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Guillermo Del Toro Talks Visual Style, Channing Tatum, and Pacific Rim 2

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Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro is a very busy man.

Right now he’s deep in post-production on ‘Crimson Peak’, a haunted house horror film starring Tom Hiddleston, he’s got a TV show running based on his book ‘The Strain’, plus there’s pre-production to be done on ‘Pacific Rim 2’ which is shooting next year.

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On top of that, he’s produced new animated film ‘The Book of Life’ with director Jorge Gutierrez (in cinemas this week), and he told us that despite all this work, he still finds time to watch a film every morning.

Watch the full interview below.

Here’s 10 more things we learned from our chat with the busiest man in Hollywood…

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The visual style for ‘The Book of Life’ was inspired by folk art and Fleischer Studios animations like Betty Boop and Popeye.

They wanted to make the film visually distinct from every other animated film. “This movie has a sense of style that felt so ancient, that it was new,” explains Del Toro.

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This is a film from the heart, not driven by the merchandising department, the filmmaker told us. “It’s not a movie that is cynically created by a team of marketeers. It comes directly from the gut of Jorge. And his gut is quite considerable!”

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Above: La Muerte and Xibalba

Ron Perlman’s voice acting influenced how they animated his character Xibalba. “He became a more romantic rascal, a much more suave character.”

Del Toro describes his role as producer as being the “Sherpa” to director Jorge’s “Edmund Hillary”. “He’s climbing Everest, I’m just there to indicate the roads, bring the food, make sure the goats are lined up along the way.”

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Above: Channing Tatum voices “town quarterback” Joaquin

They had to redesign Joaquin’s face to suit Channing Tatum’s “swaggering” performance.

They wanted the 3D to have the charm of the old View-Master toys. “We didn’t want to force the 3D into your face.”

Guillermo says he watches ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Road Warrior’ before making any film. In fact, he watches a movie every single day when he’s directing a film.

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Above: Director Jorge Gutierrez and Guillermo Del Toro

He admits he can be a bit “meddlesome” in certain filmmaking departments, but that he’s very blessed to work with people he admires.

Pacific Rim 2 will shoot at the end of 2015 and he promises it will be “very, very different” from the first one. “We took whatever worked on the first one, whatever made us happy, and we’re planning to be even happier this time. It’s a very different direction, I think it’s going to be a very different movie.”

'The Book Of Life' is in cinemas from October 24.

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Image credit: Press Association/Fleischer Studios/20th Century Fox