"When I was a child, whenever I felt small or lonely, I would look up at the stars and wonder if there was other life in the universe. It turns out, I was looking in the wrong direction."
In Matthew's office, Guillermo del Toro, wearing glasses, gesticulated wildly as he spoke. "The calm ocean always holds a certain allure for people, but we always assume that the strange creatures and dangers, like walruses, come from our own world."
He spoke with unusual seriousness, "We were wrong."
Looking at Guillermo del Toro, Matthew had no idea what he meant. For a moment, he even suspected that Guillermo had joined Scientology.
But Guillermo del Toro wasn't some mystic. He quickly opened the folder he brought with him and laid it in front of Matthew.
"Matthew, take a look at this." He pointed to the folder.
"What's this?" Matthew glanced down. The folder contained a series of sketches—clear, colorful concept drawings.
After spending so many years in Hollywood and the film industry, his eye for these things was sharp. He immediately recognized them as concept art and storyboard sketches for a movie.
"Guillermo." Matthew started flipping through the folder. "Is this your new project?"
"Yes," Guillermo del Toro nodded quickly. "I'm planning a massive blockbuster, a great sci-fi commercial film."
He had worked with Matthew before on I Am Legend and knew exactly what kind of film would capture Matthew's interest.
If he were planning to make an art film or an Oscar-bait movie, he wouldn't have bothered coming to Matthew; it would have been pointless.
Convincing Matthew to invest could not only save a lot of trouble, but he might also bring in a top-tier leading actor to boost the film's appeal.
Matthew knew Guillermo del Toro fairly well and was aware that he was a very talented director, so he stopped talking and focused on the sketches.
The first drawing showed a giant robot that looked like the popular Gundam from Japan.
The second sketch shifted dramatically—it depicted a kaiju, a monster similar to Ultraman's enemies.
In the third sketch, both the robot and the kaiju appeared together. The setting seemed to be underwater, and from the drawing, it looked like a huge breach had opened on the ocean floor, with a monster emerging from it to fight the robot standing guard nearby.
The fourth drawing was another underwater battle between the robot and the kaiju.
The fifth and sixth drawings also depicted the ongoing fight between the robot and the monster.
As he looked through the sketches, the robot, which initially resembled a Gundam, began to look more like Ultraman in Matthew's mind.
"Cat eats fish, dog eats meat, and Ultraman fights monsters..." This thought flashed through his mind.
Matthew closed the folder and asked Guillermo del Toro, "There's no script yet?"
"Not yet." Guillermo del Toro chuckled and said, "I'm still writing it, but it's not finished yet."
He explained, "I know you're busy and might soon be off filming somewhere else. Since you're in Los Angeles, I hurried over to catch you."
Matthew nodded slightly. He was aware of certain things. As someone who had continuously invested in successful films and now owned a film company with assets worth over a billion dollars, he naturally attracted writers looking to sell movie rights, directors with new projects, and producers seeking investment.
"So, tell me more about it," Matthew said, cautious as always when it came to large investments.
"Have you ever read Japanese manga?" Guillermo del Toro asked, "Especially those about kaiju and giant robots piloted by people."
"I've seen a bit," Matthew replied. "Japan's kaiju culture is very popular, like Godzilla. I'm not as familiar with giant robots piloted by humans, but I've heard they call them Gundams over there."
He had never really watched any Gundam anime or read the manga. Most of his understanding of the concept came from something he had seen online.
"It's not that someone didn't try hard enough; it's just that the enemy had a Gundam."
As for why he hadn't paid attention to it in Hollywood, it simply wasn't popular there. Although Gundams and Transformers were both robots, for Hollywood and the American audience, they were two entirely different concepts.
Robots fighting kaiju...
Just thinking about the concept felt familiar.
Seeing that Matthew had a basic understanding, Guillermo del Toro quickly said, "I'm planning to make a sci-fi epic where similar giant robots and kaiju face off in an all-out war."
Matthew nodded slightly, recalling films about robots and kaiju.
"My idea is this," Guillermo del Toro began. "A rift opens on the Pacific Ocean floor, like a wormhole, unleashing a catastrophic threat to humanity—super kaiju!"
Since his script wasn't finished yet, Guillermo laid out the general framework orally. "These alien kaiju that come through the rift are bigger, fiercer, and more brutal than anything we've ever seen before. We call them 'super kaiju.'"
He cleared his throat and continued, "To fight them, humanity pools all its resources to build the largest, most advanced, and multifunctional weapons ever. They create a plan to build a series of 25-story-tall robots, piloted by two people connected via a neural link... This will be an unstoppable and thrilling adventure about human pilots controlling giant robots in battles against these unprecedented alien kaiju."
"Hmm." Matthew nodded again. "I don't think Hollywood has seen a movie like this yet."
Guillermo del Toro smiled. "It's a great concept."
As Matthew listened, he gradually remembered a movie he had once seen called Pacific Rim. Wasn't that about robots fighting kaiju? He vaguely remembered it being a popular film. There was even a knockoff movie called Atlantic Rim that was terrible.
At the time, he didn't think much of it, but now, in hindsight, Atlantic Rim was probably one of those rip-offs made by "The Asylum."
Unfortunately, he couldn't remember how Pacific Rim performed at the box office.
If he wasn't mistaken, Guillermo del Toro was probably talking about what would eventually become Pacific Rim. After all, Hollywood hadn't really explored that genre before.
"Guillermo," Matthew asked directly, "Are you looking for me to star in the movie, or are you after an investment?"
Hearing this, Guillermo del Toro didn't hold back. Smiling, he said, "Ideally, both. Investment and leading actor."
Matthew thought for a moment and then asked, "How much investment are we talking about?"
Guillermo del Toro considered and said, "To achieve the best possible result, it would take about two hundred million dollars."
Matthew winced slightly at the number. Two hundred million was a massive sum. Even with his current wealth, it would be a huge financial pressure.
He had never invested that much in a single film before.
Just the investment alone would make him tread carefully.
Guillermo del Toro added, "The movie is about humanity facing an unexpected and overwhelming challenge, and then uniting to fight against it. My team and I believe that being attacked from within Earth itself is a cool, fresh concept."
After a moment of silence, Matthew asked, "Has the project been given a name?"
"The story takes place along the Pacific Rim," Guillermo del Toro said, revealing a familiar title, "So I'm thinking of calling it Pacific Rim."
Matthew nodded. With the same title, it was undoubtedly the movie he had seen before about robots fighting kaiju.
Guillermo del Toro continued speaking passionately, but Matthew wasn't paying full attention anymore. Instead, he was trying to recall everything he could about Pacific Rim.
He vaguely remembered that, for a long time, Pacific Rim topped the download charts on various pirate websites.
From past experience, that was a surefire indicator of a movie's popularity and success.
If people were flocking to download pirated versions, the film had to be either a huge box office hit or packed with "action scenes," so to speak. But this clearly wasn't a romantic action movie.
Matthew also remembered reading a parody article, with photoshopped images, about a fictional battle where Gundams joined forces with Jedi Knights to defeat kaiju.
Those widely circulated spoof articles only reinforced how massive Gundam's fanbase was in the Pacific region.
Even for someone like him, who hadn't really dived into Japanese manga, Gundams were a familiar concept.
As for kaiju, that was even more obvious. Ultraman's battles against kaiju had become a symbol of happiness for many kids, showing just how widespread the appeal was.
A film about robots fighting kaiju—if well-made—could perform very well across the Pacific market, and potentially spawn an entire franchise.
In short, Gundams and kaiju were emotional touchstones for many people across the Pacific.
And in the film industry, tapping into those emotions could often translate directly into financial success.
Guillermo del Toro was still waiting, and he couldn't hold back any longer. "Matthew, what do you think?"
He wasn't just there to tell a story; he was there to get an actor and an investor.
"Just hearing 'giant robots vs. mega-monsters' makes me feel the scale and excitement..." Matthew picked up the folder and flipped through the sketches again. For some reason, though, something still felt off to him. "It's definitely a fresh concept."
As he spoke, the vague idea in his head suddenly became clear.
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