Del Toro booked through 2017 (VAR)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

Guillermo del Toro and Universal are making a long-term commitment. The director and the studio - who have a three-year first-look deal signed in June 2007 – have set up four directing projects that see del Toro booked through 2017, and maybe beyond, says Variety.

The projects include remakes of "Frankenstein," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Slaughterhouse-Five" along with an adaptation of "Drood," a Dan Simmons novel that will be published in February by Little, Brown.

Del Toro’s first priority is New Line and MGM’s "The Hobbit," to which he has committed the next five years. He has begun writing "Hobbit" with Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

Variety says that Universal execs think “Drood” is the most likely candidate to be the director’s post-“Hobbit” gig.

In addition to the quartet of films, the studio still has its sights set on del Toro’s pet project, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s "At the Mountains of Madness."

Further, says Variety, Universal is also readying an adaptation of David Moody’s apocalyptic novel "Hater" that del Toro will produce with Mark Johnson but not direct, and "Crimson Peak," a gothic romance spec script by del Toro and Matthew Robbins, which del Toro will again produce but not direct.

During his "Hobbit" travails, del Toro will outline the other projects and hire writers.

The pics will be supervised at del Toro Prods. by his manager, Gary Ungar. Ungar will exec produce the films and will oversee the slate with development director Russell Ackerman and Universal’s Scott Bernstein.

"No one expected ‘The Hobbit’ to come about; it was the most marvelous monkey wrench tossed into my life," del Toro said. "I consider (the new deals) the renewal of my marital vows with Universal."

"Drood" has the author suppose that survival from a catastrophic train crash changed author Charles Dickens, plunging him into the depths of London depravity and possibly turning him to murder before he wrote his final novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

Frankenstein represents a longtime fascination for del Toro, who has made his home a memorabilia shrine to the Karloff monster from the 1931 Universal film, Variety notes.

For "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," del Toro plans to hew more closely to Robert Louis Stevenson’s prose and explore the addictive high Jekyll experienced as his alter ego.

And, del Toro plans to provide a more literal interpretation of "Slaughterhouse-Five" than the 1972 film adaptation, sticking closely to the Kurt Vonnegut novel about a prisoner in a German WWII POW camp who travels through time and space.

Meanwhile, del Toro is awaiting word on whether U will embrace a follow-up to "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army." "I think they’ll decide when the last euro hits the piggybank," he said. "We laid the groundwork to have a magnificent third act. I’d like to return to an action franchise with 60-year-old actor Ron Perlman, because he’ll be scratching at that age when I get to it."