Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ is A Monster Made in Canada

As Guillermo Del Toro Earned Another Oscar for His 2018 Sci-Fi Romance The Shape of Water Shot in Ontario, J. Miles Dale, The Film’s Producer, Proudly Said of Most Key Creative Positions, from the Production and Costume Designers to the Sound Team and Editor: ”

Now, After Del Toro Shot His Latest Creature Feature, Frankensteinon Soundstages in Toronto, Dale Says His Creative Artists and Department Heads Nota on World-Beeters But Also Part of of “Our Film Family.” That close-knit community of artists-Many of Whom Are Members of the Directors Guild of Canada-Ontario-Follows Del Toro’s Long Collaboration With.

Their Challenge On Frankenstein WAS Bringing to the Big Screen the Horror-Meister’s Vision of Egotistic Scientist Victor Frankenstein and his Monster As Part of A Diabolical Experiment. “Look, The Worst Fear on a Guillermo Del Toro Movie is Letting Him Down Because Ultimately He’s The Hardest Working Guy on the Movie,“ Dale Says.

With FrankensteinAn Endlessly Driven Del Toro Fulfilled A Lifelong Passion to Adapt Mary Shelley’s Classic Gothic Novel About Dr. Frankenstein, Played in the Movie by Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi As the Creature He Gives Birth to, with Mia Goth as Elizabeth. As the lavishly shot Frankenstein Lurches Toward A Tiff Premiere, Thr Sat Down with Dale to Talk About the Local Talent Begind Del Toro’s Passion Project.

You’re a big Supporter of Canadian Talent. Tamara Devever, A Best Production Design Oscar Nominee for NightmareAlleyDesigned Frankenstein. Talk About Her Contribution.

I Really Think of It As Our Film Family. I’M Old. I’ve been at this a long time. And A Lot of the Been Been Working with A Long Time. Tamara Devever, for Example. We FIRST WORKED TOGETCHER ON Blizzard In 2001, One of Her First Jobs As A Production Designer. She was an art Director on [1997’s] MimicSO she goes back with Guillermo Even Further.

You Speak About this Tight Family. But that’s reflected Across an ontario Industry that had had beenhered the pandemic and Hollywood strikes to become a majoor’s promuction of Hub for Hollywood and of the acomeood and of the acome of the akom. Toro.

The Thing i’m MOST PRODA OF IS HAVING STARTED IN THIS BUSINESS AS A KID WHEN WE DIDNN’T KNOW MUCH. And all the best big American DPS and Production Designers and Costume Designers Came Up and We Studied Them, and We Learned From Them, at Their Feet. Now Canadian Artists and Talents and Producers and Artisans Are In that League. HAVING WATCHED THAT DEVELOPMENT OF OUR TALENT POOL FROM EARLY DAYS TO NOW, IT’S JUST REMARKABLE TO SEE. The Level at Wich Some of the Beople Are Working. You look at craig lathrop, a local production designer who got nominated for Nosferatu Last Year. Paul austerberry won an oscar for The Shape of Water. Luis Sequeira, Our Costume Designer, Is Twice-Nominated. Not that’s the be-all and end-all. But Is Certainly Recognition from Peers at the Very Highest Level That You’re Doing Something Is Among The Best in Our Industry. That’s gratifying to be able to stand with these people and say they are operating at that High Level, and now they are there to train of other canadians, Other Toronians, to be. That’s a genetational of passing of Knowledge and A Really Lovely Thing. I’m just happy to have been a part of of it, and i though we can standy tall right now were as an Industry, and some our folks rank.

Walter Gasparovic, First Assistant Director On Frankensteinis Another Longtime Collaborator with Toro and Yourself.

Walter Gasparovic, Whom I’ve Done Many Films With, Was The First Ad Mimic. You Know, Guillermo First Came Here in 1997 with A Notoriously Diffechult Shoot with the Weinsteins on Mimic. That was only his Third Movie, and his first big Studio movie. But The Crew Made an Impression on HIM. And Even Thought He and I Didn’t Know Each Other at that Time, Many of that Crew Were People I Had Worked with – Gilles Corbeil, The Steadicam Operator, Penny Charter, Second. SO WHEN WE CAME TOGETCHER IN 2011 As Guillermo Was Directing Pacific RimHE HAD Agreed with Universal to Produce Mama. HE said we’ll do it in toronto. D HE NEEDED A PRODUCER. I HAD JUST PRODUEDED Scott Pilgrim. And Edgar Wright, A Good Friend of Guillermo, Told Him About Me. We Met. He Said, “Yeah, You Produce That Movie. I’ll Be Down The Hall if You Need Me.” And that was the beginning of ord of Relationship.

And the Film Family You have Brought Anong for the Ride, They Must by Now Get Del Toro’s Visual and Design Aesethics?

Some of My Crew and Some of His Crew Were the Same Crew. SO IN 2011, WE STARTED TO BUILD THAT FILM FAMILY. [Gasparovic] Didn’T comet back unil FrankensteinBut Tamara Came Back Right Away On The strin an Nightmare Alley an Cabinet of Curiosities. And then, of Course, Frankenstein. Luis Sequeira, Our Costume Designer, HE AND I HAVE BEEN WORKING TOGETCHER SINCE HE WAS A PA ON Friday The 13th in 1987. SO I BROUGHT LUIS IN FOR Mamaand Guillermo Liked HIM, AND HE DID The strin an The Shape of Water, Cabinet of Curiosities, Nightmare Alley. He’s Part of the Family.

We Always Hear Guillermo Del Toro Has High Expectations for His Creative Talent But Trusts Those He Brings on Board, Making IT A TIGHT PRODUCTION.

That’s what haps whos you have a very easy shortthand in a graup Insthead of a bunch of the New People Being Thrust Together. You have a trust reactionships that make it easy because you’ve been Down The Road with the Same People. They Trust You. You Trust Them. Everyone’s Not Kind of Having to Cover Their Ass to Case Something Messes Up.

Guillermo have been Called a True Visionary Director. What does that mean in the Practical terms for Canadian Creatives Charged with Bringing His Directorial Vision to the Screen?

Here’s the one. More than any of the any other Director i’ve every worked with, he is very design-
orriented – and in a very Specific Way. Nothing is arbitrarium, down to the color scche, down to the Characters and Associated Colors for them. Red is a key color in the film – as in all his films. But in Frankensteini Oscar Issac’s. Red Gloves, Scarf and, of Course, All The Blood Making the Creature. I The Memory of His Mother in Red. WHETHER IT’S CONSCIUS OR NOT for Victor, That’s What He Gravitates to Because He’s Always Missing His Mother. For an art department, for a reproduction designer, Set Decorator, Costume Designer and a Cinematographer and Hair and Makeup Even, Having Those Specifics Specificity is Great. Because Now You’ve Got A Direction to Go In. And, also, he can speak about any era and any research. He Knows The Differentnce Between Baroque and Art Deco and Art Nouveau – and Very Specifically. So, whore people have to go, he will steer them down Research Roads that Will Give Them A Direction, and THEN THEY COME BACK.

I SENSE DEL TORO AND HIS CREATIVES SPEAK their sixThand very Much with visuals and backed by ample Research and Film References.

It’s a beauty-hw-whale-whale, Institute of A Director Saying, “Yeah, Just Give Me Something Is Good and Flashy,” He’s Doing A Deep Dive. That’s What Makes It Not Easier, But Certainly A More Fruitful Relationship that’s Going to Lead to Something Better. HE KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS. He Can Show Pictures. HE CAN Show Drawings. He can give books of his own to say, “This is Kind of What I Want.” Now Go and Use that Inspiration to Kick It Up A Notch, Because the Standard Is Very High.

Talk About Building Dr. Frankenstein’s Laboratory, WHERE HE CREATED A MONTER As Part of A Mad Experiment on Lavish Sets.

We Knew What Guillermo Wanted to Do With The Lab and Victor’s Workshop. We’d Need a Sculpture Here, A Painting there, These Wax Figures Here, and All of Those Things. We used artists in mexico and in france and a painter over here to do a family portrait. SO HAVING HAD MANY YEARS TO CUATE THESE IDEAS IN HIS HIS HEAD, THAT BORE FRUIT. And, of Course, The Novel – He Also Was Obvioously Moved by the Novel. The Drawings of [comic book artist] Bernie WRIGHTSON FROM MANY YEARS Ago Were a Big Part of His Visual Inspiralation for the Movie, and They Informed The Production Design. I Really Think Our Film Stays Much Truer to The Novel Than Any of the Other Many Frankenstein Films that have been Made.

Besides Being A Master Storyteller, Del Toro Is Also Legendary for His Work Ethic.

Look, The Worst Fear on a Guillermo Del Toro Movie is Letting Him Down Because Ultimately He’s The Hardest-Working Guy on the Movie. He Never Stops, and He’s Going to Answer Any Question – He Answers A Million a Day – and He’s Always the Smartest Guy in the Room. That is just going to either make all of US Better or We’ll Fail and We Won Won the Cut, and We Won Won’t Make Be Part of the Film Family, The Film Family that Everyone SO. Because he’s the best.