Producer J. Miles Dale on “ Frankenstein ” by Guillermo del Toro

As Guillermo Del Toro won another Oscar for his science fiction romance 2018 The shape of the water Shot in Ontario, J. Miles Dale, the film producer, proudly said most key creative positions, production and costume designers to the sound team and publisher: “They are all Canadians.”

Now, after Del Toro has shot his latest creature feature, FrankensteinOn the sound courses of Toronto, Dale says that his creative artists and his heads of department not only make drummers of the world, but also to be part of “our family of films”. This community of very united artists – many of whom are members of Directors Guild of Canada – Ontario – follows the long collaboration of Del Toro with Canadian crews on the films he has shown locally.

Their challenge on Frankenstein brought on the big screen the vision of the horror of the selfish scientist Victor Frankenstein and his monster as part of a diabolical experience. “Listen, the worst fear of a film by Guillermo del Toro is to drop it because in the end, he is the most hard -working guy in the film,” said Dale.

With FrankensteinAn endless Del Toro made a passion for life to adapt the classic Gothic novel by Mary Shelley on Dr. Frankenstein, played in the film by Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi as the creature to which he gives birth, with Mia Goth like Elizabeth. Like sumptuous shot Frankenstein gushes towards a first tiff, THR Sitting with Dale to talk about the local talent behind the passionate project of Del Toro.

You are a great supporter of Canadian talents. Tamara Deverell, nominated to the designing designing Oscars for the best production for NightmareAlleydesigned Frankenstein. Talk about his contribution.

I really think like our family of films. I’m old. I have been there for a long time. And many of these people I have been working with for a long time. Tamara Deverell, for example. We first worked together on Blizzard In 2001, one of his first jobs as a production designer. She was artistic director on [1997’s] ImitateSo she still returns with Guillermo.

You talk about this tight film family. But this is reflected in an Ontario industry that has resisted the storms of pandemic and Hollywood strikes to become a major production center for Hollywood and other foreign producers – thanks in part to you and Del Toro.

What I am most proud of is to have started in this business when I was a child when we didn’t know much about. And all these great DPs and production designers and creators of American costumes appeared and we studied them, and we learned from them, at their feet. From now on, artists and talents and producers and craftsmen are in this league. Having looked at this development of our talent swimming pool since the beginnings now, it’s just remarkable to see. The level at which some of these people work. You watch Craig Lathrop, a local production designer that was nominated for Handicap Last year. Paul Austerberry won an Oscar for The shape of the water. Luis Sequeira, our costume designer, is nominated twice. Not that it’s all and final. But it is certainly the recognition of peers at the highest level that you do something that is among the best in our industry. It is rewarding to be able to stand with these people and say that they operate at this high level, and now they are there to train other Canadians, other Torontians, to do the same. It is a generational type of knowledge and a really beautiful thing. I am just happy to be part of it, and I think we can stay quite big at this time when we are as an industry and our people rank.

Walter Gasparovic, first deputy director on Frankensteinis another longtime employee with Del Toro and yourself.

Walter Gasparovic, with whom I made a lot of films, was the first announcement on Imitate. You know, Guillermo came here in 1997 with a notoriously difficult shoot with the Weinsteins on Imitate. It was just his third film and his first major studio film. But the crew made him an impression. And even if he and I did not know us at that time, a lot of this crew were people with whom I worked – Gilles Corbeil, the Steadicam operator, Penny Charter, second announcement. So when we gathered in 2011 when Guillermo directed Pacific RimHe also agreed with Universal to produce Mom. He said we will do it in Toronto. And he needed a producer. I had just produced Scott Pilgrim. And Edgar Wright, a good friend of Guillermo, told him about me. We met. He said, “Yes, you produce this film. I will be in the corridor if you need me.” And it was the beginning of our relationship.

And the family of films you have brought for the journey, they must now obtain the visual and design aesthetics of Del Toro?

Part of my crew and part of its crew were the same crew. So, in 2011, we started to build this family of films. [Gasparovic] I didn’t come back before FrankensteinBut Tamara returned immediately The tension And Nightmare alley And Cabinet of curiosities. And then, of course, Frankenstein. Luis Sequeira, our costume tree, he and I have been working together since he was a sound Friday 13 in 1987. So I brought Luis to MomAnd Guillermo loved him, and he did it The tension And The shape of the water,, Cabinet of curiosities,, Nightmare alley. He is part of the family.

We always hear Guillermo del Toro has high expectations for his creative talent, but trusts those he goes on board, making it a tight production.

This is what happens when you have a very easy shortcut in a group instead of a group of new people who are pushed together. You have relationships of trust that make things easier because you have been at the bottom of the road with the same people. They trust you. You trust them. Not everyone has to cover their ass in case something spoils.

Guillermo was called a real visionary director. What does this mean in practical terms for Canadian creatives responsible for bringing their vision as a director to the screen?

Here is the thing. More than any other director with whom I worked, he is very design-
oriented – and in a very specific way. Nothing is arbitrary, up to the palette of colors, up to characters and associated colors for them. Red is a key color of the film – as in all its films. But in FrankensteinIt’s Oscar Issac. Red gloves, scarf and, of course, all blood making the creature. It is the memory of his mother in red. Whether or not it is conscious for Victor, this is what he gravitates because he still lacks his mother. For an art department, for a production designer, a sets decorator, a costume designer and a director of photography and hair and makeup even, having these details and being able to have these conversations to this degree of specificity is excellent. Because now you have a direction to enter. And, also, he can talk about any era and any research. He knows the difference between Baroque and Art Deco and Art Nouveau – and very specifically. So, where people have to go, he will direct them to the research roads that will give them a direction, then they will come back.

I feel that Del Toro and his creatives speak their shortcuts a lot with visuals and supported by many research and film references.

It is a beautiful two-way street where, instead of a director who says: “Yeah, give me something good and flashy”, he makes a deep dive. This is what does not make it easier, but certainly a more fruitful relationship that will lead to something better. He knows what he wants. He can show photos. He can show drawings. He can give his own books to say: “It’s a bit of what I want.” Now go and use this inspiration to launch a notch, because the standard is very high.

Talk about the construction of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory, where he created a monster as part of a crazy experience on sumptuous sets.

We knew what Guillermo wanted to do with the laboratory and Victor workshop. We would need a sculpture here, a painting there, these wax figures here and all these things. We used artists in Mexico and France and a painter here to make a family portrait. Having therefore had many years to organize these ideas in his head, which bore fruit. And, of course, the novel – it was also obviously moved by the novel. The drawings of [comic book artist] Bernie Wrightson of several years ago was a large part of his visual inspiration for the film, and they informed the design of production. I really think that our film remains much more true to the novel than any of the others Frankenstein Films that were made.

In addition to being a master storyteller, Del Toro is also legendary for his work ethics.

Listen, the worst fear of a film by Guillermo del Toro is to drop it because ultimately, he is the most hard -working guy in the film. He never stops, and he will answer any question – he answers one million a day – and he is always the smartest guy in the room. It will simply make us all better where we will fail and we will not make the cup, and we will not be part of the film of the film, the family of films which everyone desperately wants to be part. Because he’s the best.