Guillermo Del Toro Aiming For A “Double R” Rating On NIGHTMARE ALLEY

You know who's always good for a great interview? Guillermo del Toro. The man's overflowing with personality, and tends to answer even the most standard junket questions with thoughtful, entertaining responses.

Case in point: Del Toro's currently making the junket rounds in support of André Øvredal's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (which del Toro produced), and while speaking with our friends over at Collider he was asked about his next feature project, Nightmare Alley. Here's what he said:

“My adaptation that I’ve done with [co-writer] Kim Morgan is not necessarily—the entire book is impossible, it’s a saga. But there are elements that are darker in the book, and it’s the first chance I have—in my short films I wanted to do noir. It was horror and noir. And now is the first chance I have to do a real underbelly of society type of movie. [There are] no supernatural elements. Just a straight, really dark story."

As for the film's rating, del Toro says he's aiming for "a big R. Double R!" We aren't sure what a Double R-rating might entail, but you can rest assured we are very eager to find out.

For those who haven't been keeping up: Nightmare Alley (based on the William Lindsay Gresham novel of the same name) is a period piece following Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), a roustabout who falls in with a traveling carnival before becoming obsessed with the mindreading act performed by the operation's resident fortune teller, Mademoiselle Zeena. When Zeena's husband unexpectedly dies, she's forced to take Stan on as a partner...which leads to its own series of problems. 

We're very curious about this one, and doubly so now that we know del Toro won't be pulling any punches. Stay tuned for more on Nightmare Alley as further updates become available.

(Note: Header photo by Gage Skidmore, used with permission via Wikimedia Commons)