del Toro Partnering with HBO on “Nutshell Diaries”

Guillermo del Toro could soon be taking HBO to the scene of the crime…

The premium cable network has optioned the 47-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s latest project, Nutshell Studies, a Hitchcockian drama about a 1950s small-town housewife who becomes obsessed with solving brutal crimes.

Guillermo del Toro

It’s a fictionalized TV adaptation based on Corinne May Botz’s The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, which was an investigation into forensic pioneer Frances Glessner Lee, who founded Harvard’s Department of Legal Medicine in the 1930s, and later became a captain in the New Hampshire Police. Along the way, she constructed a series of dioramas based on real-life cases, which are still used for training purposes today.

del Toro will direct and executive-produce the project, which will be written by crime novelist and Southland writer Sara Gran.

Nutshell Studies

It’s the latest project from del Toro, who has been developing a potential Hulk live-action series for ABC. On the big screen, the Oscar-nominated writer-director, best known for such films as Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, is wrapping up work on the sci-fi adventure Pacific Rim, starring Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Charlie Hunnam and Ron Perlman.

“It’s a very, very beautiful poem to giant monsters,” says del Toro of the film. “Giant monsters versus giant robots.”

del Toro to Teach Master Classes on Hitchcock

Guillermo del Toro is about to get his Hitchcock on…

The 47-year-old Mexican filmmaker who directed the Hellboy films is partnering with the Toronto International Film Festival to lead four master classes on classic Alfred Hitchcock films this May. The TIFF Bell Lightbox lectures come as del Toro continues shooting the alien invasion film Still Seas, a.k.a. Pacific Rim, in Toronto.

Beginning Monday, May 7, del Toro will offer master classes for Frenzy, Shadow of a Doubt, North by Northwest and Notorious with a one-hour introduction and a one-hour post-screening discussion for each film.

Previously, del Toro—who has signed on to  produce an animated Day of the Dead film—was at Bell Lightbox to lecture genre film fans on the Italian vampire tale L’Arcano Incantatore, which del Toro programmed himself.

del Toro’s Still Seas is slated to open in theaters in May 2013.

del Toro to Produce Animated Day of the Dead Film

He’s already taking on a beauty and a beast… And, now Guillermo del Toro is ready to work with the living dead

The 47-year-old Mexican filmmaker who directed the Hellboy films will produce the CG-animated The Day of the Dead with Reel FX, an animation and live-action development and production studio.

Guillermo Del Toro

The film will be directed and co-written by Jorge R. Gutierrez, the 37-year-old Mexican animator who created the Emmy-winning animated television series El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera for Nickelodeon.

The Day of the Dead centers on a Romeo and Juliet-type love story set against a Mexican Día de los Muertos backdrop.

“I have admired Jorge’s work for a long time. He has a unique aesthetic and sense of humor. Day of the Dead offers a perfect opportunity for his sensibilities to shine,” del Toro said. “This is a colorful, vibrant, vital fable that utilizes the animation medium in an incredible way.”

The film, which marks the first time since 1993′s Cronos that del Toro has collaborated on a feature in his native Mexico, is being eyed for a fall 2014 release.

del Toro to Direct a New Beauty and the Beast Project…

He’s helped bring a demonic beast to life on the big screen… And, now Guillermo del Toro is preparing to take on a beast and a beauty.

The 47-year-old Mexican filmmaker, who helmed Hellboy and Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, will reportedly direct Harry Potter star Emma Watson in Beauty.

Guillermo del Toro

An adaptation of the novel Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of the Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley, the film is being hailed as a new take on the Beauty and the Beast tale.

The deal with del Toro, who is currently shooting Pacific Rim in Toronto, has been in the works since last spring.

In addition to Beauty, the Pan’s Labyrinth director is helming Trollhunters and developing a Haunted Mansion movie, as well as reportedly attached to direct both a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and a Frankenstein project.