Guillermo del Toro's unrealized projects

Del Toro was inspired by Mexican stop-motion sculptor Marcel Delgado to create a different kind of monster film, and had written the story entirely in the Uto-Aztecan language Nahuatl.

[11] In 1994, del Toro began writing an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo with L. M. Kit Carson and Matthew Robbins, titled Montecristo,[4][12] later renamed The Left Hand of Darkness.

[23] In the late 1990s, between the releases of Mimic and The Devil's Backbone, del Toro pitched himself to direct a fourth installment in The Exorcist film series for Morgan Creek Entertainment.

His version would have been titled Exorcist: Chapter 4 Verse I and would have seen Father Merrin brought in to investigate the murder of a priest by a possessed child in the Vatican during World War II.

In 1999, del Toro was attached to write and direct an adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's Domu: A Child's Dream for Touchstone Pictures, with Don Murphy's Angry Films producing.

"[27]In November 2001, while promoting The Devil's Backbone, del Toro revealed that he was then working on a "small movie" called An Honest Man which he was writing for Federico Luppi to star.

In February 2003, it was reported that del Toro was working with The Walt Disney Company on a live action/CGI animated film adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's novel The Wind in the Willows, which he co-wrote with Matthew Robbins.

[42] Del Toro was attached to direct the Grant Morrison-scripted Sleepless Knights, a fantasy-adventure film sold to DreamWorks Pictures executive Michael De Luca, who left the company in 2004.

Del Toro was set to co-write a pilot version of the feature script with Beacham and René Echevarria, though he would later depart from the series due to his preoccupation with the production of The Shape of Water.

On December 4, 2006, Warner Bros. set up a film based on the DC Comics character Deadman as a potential directing vehicle for del Toro, with Gary Dauberman penning the adaptation.

[52] On December 14, 2006, Variety reported that del Toro was in negotiations to direct a Tarzan film scripted by John Collee, from Warner Bros. and producer Jerry Weintraub.

[61] In November 2007, United Artists recruited del Toro to write, direct and produce the sci-fi action film Champions, which would have been a reboot of the short-lived 1968 British series of the same name.

The story repeated itself with the second already, it made its money back at the box office, but a small margin of profit in the release of the theatrical print, but was very very big on DVD and video.

[82] On September 4, 2008, it was reported that del Toro, Zack Snyder and Gore Verbinski had each expressed interest in directing segments of David Fincher's new animated Heavy Metal anthology, for Paramount Pictures.

In December 2008, del Toro expressed interest in making a stop-motion film remake of Roald Dahl's novel The Witches with fellow director Alfonso Cuarón.

[87] It was announced on July 22, 2010, at San Diego Comic-Con that a new film based on Disneyland's The Haunted Mansion park attraction was in development with del Toro writing and producing.

[90] To help make a respectful adaptation, del Toro has contacted Walt Disney World Imagineer Jason Surrell, author of The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies, to act as a possible consultant for the film.

In September 2010, del Toro was selected for the director's position on Man of Steel, but eventually left the project because of his commitment on a film adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness.

[105] In March 2011, Neil Gaiman was tapped by producer Zhang Jizhong to write a new film version of the Chinese folk tale Journey to the West, with del Toro reportedly being courted to direct.

[106] In a June 2011 interview with the Los Angeles Times, del Toro expressed his interest in taking on Maleficent, citing the original 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty as one of his favorite Disney features.

Based on Corinne May Botz's book The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, with writer Sara Gran adapting, the project was described as a "Hitchcockian" drama about a 1950s housewife who becomes obsessed with solving brutal crimes.

"[142]Del Toro first expressed interest in adapting Stephen King's Pet Sematary into a feature film in 2015, calling the original work "unrelentingly dark and emotional.

[145][146] On January 7, 2016, del Toro was in talks to direct a remake of Richard Fleischer's Fantastic Voyage for 20th Century Fox, along with the announcement that David S. Goyer and Justin Rhodes would be the writers and that James Cameron would produce the film through Lightstorm Entertainment.

[148] On January 14, 2016, it was announced that del Toro would write the screenplay to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, as well as direct, and that he would also produce along with Sean Daniel, Jason Brown, and Elizabeth Grave.

[157][158] In March 2019, del Toro was attached to write and direct the action film Zanbato, about a young girl with lethal fighting skills, for Paramount Pictures and J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot.

[159] In November 2022, following the premiere of his horror anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix, del Toro revealed to IndieWire his plans for a second season and that he "ha[s] a list" of potential directors: "We tried to get Jayro Bustamante before and he couldn't because of COVID.

"[160]Del Toro also explained that he wanted to continue having a creative role in the series as he cedes more control to different filmmakers, stated that he was going to write both the opening and closing stories for the next season.

[179] Fessenden later announced that he would not be involved with directing the remake, stating "Working on the script with Guillermo was a very exciting experience, but then I got into a casting miasma and that's where the thing is; I think they're gonna do it another way, actually.

[183] In 2007, Hans Rodionoff, co-creator of the Mnemovore DC horror comic, confirmed he would be directing a film version of the story executive produced by del Toro.

[189] In 2015, Briggs received another call from Universal, saying that the third Hellboy film had been cancelled and asking him and Mason to return for a reworked Silverlance, with producers del Toro and Lawrence Gordon involved.