Guillermo del Toro forms new production studio

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Guillermo del Toro is joining forces with several entertainment veterans to form a production studio that will concentrate on all manner of visual content.

The company, called Mirada, will develop and produce television programming, video games, commercials and films, among other forms of entertainment. Joining Del Toro in the venture are commercial and music-video director Mathew Cullen, cinematographer Guillermo Navarro and producer Javier Jimenez.

Del Toro said he was forming the company out of his belief that content creation was currently spread across too many different studios and companies.

‘With Mirada we hope to bring all the stuff you need to create an idea or a project under one roof,’ Del Toro said in an interview from the company’s offices in Marina del Rey this week. ‘There is no place that can offer all the sets of eyes to inform and create the story engine to take any idea from beginning to end.’ The company has between 50 and 100 employees, depending on the project load.

Since dropping plans to direct ‘The Hobbit’ last summer, Del Toro has been ramping up his non-directing activities, making pacts with DreamWorks Animation to help develop its films and with video-game company THQ to create and shape new titles.

The filmmaker said he aims to devote his full attention to Mirada but would cut back when he begins shooting a feature; he’s next set to make the genre-tinged expedition story ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ for Universal sometime in 2011.

Navarro is a longtime collaborator of Del Toro’s on the auteur’s own films; he also is shooting the next two movies in the ‘Twilight’ franchise. Jimenez is a partner with Cullen at his Motion Theory production company.

Cullen, who has made his name with commercials for Disney and music videos for the likes of Weezer and Katy Perry, said one of the ways the firm will distinguish itself is with an eye for visual detail. ‘We want to bring our collective experience to things that are overlooked in the creative process, like the importance of design and cinematography,’ he said.

Principals expect to announce specific projects soon.

-- Steven Zeitchik