Guillermo del Toro joined Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees event this weekend to discuss his latest movie Nightmare Alley, nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture. The film is based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel, which had been previously adapted for the screen in 1947 in a noir classic starring Tyrone Power. Del Toro had read the book before he’d seen that movie, and he told Deadline he had always seen his vision for an adaptation “vividly” in his head. “I thought there were so many possibilities open in the book to talk about truth, lies, and the rise of a liar. An almost unstoppable rise,” del Toro said. “It felt very very ripe for the moment we’re in as a society.”
