“My concern is not artificial intelligence, but natural stupidity,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker elaborated. “I think that’s what drives most of the world’s worst features.” While the technology was still centuries away in his muse Victor Frankenstein’s time, del Toro wanted to use his long-gestating passion project as a commentary on (among other things) the pitfalls of progress. “I did want it to have the arrogance of Victor [Frankenstein] be similar in some ways to the tech bros,” he said. “He’s kind of blind, creating something without considering the consequences and I think we have to take a pause and consider where we’re going.”
If you didn’t already get the message, the director reiterated that he’s “not interested, nor will I ever be interested” in AI, “particularly generative AI.” He added, “I’m 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak.”
Frankenstein also provides an antidote to our increasingly artificial world in other ways. The sets, costumes, and even a large-scale explosion scene are striking, massive, and entirely practical. “This is storytelling. It’s not eye candy, it’s eye protein,” he previously told Variety. “Everything in this movie is full-scale, handmade for humans by humans.” In a separate Variety interview, he also shared that it’s “extremely important for me to keep the reality of film craft alive.”
“I want real sets. I don’t want digital. I don’t want AI. I don’t want simulation,” he said. “I want old fashioned craftsmanship. I want people painting, building, hammering, plastering. I go in and paint props myself. I supervise the construction of the sets. There is an operatic beauty when you build everything by hand. You feel that you being [sic] swept along by the work of hundreds of people.” With del Toro around to keep giving it life, we don’t have to worry about the art of practical filmmaking dying any time soon.
