Hey folks, Harry here... Guillermo has been talking about this film forever, and about 2 years ago it looked very much like it would be moving forward nearly instantly with Francis Ford Coppola's company producing, but as with all things Hollywood, looks can be deceiving and DEVIL'S BACKBONE and BLADE II came first. And with Kevin Reynold's adaptation heading into production, the story was being visited. For the longest time, Guillermo called the film MONTECRISTO - all run together like that, but I believe that it is now called THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS. I've read the script for this, and it is absolutely a revenge story from the pit of Hell. This will probably be a few years down the road, to get some distance between this and the Kevin Reynolds adaptation, but make no mistake about it... This is one that Guillermo will eventually make. It is his most personal work and a project very very dear to his heart. Here's the story...

Hi Harry,

I've got some cool news concerning Guillermo del Toro and his adaptation of "The Count of Monte Cristo". Here is what he said to a French mag called "Mad Movies" for its June edition :

"It's a very gothic adaptation of the book. I've always thought that Dumas (the author of the book) wanted to evoke the spirit of the "1001 nights", his fascination for the Orient. Each adaptation was an adventure film or a classic movie without any invention, exoticism. So I wondered what would give this book adapted as a western(...). In the book, the Count is often mentioned as a "pirate", a "vampire", a "thief". He's very dark. And in my adaptation, the Count only goes out at nights. He's very close to a Dracula coming from a western, all dressed in black, red and gold. He has a mechanical arm that allows him to draw his gun faster than every one (...). Monte Cristo will be a very catholic movie (...).

You'll realize the madness of the character.

The end of the movie has a fucking great scene of duel, where this character lost in his madness faces his enemies, in the middle of his old hacienda half covered by sand. He's so furious that the shots of his enemies can't stop him any longer (...)

I've been trying to make this project for 10 years now. I always have these images with me. But the movie is so huge in my mind that I must find the perfect conditions to make it (...) I can wait (...)."

Then , to sum up, he described this movie as "Fucking great! Cojonudo!".

Guillaume

PS: Excuse me if there are mistakes but I'm French.