Nine Crazy Things I Learned about ‘Mimic’ from Guillermo del Toro’s Blu-ray Commentary

If there’s one thing you expect from a movie about genetically altered insects growing into human-sized insects, it’s to see genetically altered insects growing into human-sized insects. The studio, however, expected a little something else:

Tests! The mimics used to have antennas, but the feedback we got from the studio was a raging phone call where they said, “They look like bugs. The mimics look like bugs.”

I said, “But of course, we’ve been developing the creatures for a year-and-a-half, you’ve seen the designs, you’ve seen the maquettes, you’ve seen the clay molds, you’ve seen everything and they are bugs.”

“Well can you make them more like aliens?”

I said, “I don’t want to make them more like aliens. At this stage we already have functioning puppets with radio-controlled servos, animatronics. What do you mean redesign them?”

And somebody said a really great line, they said, “Can you make their teeth bigger?”

I said, “They don’t have teeth.”

“Well show more of their gums.”

I said, “They don’t have gums! They have a multi-part, mouth system!”

“Well can you give them crazy hair?”

“They don’t have hair, they are insects.”

Oh God, just reading that again makes me laugh. So funny.

At the same time as telling this story he adds, “I jokingly used to say, “When I was a kid I used to think, Why do Hollywood movies suck? and I jokingly said too, ‘After Mimic I learned why.’”


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