Just yesterday we learned that Guillermo del Toro’s horror novel series “The Strain” is planned for adaptation as a television pilot on FX. Tonight, ShockTillYouDrop.com caught up with the man himself on the red carpet for Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights Eyegore awards where he gave them a brief update on the status of that project and also responded to the recent news that his upcoming Pacific Rim would be post-converted to 3D.

“Fox has commissioned a pilot,” he says of the former project which he has hopes will go to series. “Fortunately for me, that means they’re not commissioning a screenplay or development. We’re going right to pilot. That’s a very good piece of news.”

Pacific Rim, meanwhile, is in post-production and is targeting a July 12, 2013 release with a cast that includes Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Idris Elba, Ron Perlman and Charlie Day. Not planning for 3D from the project’s inception, del Toro explains that certain factors had to be agreed to to get him to change his mind on the post-conversion.

“What happened was, in the weeks and months following Comic-Con, what I asked from the studio was to agree to four points that I wanted to do,” he says. “The more the ILM shots arrived, the more I realized that there were only a few shots that would miniaturize. I asked the studio, number one, that we would not hyper-stereo-lize the thing. That we would not force 3D on the beauty shots. That we would keep the giant dimensions. They agreed. Number two, they agreed to something very unusual. Normally a conversion takes a few weeks. I asked to start it immediately so we could take the full 40 weeks to do the conversion. As an example, ‘Titanic’ took about 50 weeks to convert. The final thing that I asked that they agreed to, which was amazing, was that I asked them to give me an extra budget, which is considerable, to actually have ILM composite the shots that are CG native 3D. We’re not giving elements. ILM is giving the composite in 3D from the get-go. That’s a huge, huge element. Now I’m going to be involved in supervising it. What can I tell you? I changed my mind. I’m not running for office. I can do a Romney.”

What’s even better to hear is that work on Pacific Rim‘s post-production is moving along magnificently.

“It’s going great,” del Toro continues, “We’re about 40 weeks away from opening but, nevertheless, the pace is breakneck. So far, though, it’s been the best experience I’ve ever had.”

Check back for updates on both projects in the months to come!

(Photo Credit: Starbux / WENN.com)