Alarms bells howled in the Shatterdome a couple of days ago when, as part of a report on the internal wrangling between Legendary Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros., mention was made that Pacific Rim**’s planned sequel – subtitled Maelstrom – had been put on indefinite hold and might never see the light of day. But according to co-writer and director Guillermo del Toro, while there will be a delay, it’s not yet a cause for panic.
Contacted by Entertainment Weekly, the director said he’s still been toiling on the film alongside Zak Penn. “We are still turning in a screenplay and a budget in three weeks. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not gone. We’re still on it.” And yes, while there will be an additional delay, it’s just a temporary one. “It moved further,” he says. “I may do another movie in the middle.” Such is seemingly life for Guillermo: he’s seen various projects move around the schedule. But this has us hoping that it doesn’t suffer the same fate as his Lovecraft adaptation At The Mountains Of Madness, which endured numerous stops and starts, only to be shut down at the last moment.
Pacific Rim might not have generated the sort of box office response that a hefty-budgeted project normally requires to jumpstart a follow-up (made for around $190 million, it staggered past $100 million in the US) but scored a decent $411 global total, including a nice chunk from current hotspot China. And Legendary had seemed to be going full speed ahead on a new instalment set a few years after the original film. Now we suppose it’s more a case of wait and see... GDT, who joined Twitter today, next has gothic romance Crimson Peak on the schedule, set to arrive on October 16.