Lord of the Ring

Guillermo Del Toro is the man at the helm of The Hobbit.

The Mexican-born director is setting up shop in Wellington to shoot the two movies, watched over by producer Peter Jackson.

Del Toro is known for his creatures. From Blade to Hellboy to Pan’s Labyrinth, he’s a master at creating weird stuff.

Which is all well and fine now, but as a child his Catholic grandmother was terrified by his weird obsessions.

“When I was a kid she would see me reading about these monsters. She would cry a lot, ‘Why can’t you design something beautiful? All these things are horrible!’ And at some stage she exorcised me!” says del Toro.

A good old fashioned exorcism: two of them, actually.

Did she get anything out? Apparently not.

In a rather stunning example of synchronicity, Del Toro ended up being trained by Dick Smith, the guy that did the effects on that rather famous horror, The Exorcist.

All up, he’s had a pretty strange life. A life that started in Mexico.

He’s also seen people beheaded, and on fire. And his very own father was once held for ransom.

Experiences like that have turned him into someone who, well, doesn’t take crap from anyone. When he pitched his concept for a vampire television show called The Strain, the head of the network said it would work better as a comedy: “I was horrified, I took the manuscript and I never came back!”

That manuscript is now a book so popular it had Wellington lining up for autographs this week.

True to form, Del Toro has his own philosophy on life: “I believe in the belly. And judging by its size my belly believes in me. So I take everything at gut decision. If it feels well in the belly then God wise you do it! So I’ve been offered stuff that would have set me for life, but I haven’t done it.”

He’s turned down loads of movies – I Am Legend, Halo, Blade 3, End of Days and Harry Potter, to name a few.

Then there’s the stack of screenplays he’s written that are on standby, including The Wind in the Willows, and Roald Dahl’s classic The Witches.

Oh that’s right, there’s also that teensy weensy project called The Hobbit.

Del Toro says he is thoroughly enjoying working with Peter Jackson: “When Peter, Fran (Walsh) and I are in the same room it’s like when you’re a kid…Except we have a very well financed sandbox!”