Guillermo del Toro has just announced that he’ll be writing and directing “Trollhunters,” a feature project he will write and direct at DreamWorks Animation.
This will be his first major foray into the world of animation, but in this, “transmedia” world, he feels artists need to be familiar with all aspects of media.
“Trollhunters,” a working title, is based on a young-adult book del Toro submitted to publisher Hyperion about two weeks ago. He originally came up with the idea around the time he sold “The Strain,” the vampire book trilogy he is writing with Chuck Hogan, and he has been working on it since.
“I wanted very much to develop a story that could be written for kids but dealt with a genre that was scary. It essentially combines fairy tales with modern times and is about how difficult it is to be kid. Normally, kids are idealized in animated films. But the growing pains, married with the notion that there is a world right next to us that is completely plagued by creatures of ancient lore, it’s thematically fitting with the rest of my stuff.”
Don’t get too excited just yet though, because before he does “Trollhunters” he’s still got “At the Mountains of Madness”, “Haunted Mansion” and “Midnight Delivery.”