Darker Director For Darkest ‘Harry Potter’? Guillermo del Toro Hopes So

CHICAGO – So, Warner Bros.: Yes or no? Darker director Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) wants to direct “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” so badly he bought the final J.K. Rowling book for his daughter and latched onto it himself so she had to say: “When are you going to give it to me?”

He solidified his position of passion for the gig to MTV on Tuesday.

Guillermo del Toro. Photo credit: mun2

“I read it and I was very moved by the ending. It ends very much like a [Charles] Dickens novel.”

“I’m definitely interested [in directing the seventh ‘Harry Potter’ film],” he insisted, “now that the movies have grown darker. They have a contrast between the gloomy existence of the kid and the world he’s exposed to. They have evolved into a really nice universe.”

MTV can envision the fit, too:

The ‘deathstick’: a wand of destiny [that] makes its bearer unbeatable. A resurrection stone [that] enables the one who wields it to visit with the dead. A trip to the afterlife and a final duel [that] makes “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” look like kindergarten cops and robbers.

Indeed, given all the new elements of the “Harry Potter” universe introduced in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” there’s little doubt it would be right in del Toro’s wheelhouse – especially after the visionary “Pan’s Labyrinth” cemented him as the master of fairy tales that cross over from children to adults.

Even back on Oct. 26, 2007, the director again talked to MTV in Budapest about his interest in the project. His name even popped up as a directorial possibility for the third film (“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”), which winded up going to good friend Alfonso Cuarόn.

By ADAM FENDELMAN Editor-in-Chief HollywoodChicago.com adam@hollywoodchicago.com