海角大神

A sequel to director Guillermo del Toro鈥檚 2013 movie 鈥淧acific Rim鈥� is moving forward, with a director reportedly having signed on to helm the film.

Steven S. DeKnight, who has served as a director and executive producer for the Netflix series 鈥淒aredevil鈥� and created the Starz TV program 鈥淪partacus,鈥� will direct the sequel to 鈥淧acific.鈥澛�

The original 鈥淧acific鈥� movie was co-written by del Toro with Travis Beacham and took place on an Earth where creatures known as Kaiju are attacking various cities. Humans decide to fight them by having pilots use robots, known as Jaegers, to battle the Kaiju.

The movie received mixed reviews and did not do overwhelmingly good box office business in the US. But the film performed better abroad and that may be the reason a sequel is now moving forward.

鈥淧acific鈥� seemed to be somewhat of a passion project for del Toro. 鈥淢onsters have always spoken to a part of me that is really, really essential," the director told the Associated Press upon the film鈥檚 release. "All of my life, I felt out of place. The tragedy of every monster in every movie is that they are out of place. That's the essential plight of monsters.鈥�

The film was inspired by the Kaiji genre of Japan, which has monsters attacking and includes the 鈥淕odzilla鈥� films. But AP writer Jake Coyle wrote of del Toro鈥檚 process on 鈥淧acific,鈥� 鈥淗e boxed up his [Kaiju] DVDs before starting work on 鈥楶acific Rim,鈥� intent on making a movie that wasn't a mere homage.鈥澛�

While 鈥淧acific鈥� owes various aspects of the movie to the Kaiju genre, the characters of the film, including Jaeger pilots Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) and Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), are original, as is the story.

That鈥檚 something that鈥檚 somewhat of a rarity in today鈥檚 Hollywood blockbusters, which are mostly drawing inspiration from comic books, novels, and previous movies. In 2013, the year in which 鈥淧acific鈥� came out, the list of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of the year is dominated by projects based on previous material, with the exception of a couple of films like the space-set movie 鈥淕ravity.鈥澛�

Even when not creating a blockbuster, del Toro has gone with original stories, though that鈥檚 more common with smaller-scale films. Both last year鈥檚 Gothic tale 鈥淐rimson Peak鈥� and and the Spanish-language World War II story 鈥淧an鈥檚 Labyrinth鈥� were either written or co-written by the director.聽

鈥淧acific鈥� co-writer at the time of the movie鈥檚 release that聽he felt new material was lacking in Hollywood.

鈥淚 grew up in the 鈥�80s and you had these original, big-budget sci-fi adventure things all the time, not based on any source material 鈥� you鈥檇 have 鈥楪remlins,鈥� 鈥楤ack to the Future,鈥� 鈥楨.T.鈥� 鈥楪hostbusters,鈥� the list goes on and on,鈥� Beacham said. 鈥淚 would love it so much if 鈥楶acific Rim鈥� was but the first in a new wave of that sort of thing. I feel like as an industry, we鈥檝e gotten too dependent on source material originated in other mediums. I鈥檓 as big of a fan of it as anyone else is鈥�. But in addition to that sort of thing, it would be great if we had more content that was originated in the film industry itself.鈥�