Guillermo del Toro talking to "one of the big ones" about picking up Insane
"We are in talks with a very, very big company."
Guillermo del Toro may have found a new home for his Lovecraftian horror game idea he calls Insane.
He told the Toronto Sun that "we are in talks with a very, very big company". "I can't say who," he added, "but it's one of the big ones. They really responded to the game, they responded to what we were trying."
Insane had been a THQ game in development at Saints Row house Volition. It was always a long way off, and no doubt ambitious, so a struggling THQ ceased work on the game late last summer and handed the IP to del Toro.
Exactly what that IP handover involved is unclear. Does del Toro have anything resembling a game or has he only pre-production scraps, ideas and spooky dreams to go by?
"Some of the devices of the game I need to update," he mentioned, "because now I've seen them in other games that just came out. That always happens.
"But the principle we're trying to do with the game is to make it a really immersive narrative experience. It's still a really challenging proposal."
Del Toro's success as a film director and producer, and his passion as a gamer, will carry weight wherever he pitches. His description of "a very, very big company" points towards Activision, EA, Ubisoft and maybe Bethesda.
But signing a name like Guillermo del Toro also sounds like something moneybags Microsoft would do, so securing Insane as a high profile Next Xbox exclusive.
Whatever del Toro has got and wherever it ends up, it will presumably need rebuilding, so expect another wait. On the flip side it means Insane could be built entirely for new console hardware.
Insane was originally to be a trilogy. THQ said this would unfold over eight to 10 years, and Del Toro said he would try some "crazy s***".
He also said, a year later, that Insane would be "really, really nasty".
Development never seemed to get anywhere, though, despite del Toro claiming he phoned the Volition team once a week to talk about the game.
Guillermo del Toro is currently in post-production on robot film Pacific Rim, which will be released this summer.