Guillermo del Toro has insisted there will be “no g****** AI” involved in the Pan’s Labyrinth 3D re-release.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker is bringing his 2006 Spanish-language dark fantasy film back to the big screen to celebrate 20 years since its release but he ruled out using Artificial Intelligence and will instead rely on previously used restoration techniques.
Speaking at San Diego Comic-Con, he explained: “I said, ‘Absolutely no g****** AI’. It’s much more expensive. I don’t care. The thing is, what we’re protecting is the beauty and the redeeming power of art.”
Guillermo also admitted that not everyone on the crew understood his vision for the movie – a dark fantasy set during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939 – during filming.
He said: “We had a lot of adversity in the movie. And a lot of the crew was very sceptical. They would see a faun come in in the middle of a civil war movie, and they would say, ‘This f***** is crazy.’ But I remember the first time I knew, we were shooting the Pale Man.”
The movie will be re-released on October 9.
Meanwhile, del Toro previously revealed he feels that all of his movies, including The Shape of Water, Frankenstein and Pan’s Labyrinth, share a “sacramental beauty”.
Speaking at a promotional appearance for Frankenstein at the BFI IMAX in London, Guillermo explained: "I just felt this book should exist, because [Frankenstein’s] Creature is me. You know, I identify entirely with the Creature. And I wanted to tell the story the way Mary Shelley wanted to tell it, which is, it becomes every human.
"It is the origin of humanity and understanding as paradise lost … I know this sounds exaggerated, but it’s my religion. I was born and raised Catholic, and then at 11, I became a Frankensteinist."
Frankenstein was made for Netflix, but Guillermo has encouraged film fans to watch the movie in a cinema.
He said: "This is the best way to experience any story: collectively, and it is the best way to see movies. I mean, it takes 35,000 iPhones to make that screen … but it also is the communal [aspect].
"I think that movies — the way I see them — whether it’s The Shape of Water or Pan’s Labyrinth or this [Frankenstein], you know, they bring a sacramental beauty to them. If we commune with them, we can gain a spiritual tendency for empathy, for humanity, for forgiveness, for something that we need.
"If we experience it as a community, all the better, because we have never been so connected and so alone as we are right now."
