The film is the follow-up to del Toro’s highly successful feature Hellboy, that continues the adventures of the superhero from the underworld whose mission is to “bump back against things that go bump in the night.”

In his conversation with Hackford, del Toro had both the moderator and the audience in stitches with humorous comparisons between himself and his big red comic-book alter ego, Hellboy, revealing his own battles with the film industry to make the kinds of films he wants. He also explained his attraction to the phantasmagoric as a result of his love of things that are not beautiful on the surface but hold their own charm. Del Toro is currently preparing to direct The Hobbit, the prequel to Peter Jackson’s DGA and Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy. Speaking about filming the project in New Zealand, “I guess I’ll be eating a lot of lamb,” he laughed.