CRIMSON PEAK marks about the zillionth film announcement Guillermo Del Toro has made this year. Nevertheless, the director seems to be serious about this one and has elaborated on the project via his official website’s fan forum:
CP is not Hell House at all. Nothing could be further from that. CP is a spec script Matthew [Robbins] and I wrote right after Pan’s Labyrinth. It stayed mostly under the radar but I have been pushing it quietly. Universal has been very supportive and wanted to do it. It’s set at the turn of the century and it is a Gothic romance with ghosts. When I use the GR term I use it not in the Barbara Cartland model but rather in a Bronte fashion. Dark and stormy and wind- swept.
This is my first foray into horror since Sci-Fi/Horror Mimic. DBB was more of an essay on ghosts than a ghost story and, except as producer, I have not returned to scary stuff in a long time. Glad you guys are jazzed. So am I!!
So Del Toro is taking the WUTHERING HEIGHTS-style story into ghostly territories, eh? Sounds good to me. With the modest success of THE WOMAN IN BLACK, Victorian ghost flicks could be experiencing a rebirth. Since Del Toro is at the helm, CRIMSON PEAK is certainly worth getting excited about… that is, if he actually gets around to making this one. Fingers crossed he’s for reals this time.