Guillermo Del Toro has said that when he was developing the roles for Crimson Peak, Charlie Hunnam was desperate for his character to smoke a pipe - but it wasn't to be.

The director and writer of the period horror film said he had written biographies for each of the characters except Dr Alan McMichael, as Charlie, who was playing him, did it himself.

He explained to Collider: "I give each of them biographies and I ask them to keep them secret from each other. I give them a 10-page biography that says everything from what they like to eat to what sign they are and what day they were born - all the story of the characters up to the point of the movie...

"The only guy that wrote his own biography was Charlie because by the time I said, 'I'm going to send you the biography next week,' he said he already did it. He said I've been doing McMichael for the last four months.

"He was asking for very precise things. The only thing that didn't pass muster is that he wanted to smoke a pipe. He brought it for the wardrobe test and I went, 'No.' But he tried."

Guillermo continued of working on the period-set film: "This is not Downton Abbey. I don't like what I call 'class porn,' where everybody's all gooey over, 'If only the aristocracy was still in charge, life would be so civilised.' F*** that. It's not true. It was never true. And this is the opposite.

"This is a movie about a very incredibly decadent trait of the aristocracy, rotting away in a mansion on a hill. It's anti-class porn in a way.

"When I tackle a vampire movie, I'm very, very aware of the tenets of the genre. And then it's up to me to both hit them and try to do them in a way that is not the normal way."

Crimson Peak is due to be released in cinemas on October 16, 2015.

PA Media