A seductive stranger with a stack of secrets, a mysterious mansion, and an aspiring American author
all feature in director Guillermo del Toro's gothic romance Crimson Peak.
I'm Jan and this is 10 things you probably didn't know about Crimson Peak.
Director Guillermo del Toro wrote 10-page character biographies for Jessica Chastain,
Mia Wasikowska, and Tom Hiddleston.
The in-depth biographies included details such as the character's upbringing,
relationships with their parents, favorite smells, and secrets,
all of which del Toro told each actor to keep to him or herself.
The information not only helped the stars prepare for their roles,
but also ensured they were on the same page as del Toro
when it came to understanding their character's actions, influences, and motivations.
When Tom Hiddleston replaced Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Thomas Sharpe,
Guillermo del Toro rewrote the script.
According to del Toro, before Hiddleston joined the Crimson Peak cast,
Thomas was originally going to be a much colder character.
On top of Del Toro's character biography,
Hiddleston found inspiration in a series of mood boards created by costume designer Kate Hawley,
which he placed around his trailer during filming.
The boards included pictures of English poet Lord Byron, Victorian engineers and miners,
and a painting called Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog by German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich.
When del Toro first sent Jessica Chastain the script for Crimson Peak,
he assumed she'd want to play the main character Edith, an aspiring American author.
But Chastain was more interested in the role of the mysterious antagonist, Lucille,
who's the sister of Tom Hiddleston's character, Thomas.
Crimson Peak was a tough shoot for Chastain,
as not only did she have to get into the dark headspace necessary to play Lucille,
but she was also filming A Most Violent Year at the same time.
So, when it was time to shoot an especially adrenaline-charged scene,
Del Toro suggested Chastain drink several large espressos to get in the right mood!
Oh, and by the way, Chastain also learnt to play the piano for the film!
Not long after Charlie Hunnam finished filming Pacific Rim with Guillermo del Toro,
the director sent Hunnam an email asking him to star in Crimson Peak.
From then on in, Hunnam and del Toro worked together to create a biography
for Hunnam's character, a young American doctor called Alan McMichael.
The one thing Del Toro wasn't keen on that Hunnam suggested
was that Dr McMichael should be a pipe-smoker.
According to Hunnam, the reason was that del Toro didn't want to add pipe-smoking
to the list of things he had to fight the studio to get on screen.
The movie's ghosts were played by actors Doug Jones and Javier Botet,
whose physical presence on set really helped the movie's leads
as it gave them something real to react to.
The transparent look of the ghosts was later added with CGI.
Jones and Botet have both brought a number of creatures to life in Del Toro's previous productions,
including Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, and Mama.
To bring to life the gothic mansion Allerdale Hall, aka Crimson Peak,
a huge set was built at Pinewood Toronto Studios.
It took 6 months to design and build the three-and-a-half-storey set,
which not only had a working elevator, but also functioning fireplaces.
The mansion's rooms were linked by hallways,
which meant the camera could move seamlessly around the house
and del Toro could avoid having to digitally stitch scenes together in post-production.
The only room that wasn't connected to the main mansion set was the bedroom.
One of the only parts of the house that needed green screen
was the hole in the ceiling in order to show the sky.
Although the mansion's floor looks like it's made of wood,
it was actually made of especially strong concrete,
so it could withstand the volume of crew moving about throughout the shoot.
The Crimson Peak mansion is del Toro's favourite set,
so he was particularly sad when it had to be taken apart after filming.
Some of the pieces of furniture made for the movie were built in two different sizes,
one bigger and one smaller.
So, when Del Toro wanted to emphasise the fact that a character was weak in a particular scene,
they'd use the larger sized furniture on set.
However, if he wanted to make the character appear stronger,
he'd use the smaller version of the piece of furniture.
The word "Fear" and the motif of butterflies versus moths
are hidden throughout the design of the house, including in the custom-made wallpaper.
Del Toro has been fascinated by butterflies and moths since he was a child
and used them to allude to the differences between the film's two main female characters, Lucille and Edith.
When Del Toro and his co-writer Matthew Robbins were penning the Crimson Peak script,
they were inspired by an array of novels including Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights,
Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca,
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre,
and one of Del Toro's favourite gothic novels, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Uncle Silas.
In fact, the character Mia Wasikowska plays in Crimson Peak is named Edith
after American author Edith Wharton, whose novels include The Age Of Innocence.
And given Del Toro's love of Frankenstein
and the fact that author Mary Shelley is mentioned in the film,
it's quite possible that Edith's surname Cushing is a reference to actor Peter Cushing,
who played Frankenstein in many Hammer Horror movies.
Now, let me know in the comments below, which are your favourite Guillermo del Toro movies?
And what are the spookiest stories you've seen on screen?
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