Home Entertainment Daredevil’s Steven S. DeKnight to direct Pacific Rim 2!

Daredevil’s Steven S. DeKnight to direct Pacific Rim 2!

3 min read
0

Pacific-Rim-12

While I may love the works of filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, his name attached to a project never actually fills me with confidence. That’s because the Mexican director has a habit of attaching to really awesome sounding movies and then ditching them later again. But when it came to Pacific Rim 2, the sequel to his fan-favourtie 2013 giant mech vs giant monster throwdown, Del Toro seemed especially committed to getting it made despite just a not-bad box office reception and seeming initial reluctance from studio Legendary Pictures.

Well, the good news is that Pacific Rim 2 is now finally officially happening (again!) (we promise this time!), and the also-good news is that Del Toro won’t be directing so no need to get disappointed later when he drops out! What? You know it would have happened!

Taking over from Del Toro behind the camera will be Daredevil exec producer/lead writer and Spartacus creator Steven S. DeKnight who will be making his feature film directing debut with Pacific Rim 2. DeKnight also did plenty of work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Smallville, so his geek credentials are certainly more than enough for the job, though I have to admit that I’ve never seen him show off the type of incredible visual imagination that Del Toro brings to the table, and which made the original Pacific Rim so fun to watch.

daredevil-netflix-red-carpet-premiere-steven-deknight-showrunner

During the “will they/won’t they” phase for the last two or years or, it was stated at some point that Pacific Rim 2 would be scheduled for a 2017 release, and with a confirmed director now they could still hit that target. Jon Spaihts (Prometheus, Doctor Strange) is penning the script, though it’s uncertain how far along he is. As for what that script would be about though, Del Toro spoke a bit about it last year:

“It’s a few years after the first one. It’s not an immediate follow-up. It is the world having been freed of Kaiju, what happens to the world after – what happens to the Jaeger technology once the Kaiju are not a threat. It’s quite a jump.”

“It’s quite a different movie from the first one… You’re gonna get a lot of [crazy science], but the Kaijus are very different and you’re gonna see a very different type of the robots I think. It’s gonna be quite a different adventure.”

“It was hard to create a world that did not come from a comic book, that had its own mythology, so we had to sacrifice many aspects to be able to cram everything in the first movie.

Namely, for example “the Drift”, which was an interesting concept. [Then there was] this portal that ripped a hole into the fabric of our universe, what were the tools they were using? And we came up with a really, really interesting idea. I don’t want to spoil it, but I think at the end of the second movie, people will find out that the two movies stand on their own. They’re very different from each other, although hopefully bringing the same joyful giant spectacle. But the tenor of the two movies will be quite different.”

Pacific Rim had a hefty $190 million price tag which nearly sunk its sequel hopes completely as it only $101 million domestically, but thanks to a $114 million in China boosting its international figures to $310 million, it can now live on to fight Kaiju another day.

This article originally appeared on TheMovies.co.za

Last Updated: February 24, 2016

No Comments

  1. Ottokie

    February 24, 2016 at 10:35

    Awww yiss!

    I loved Pacific Rim

    Reply

  2. Ottokie

    February 24, 2016 at 10:36

  3. Hammersteyn

    February 24, 2016 at 10:37

    I don’t understand how they could build giant robots but not a giant shotgun to use in battle. Probably because it’ll resemble Duck Hunt, except you cant miss

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      February 24, 2016 at 10:44

      You mean like when they remembered they had a giant freaking sword built into the robot?

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        February 24, 2016 at 10:48

        Exactly! There were dozens of times they could have used it but they wait until they’re in the stratosphere?

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          February 24, 2016 at 10:48

          *fixed

          Reply

        • Greylingad[CNFRMD]

          February 24, 2016 at 11:02

          “Cinematic effect” roughly translates to people being too stupid to realise they could have used the tools they had with them all the time, instead of wasting Billions of dollars in producing, what could be referred to as, a giant waste of time…Recorded for our viewing pleasure…

          Reply

    • Darren Peach

      February 24, 2016 at 10:48

      They had a plasma gun thingy. Guess you could call it a BFG !

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        February 24, 2016 at 10:57

        But how useful was that it really? The basically had to stand next to their target to use it. Now with a shotgun they’d be able to develop all kinds of ammo. Like Napalm filled pellets that explode after impact. But now I’m overthinking things.

        Reply

        • Darren Peach

          February 24, 2016 at 11:11

          Yeah, You have a reasonable point. But a shotgun is also a close range weapon. They could also have watched Borderlands and have a mad midget gun, One that shoots suicidal little maniacs at the big monsters, each armed with depleted uranium chainsaws and thermite bombs that are the equivalent of those ants in the last Indiana jones film.

          Reply

        • Marcus

          February 24, 2016 at 12:13

          Well, I think my problem comes in at a different angle: So they knew where the “breach” was and by the look of things, pretty much in the middle of nothing. So why not nuke everything that comes out of it? The 1st KiJEW was brought down with missiles and tanks, a fucking nuke would have an impact…yes?

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            February 24, 2016 at 12:33

            LOL seems obvious

          • Darren Peach

            February 24, 2016 at 15:07

            Lol.

  4. Darren Peach

    February 24, 2016 at 10:46

    Pacific Rim was cool, but corny. Guess when you have Giant Robots, A Saving Private Ryan esque tone would also be corny…..

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans trailer looks like Pacific Rim with magic

Guillermo del Toro's epic Trollhunters movie includes some giant fighting robots that take…