Guillermo del Toro joined Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees event this weekend to discuss his latest movie Nightmare Alley, nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture. The film is based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel, which had been previously adapted for the screen in 1947 in a noir classic starring Tyrone Power.
Del Toro had read the book before he’d seen that movie, and he told Deadline he had always seen his vision for an adaptation “vividly” in his head. “I thought there were so many possibilities open in the book to talk about truth, lies, and the rise of a liar. An almost unstoppable rise,” del Toro said. “It felt very very ripe for the moment we’re in as a society.”
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The Searchlight Pictures film follows the story of Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), a drifter with a dark past who will stop at nothing in his quest for riches and power, even if that means hurting the people around him. But fate, it seems, may be the immovable object to challenge his unstoppable force. The film also stars an ensemble cast of heavyweights including Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, David Strathairn and more. Including Best Picture, the film is Oscar-nominated for Production Design, Costume Design and Cinematography.
The film, he said, “is perfect for today because noir always speaks about the moment it’s made in. Post-war noir speaks about that anxiety. The Long Goodbye as done by [Robert] Altman speaks about post-Vietnam, and so on. This movie felt perfectly suited to discuss where we are today. About the cruelty we have for each other. About the capacity we have to lie and fool ourselves.”
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Check out the panel video above, which includes del Toro discussing the ensemble he assembled in front and behind the camera.
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