Guillermo del Toro on the future of DVD

As one of the leading filmmakers of the day, you'd think Guillermo del Toro would be a fan of cinema. Actually, it turns out it's a bit more complicated than that. Speaking on the upcoming HD release of Pan's Labyrinth, a digital transfer in true THX that he oversaw personally, he revealed his thoughts on where he thought film viewing was going. "I believe we are moving to a time, through High Definition, of a new archival form of cinema." 'Archival form' is a phrase he returns to a few times while talking, and it is clear he sees the individual home cinema viewer as curator, preserving their films for repeated use, rather than renting a seat to watch it once on a degradable format. So has he always been such a fan of watching films at home? "Unfortunately I'm an addict. I remember having Laserdiscs and saying to my wife, 'I'm just going to get my ten favourite films and that's it.' My collection is now up to around 10,000 DVDs." That all makes perfect sense for someone whose films are full of stylistic references to classic movies, but doesn't his love of film necessarily include a love of going to the pictures? "Getting to see a film in private archival form is a lot better. If you go to the cinemas I go to, you usually get nagging children, bad popcorn, bad sound, terrible projection, and the explosions from the Arnold Schwarzenegger film next door." I ask him, now that he'll have to start his collection over again in HD, what films he'd like to see getting transferred. "Phantom Of The Paradise. (Brian De Palma's 1974 reworking of the Phantom Of The Opera). And The Road Warrior (Mad Max), which I think just came out, actually. And I'd bring back all the old black and white films as well." Finally, I use the opportunity to find out about a rumour I'd heard, that he's hoping to do a version of Roald Dahl's The Witches? "Yes, I've already written it. I'm busy with Hellboy II right now, but hopefully it will go into production after, maybe next year." Until those are here, there is also an animated series of Hellboy, the second instalment of which, Blood of Iron, is released this month. Using the cast of the movie as voice talents, it merges the film and comic incarnations in a way reminiscent of the 90s Batman cartoons. Needless to say, it's not out in cinemas.