/Film LA: Guillermo Del Toro 'Cronos' Signing And Screening

Charismatic and talented film director Guillermo del Toro is seemingly everywhere these days. Whether he's interviewing Edgar Wright, producing movies, or creating new TV series', it seems the jolly man behind Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone and the Hellboy films has his nose in everything. Yet del Toro knows none of his more recent work would be possible without his feature film debut Cronos. That masterful 1993 film is finally hitting the Criterion Collection on December 7 and del Toro will not only be signing copies of the disc at Amoeba Records in Hollywood, those who get it signed can join the director for a very special screening immediately after. If you read about the recent Scott Pilgrim signing at Amoeba, you know these things are awesome. Hit the jump for more info.

The Blu-ray doesn't come out until December 7, but in order to get a signature and a screening ticket, you'll have to pre-order the disc on Wednesday December 1. The store opens at 10:30 a.m. so be sure to get there early. You'll pre-order the Criterion DVD or Blu-ray at that time and get a ticket to come back on December 7, pick up your disc, and have del Toro sign it. Following the signing, attendees will go across the street for a screening of Cronos at the Los Angeles Film School in addition to del Toro's rarely seen short film Geometria.

The downside to this whole thing is that Amoeba is an independently owned record store, so the Criterion disc's will probably be near or just lower than their suggested retail prices of $29.95 or $39.95. But, the way I justify paying almost $10 more than most larger retailers is that not only do you get the autograph – which you'd certainly pay more than $10 for – you get to talk to del Toro, ask a quick question, and then also get a rare big screen screening of Cronos. Totally worth the price of admission.

So, who's going?