Del Toro hopes to remake 'Monte Cristo'

Rex Features

Guillermo del Toro has revealed that his dream project is a "Gothic-Western" remake of The Count Of Monte Cristo.

Speaking to MTV News, the Hellboy director said that he hopes to one day helm a reinvention of Alexandre Dumas's classic novel.

"It's a Gothic-Western retelling of The Count Of Monte Cristo, and I co-wrote it with Kitt Carson and Matthew Robbins around 1993 to 1998," he said of the script, thought to be titled The Left Hand of Darkness.

"I wrote a lot of that during the kidnapping of my father, so [there's] a lot of rage," he added, referring to the 72 days his dad was held in Mexico. "I adore that screenplay."

The Count Of Monte Cristo centres on Edmund Dantes, a man who escapes prison after 13 years to exact revenge on a friend who betrayed him. The last big screen adaptation of the story was released in 2002 with James Caviezel and Guy Pearce in the lead roles.