Acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, known for Hellboy and The Shape of Water, recently revealed that he once lived with director James Cameron, during which the pair bonded over watching anime together, an early creative exchange that would later inform some of their most ambitious projects.
The revelation surfaced in an interview circulating on social media, where del Toro recalled how he and Cameron would often share and recommend anime titles to each other. According to the director, Cameron introduced him to Patlabor, while del Toro shared Gunnm — better known to many fans as Battle Angel Alita.
Cameron would later spend years developing a live-action adaptation of the very manga del Toro had introduced to him, ultimately shepherding Alita: Battle Angel as writer and producer.
The anecdote comes as no surprise to longtime followers of del Toro’s work, as his love for anime and manga is well known. His 2013 film Pacific Rim is widely recognized as a cinematic homage to Japanese kaiju and mecha anime.
In 2013, he worked with HBO to develop a live-action television adaptation of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster. Del Toro was set to direct the pilot, with Stephen Thompson (Doctor Who, Sherlock) attached as co-executive producer and writer. However, in 2015, Del Toro confirmed that HBO passed on the project, and efforts to revive it for another studio have not materialized publicly since.
Source: X
