While Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming robots vs. alien movie, Pacific Rim, promises to amaze us on one scale, his Gothic ghost story Crimson Peak is a whole other sort of awesome. At least that’s how it sounds to me, based entirely on the words ‘Gothic ghost story’ and ‘Guillermo del Toro’ being spoken in the same breath. Today, the director has added another member to the already impressive cast list.
Supernatural star Jim Beaver has signed on to play one of the five lead characters in Crimson Peak. He joins a cast that so far includes Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Charlie Hunnam and Benedict Cumberbatch. Beaver sounds pretty damn excited about the whole thing too, as he said on his Facebook page:
Okay, I’m back again with that big deal that I couldn’t talk about but couldn’t shut up about either. Well, now I can talk about it, because today it came true. Guillermo del Toro, director of PAN’S LABYRINTH, HELLBOY, and the upcoming PACIFIC RIM, has cast me in one of five leading roles in his new film CRIMSON PEAK, a Gothic ghost story also starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Jessica Chastain, and Charlie Hunnam. We start shooting in Toronto in January.
Beaver has already had his share of experiences with the other world due to his role as Bobby Singer, a working-class ghost hunter of sorts, on Supernatural. Singer’s announcement of his attachment to Crimson Peak also brings with it the knowledge that film will actually be a Gothic ghost story. That so far is the only plot detail that we know. That and the fact that there are five leads of increasing coolness. Woot.
While I’m all for Pacific Rim, especially since the last trailer, I have to give an edge to Crimson Peak. Del Toro does big action really well, but his best films both as a producer and as a director have been the smaller, more intimate ghost stories and fantasies like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone. Crimson Peak seems like its going to fall more into the latter category, if Beaver’s ‘Gothic ghost story’ comment is any indication.
Crimson Peak will begin shooting in January, which hopefully means we can expect it sometime at the end of 2014. Hopefully. Until then, we’ll have to be satisfied with the big robots of Pacific Rim.