Pan's Labyrinth On Demand

Pan's Labyrinth is now available on Channel 4's 4OD video on demand service alongside some of their great home-grown programming, including Derren Brown's The Heist, the most exciting TV show ever broadcast - if you haven't seen it, go there and see it now).

To whet your appetite for a 4OD outing, here are eight direct-download links for scenes from Del Toro's most beloved film:

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Obivously, the 4OD compression and encoding is much, much better.

Guild Gongs Gilliam

At the Art Director's Guild Excellence in Production Design Awards last night, Terry Gilliam was granted the special prize for Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery. They're not wrong.

In his acceptance speach Gilliam commented on the great production designers of the last century plus. "The worlds they created were so wondrous. Not so many people are allowed to do that now, to create worlds so magical. I'm one of the lucky ones to slip through the net and do it."

"I'm still trying to make movies that don't depend on the computer to do it. The digital world that I have are these digits [holding up his hand] that make things and build things. Let's keep doing great work."

Tideland, sadly, won nothing in the year's best categories, however, losing out to Casino Royale in Best Contemporary Production Design and, I suppose, Pan's Labyrinth in Best Fantasy Production Design.

Onetime Gilliam collaborator Jeffrey Beescroft (see: Twelve Monkeys) did win Best Production Design in a Commercial, Promo or PSA for his work on the Victoria's Secret (What Is) Sexy spots.

Del Toro's Tarzan To Be A Tough, Young Upstart

Guillermo del Toro has been in London for the Baftas, where he collected the 'best foreign language film' mask with Pan's Labyrinth, and most deservedly so. Speaking to various members of the press, he let slip a few bits and pieces about his eventual Tarzan movie, here and there.

"The idea is to try to do a version unlike any other, in the sense that Tarzan's formative years growing through the jungle are incredibly tough and brutal."

"There's always this idyllic sense of the jungle being like a Disney set and I want to portray how this guy becomes the toughest animal in the jungle."

It could be any number of years before this film enters production, so let's try not to let our interest peak too early.

Pan's Labyrinth Plus Tideland Equals...

Cinemathematics have taken a look at both Pan's Labyrinth and Tideland, found one lacking and the other exceptional. You'll have to visit their site to see which is which.

Don't forget that these are both are exceptionally well made films, and I could easily fill a telephone book with praise for either.

Tarzan Joins 3993 In Pushing Mountains Of Madness Over Horizon

[EDIT: Read this through to the very end. Some exciting twists and turns lie ahead.]

Yet another project has been added to Guillermo del Toro's slate, and once more, his Mountains of Madness adaptation is to suffer as a result. Reports are stacking up online that Hellboy 2 will be followed by a fresh take on Tarzan, and with 3993 then scheduled as the final part of del Toro's informal trilogy of Spanish Civil War stories (after The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth), there's likely to be some wait before Mountains can get a look in.

Don't worry about the possibility of Deadman pushing the project back even further - del Toro definitely won't be directing that one, just producing and, from what I've been told, it won't be long now before the actual director is announced. Whoever it is, they're going to get their start on the project by filming a three minute trailer for the film, funded by Warner Bros. and scripted by del Toro. If only I could find out who it is...

[EDIT: Don Murphy has stepped in to sort out this game of chinese whispers of which I was on the recieiving (blunt) end. Apparently, the 3-minute trailer will be for Mountains, not Deadman (he should tell that much to the other sites now beginning to report the story too). And, officially anyway, we're not in danger of a Deadman director being announced any time soon. Also according to Don - and this is great news - Mountains definitely follows Hellboy 2, and Tarzan is the project left way back there on a low simmer. Don has made no mention of 3993... perhaps it is completely off of his radar? Can anybody else chip in on that one?]