Guillermo Del Toro Promises Amazing Monsters And Robots In 'Pacific Rim'

Legendary Pictures did its first standalone panel today in one of the smaller ballrooms of the San Diego convention center, the idea being to show off four films that are in development. Perhaps the biggest of the projects is Pacific Rim, the movie that Guillermo del Toro signed to direct after Universal decided not to make At the Mountains of Madness.

The top cast of the film showed up for the panel along with the director: Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, Charlie Day, along with writer Travis Beacham. Guillermo del Toro confirmed that Rinko Kikuchi is in the cast as well, and said that more cast will be announced soon. They didn't give away too much about the film – there was no concept art displayed, only a draft of a logo and one shield type icon, both seen above – but del Toro did have a few things to say about the movie.

The short recap of the director's comments is this statement: "It is my duty to film the finest f***ing monsters ever committed to the screen. And the greatest f***ing robots ever committed to screen. That's a pledge." The slightly longer version is after the break.

Del Toro reiterated that core concept a couple times: "Giant f***ing monsters against giant f***ing robots." Also involved is the idea of having "incredibly huge things destroy little things."

But there's a human angle to it, too, "the part we can't divulge that Travis came up with, that made it click [for Guillermo]." And Legendary seems committed to making that part work, too , which lead the director to announce "I'm barren, otherwise I would bear Legendary's child." He praised the company for letting him find "the perfect f***ing actors for the role. To make a movie with this size and this scope and be able to cast with the greatest f***ing actors is a dream come true."

"There's much more to it than the giant monsters and giant robots," he said. "We want to make it a big what if: what would happen in the real world if a twenty-five story thing came out of the sea and started destroying cities? How would the world change? What weapons do we need to develop to fight a thing like that? It's not a fantastic distant future to which we have no relationship. We wanted to make it in the now."

He elaborated just a bit. "Everything as geeks and fans we ask ourselves about giant monsters and kaiju I wanted to answer in the movie. We created a whole world around that one giant variable. This will not be a movie that has only spectacle and scope."

This is the released plot outline of Pacific Rim, which should shoot later this year for a July 12, 2013 release.

Set in a future in which malevolent creatures threaten the earth, the planet must band together and use highly advanced technology to eradicate the growing menace.