Why Guillermo del Toro couldn’t say no to the “worst fucking idea” he’d ever heard
Making films comes with frustration, because nothing is ever going to go swimmingly. People will disappoint you, budgets might run over, and your ideas will probably be challenged – which is what Guillermo del Toro soon realised when he made his first Hollywood film, Mimic.
After making his debut film, Cronos, in 1992, an independently-produced film that sadly underperformed at the box office, it would be another five years until del Toro would get the chance to make another. Mimic eventually emerged after Miramax offered him the funds, but it proved to be a rather disastrous experience.
As his first foray into studio filmmaking with a much larger budget, del Toro didn’t know exactly what to expect. What came was a lack of complete creative control, which meant having to listen to ideas that he thought were terrible, because at the end of the day, the studio has the final say.
Mimic proved to be a dark point for del Toro, who wasn’t pleased with the final cut of the film, which Miramax’s Harvey and Bob Weinstein had interfered with. Talking to AV Club, the filmmaker revealed that “the first time I was in the studio system was the most unfortunate one, which was Mimic.”
He was brimming with ideas, but the studio had their own suggestions – profit is king, after all – and this left del Toro having to submit to something he hated. “I remember the worst fucking idea, the one that doomed the movie, and I knew right then and there the movie was kind of doomed already, and I didn’t fight hard enough to reject it. It was when – originally my screenplay, the creatures, the insects, the giant mimic insects, were a breed of scarabs – one of the producers said, ‘Well, it’s New York. They should be roaches.’ And the studio guys loved that idea.”
He didn’t want the scarabs to be roaches – he felt that would really cheapen things. The studio didn’t listen, though. “I said, ‘Listen, this is horrible, because no matter how classy we make it, no matter how smart we make it, we’re still a giant roach movie.’ And that’s inherently… it destroys the concept. A giant insect movie can be kind of cool. A giant roach movie can never, never survive that. And I knew than and there that was the doom of the fucking project.”
So, del Toro knew that Mimic was destined to fail, and as came as a surprise to nobody, it did fail. Spectacularly. Critics weren’t blown away by the roach movie, and it committed the ultimate cinematic sin by not making back its budget. Clearly, the producers should’ve listened to del Toro, because ultimately, he knows what his film needs better than anyone else.
The filmmaker was rather disillusioned following the ordeal, and it wasn’t until many years later that a director’s cut was released. Talking to Deadline, del Toro later revealed that he was “bruised” by the experience until he “finally did the director’s cut.” He added, “It’s not exactly the movie I wanted to do, but it definitely healed a lot of wounds. As soon as Miramax goes one way or the other as a company, those DVDs will come out.
“I am happy with the cut. I wouldn’t work again with a studio or a producer that is not interested in seeing my movie, first. I’m not saying I’m always going to be right, but look at the movie the way I wanted it. And if I really failed to deliver, then we can have a chat,” he concluded.
