Earlier this month, Hellboy and Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro revealed that he had once been developing a Star Wars movie revolving around Jabba the Hutt. What everyone seemed to forget is that the filmmaker first expressed interest in the project way back in 2015!
In an interview with Happy Sad Confused which has today resurfaced and gone viral, the filmmaker shared some insights into what he hoped to bring to the table with a movie revolving around Return of the Jedi's monstrous villain.
"When I spoke to them, when I spoke to [Lucasfilm’s] John Knoll about it, and I said, if I ever do [a 'Star Wars' film], I would love to do Jabba the Hutt’s 'Scarface,'" he recalled. "You know? His ascension in the crime family. But it’s not a plan, I’m not announcing anything, don’t pick it up [as a thing]."
Interestingly, it appears Lucasfilm hired Del Toro to develop the movie shortly after this interview took place. While it would later fall apart, becoming one of many Star Wars spin-offs at the studio to do so after Solo: A Star Wars Solo underwhelmed, it's hard to escape the feeling we missed out.
The filmmaker went on to say, "I like monsters. I just love monsters, and Jabba is a) basically my same shirt size, and b) I love him, man. I feel strangely more and more inclined to do more strange stuff; do things that are a little more cagey, a little more quirky, so I dunno."
Scarface in space sounds like a really exciting approach to Star Wars, and it's a shame the movie never materialised. Based on other recent comments from Del Toro, we'd guess that, even if Lucasfilm now comes calling, this is a project he's fully moved on from.
"We had the rise and fall of Jabba the Hutt, so I was super happy," he said. "We were doing a lot of stuff, and then it’s not my property, it’s not my money, and then it’s one of those 30 screenplays that goes away. Sometimes I’m bitter, sometimes I’m not. I always turn to my team and say, ‘Good practice, guys. Good practice. We designed a great world. We designed great stuff. We learned.'”
"You can never be ungrateful with life. Whatever life sends you, there’s something to be learned from it. So, you know, I trust the universe, I do," Del Toro added. "When something doesn’t happen, I go, ‘Why?’ I try to have a dialogue with myself. ‘Why didn’t it happen?’ And the more you swim upstream with the universe, the less you’re gonna realise where you’re going."
Would you have liked to see Del Toro's vision for Jabba the Hutt slime its way into theaters?