Guillermo Del Toro headed to HBO with Nutshell Studies

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It seems like Guillermo Del Toro is busy doing everything but what we want him to do of late, which is direct movies.  However, it’s not like he’s surrounding himself with work that doesn’t sound appealing.  A new Incredible Hulk series on ABC, a stop-motion version of PINNOCHIO, and a slate of Dreamworks animation projects have all filled his plate, but thankfully he’s found time to get behind the camera with the upcoming PACIFIC RIM. 

However, Del Toro isn’t slowing down in the producing chair, now set to tackle HBO with their recently acquired Corinne May Botz’s photo book Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.  The project is describes as “a Hitchcockian drama about a 1950s small-town housewife who becomes obsessed with solving brutal crimes.” 

The book itself sounds interesting as well and you can check out a photoblog of the pics at Botz’s website here:

The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death offers readers an extraordinary glimpse into the mind of a master criminal investigator. Frances Glessner Lee, a wealthy grandmother, founded the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard in 1936 and was later appointed captain in the New Hampshire police. In the 1940s and 1950s she built dollhouse crime scenes based on real cases in order to train detectives to assess visual evidence. Still used in forensic training today, the eighteen Nutshell dioramas, on a scale of 1:12, display an astounding level of detail: pencils write, window shades move, whistles blow, and clues to the crimes are revealed to those who study the scenes carefully.

Sounds a little “Murder She Wrote” to me, but with Del Toro being involved I expect some intense, gothic storytelling with imaginitive visuals.  One can never tell, as Del Toro has yet to see any of his TV projects hit the masses yet, but I’d rather see this move forward than any of his other ventures.  With HBO’s tried and true formula, coupled with Del Toro’s visual sense and a strong female lead, Nutshell Studies could be something awesome.

Del Toro will serve as an executive producer as well as director on the project, with novelist Sara Gran (TNT’s Southland) on board to write and co-executive produce.  Stay tuned as this develops.  Del Toro’s PACIFIC RIM hits theaters on July 11, 2013.