‘Nightmare Alley’ Director Guillermo del Toro on Overcoming Obstacles to Make His Darkest Film Yet
“Nightmare Alley,” Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel of the same name (made once before in 1947 by British filmmaker Edmund Goulding) wasn’t exactly the smoothest. But the carnival noir, anchored by stylized performances from Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, Kate Winslet, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, and Richard Jenkins (among others), is one of del Toro’s bleakest and most defiant works to date.TheWrap spoke with del Toro about what it took to bring “Nightmare Alley” to the screen, including overcoming a mid-production shutdown, a change in corporate leadership, writing the script, and navigating a tone so singular he had to direct the film himself.