Guillermo Del Toro Is Taking A Year Off As A Director

It will be even longer than we thought before Guillermo del Toro is ready to embark on Fantastic Voyage.

The visionary director of Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, and the upcoming The Shape of Water, already pushed back the start date for production on the upcoming sci-fi remake, but Variety reports that Del Toro is taking a yearlong break from directing.

"I'm taking a sabbatical for a year as a director," he said. "I was going to do Fantastic Voyage, but after The Shape of Water, I need to take pause."

The original plan for Fantastic Voyage was that production would begin in the spring and that the film would be released in 2019. After Del Toro delayed that schedule, production was expected to begin next fall for a potential 2020 release. But now that timeline seems a little unlikely. 

However, Del Toro will still be serving as a producer on other movies. "I have two projects with Bertha Navarro which we're studying," he said. "We're talking about producing a film by Patricia Riggen. I can't say the title, but she's a super-solid director, very nice person. She is the type of writer-director who can benefit from a strong production structure which helps her to express what she's interested in."

As for the second season of Del Toro's animated Netflix series Trollhunters, he said, "Yes, there is news. But Netflix would kill me if I talked. It will come in the next four weeks."