Guillermo del Toro updates on Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim 2

Pacific Rim heads up the ultimate summer 2013 preview in the brand new issue of Total Film magazine (which is out now, and available for only £1.99 on your iPad ).

Inside the issue, we chat in depth with Guillermo del Toro about his monsters vs robots sci-fi epic, and we’ve also got some incredible world exclusive Pacific Rim concept art for you to pore over.

And if that’s not enough, we also found time to question GdT on two of his future projects, namely Pacific Rim 2 and haunted house horror Crimson Peak .

On Pacific Rim 2 , del Toro told us, “Travis [ Beacham, co-writer ] and I have been working on it. We co-wrote the screenplay on this first one, and now we’re hard at work at doing the second one.

“We want to take however long it takes to really find out the idea and try to bridge something that really makes the mythology roll. And in the meantime, I’m going to shoot Crimson Peak , which is a ghost story.

“The great thing about Legendary is they’re willing to take it to completion in the right way. They’re giving us the leeway. Imagine that we’re generating the comic book. We’re learning more about the [ Pacific Rim ] world we’re creating day by day.”

And when we asked if GdT could share a few details on Crimson Peak with us, he obliged, saying, “It’s the turn of the century. So it’s at the turn of the century and half of the movie takes place in America, and the other half takes place in a crumbling mansion in Cumbria. And basically it’s a ghost story and gothic romance, trying to subvert the rules of the usual gothic romance.

“It’s very much... the first half is a love story, then that love story turns darker. And it’s at the same time a ghost story. I’m working at this moment with Lucinda Clarkson who is a really great playwright from the UK. She has the proper degree of perversity and intelligence to turn it into something interesting to watch.

“It’s sort of a very compelling version of the classic gothic romance, where you have the spookiness and the windswept landscape that dooms the characters, you know?”

For much more on Pacific Rim , including more astonishing concept art and an in-depth chat with Guillermo del Toro, pick up the brand-new issue 204 of Total Film magazine , which is on sale now.

And, Total Film magazine issue 204 comes with four incredible free posters: including Pacific Rim , Man Of Steel , Oblivion and The World's End .

[ Click on the posters to see a larger version ]

Read a full preview of Total Film magazine - Issue 204 .

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The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.