Del Toro would love to direct Maleficent

I love it when film makers are enthusiastic about the movies they make. I feel that there’s an extra level of detail, magic, as well as some nice theatrics when handled by the right director who has an affinity for the film they are making. Today I learned that Guillermo Del Toro would “love” to make a movie about Maleficent.

Source: LA Times

“Let me put it this way, if they ask I’ll take the meeting,” Del Toro said, speaking by phone from Toronto. “I think Maleficent’s dragon is the only design with the wings separate from the front legs, the only time that design has ever worked. And let me tell you how much of a fan I am. I have a collection of over two or three dozen Maleficent figures, some of them four or five feet tall. I own about 10 pieces of conceptual art from ‘Sleeping Beauty’ that include the dragon and a lot more pieces that are just from ‘Sleeping Beauty.’ It’s one of my three favorite Disney films. I would love to. But I don’t want to put too many hopes on it. They’re probably on a fast track and I cannot take any more projects on a fast track.”

Wow. That is mighty passionate. I like Disney properties as much as the next guy but I don’t have a magic carpet or a life size Simba doll. It seems so “off the cuff” of a question to even ask him but his response is really giving me the impression that’s he’s really given the idea of helming that project some thought. I’m already pretty keen on a movie about Maleficent anyway but the imagery dancing in my head of a Del Toro directed Maleficent film is taking me to strange, eerie, and downright awesome places.