very contentious ” call to analyze the possible adaptation of several titles, knowing it was going to be a huge challenge due to the interactive factor of video games. He was willing to try but the project collapsed very soon.
“You know, I tried. We had a very contentious call about a couple of games. I find that the dynamics of a video game are very different than a movie. They may be cinematically similar in terms of the camera moving and this and that, but the storytelling is very different, because you’re not solving puzzles. You’re not assembling. (…) So adapting it, BioShock, we had a couple of calls. They are probably one of the most disastrous calls I’ve ever had. So no, f**k no,” he explained.
The director also addressed the fate of InSANE, a survival-horror trilogy previously slated for publication under THQ. The project was cancelled following the company’s financial collapse and it has not been mentioned since.
Although Del Toro has sworn off creating video games altogether, he does not completely dismiss future cameo appearances as demonstrated by his involvement as Deadman in Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding.
“Never again. No, not at all — we developed Insane, and then that went down. A lot of the ideas later, I saw stuff that was done in other video games that was similar. And I went, ‘Well, somebody did it. That’s great.’ But we were aiming really high,” he said.
Del Toro’s Friendship with Kojima Keeps Him Close to the Videogame Industry
Guillermo del Toro also spoke about his time on P.T. and his friendship with Hideo Kojima, one of his strongest ties to the video game industry. He remembered the Japanese creator fondly and called him a “pure artist” for his work on Death Stranding and other projects.
“I mean, I’m glad to get on the ride for free, but everything that ended up being PT, it was him. I love that man. He’s one of those guys you meet that you go, you might as well be in the Renaissance. You are in front of a pure artist and he cares about one thing, stories. That’s it,” Del Toro explained.
Aside from participating in Death Stranding as Deadman, Del Toro has not appeared in any other videogame and does not seem interested in doing so in the future.
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