Hollywood tentpoles may have fallen through the fingers of the Cannes Film Festival, but if they’ve done anything right this year, it’s been in paying respect to two of the big screen greats, we’re talking the 20th anniversary of Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth and the 4K restoration of Ken Russell’s 1971 naughty, cult Catholic movie, The Devils.

In the case of the former, Chris McGurk’s Cineverse stepped in taking over the lapsed North American multi-media license on the 3x Oscar winning movie (previously distributed by Bob and Jeanne Berney’s Picturehouse when it was under the Warner Bros umbrella). Pan’s Labyrinth is getting an Oct. 9 theatrical release in partnership with Fathom tricked out in 4K, 3D and HDR by Barco. When it premiered 20 years ago at Cannes, Pan’s Labyrinth was legendary with reportedly the longest standing ovation ever at 22 minutes. Last night in the pic’s second go-round (this time at Cannes Classics), the Pan’s standing ovation was around five minutes per Deadline’s clocks — a length that most competition films are lucky to land.

Pan’s Labyrinth takes place in 1944, in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Young Ofelia and her pregnant mother have been brought to live in the countryside, where her brutal stepfather Captain Vidal’s job is to wipe out the remaining rebels camped in the local forest. Nearby, in a hidden labyrinth, Ofelia meets an ageless Faun, who tells her that she is really a princess from an enchanted world. He gives her three tasks which she must complete in order to reclaim her rightful place. As her mother’s failing health threatens the life of her unborn child, Ofelia undertakes a quest to complete the Faun’s tasks.

The pic was a game-changer in del Toro’s career, showing his cinematic ability to change-up from genre titles to sophisticated period fare.

Below is our conversation from Cannes with del Toro.

Do you own Pan’s Labyrinth?

Now, I do. There was a license which lapsed. It ran, then I had some rights for The Orphanage that I exchanged with El Cinco. Alfonso (Cuarón) generously gave me the rights on his side. Now, I can care for the movie for the rest of my life.

How pivotal was Pan’s Labyrinth in your career? You were established doing Hollywood genre films, but this was an arthouse play.

It was life or death. The movies before this one, their destinies were so half-hazard. Mimic almost destroyed me. Then Devil’s Backbone almost resurrected me. Then, Blade 2 launched Hellboy, but I felt that I had to put all the chips on one number. I needed to make a statement about what I felt in the world and I felt like Ofelia. The world changed so much since 9/11. This movie takes so much of your life. It takes three-to-five years of life. And I said, I’m not going to veer from making this movie. A lot of superhero movies were being offered to me because of Hellboy and Blade II. I said, I’m going to stick to this one. Every distributor said ‘No’ until Picturehouse. Only Bob Berney saw it. Bob said, ‘I believe in this movie exactly as you want it.’ Because everyone would say ‘Do it in English. Don’t kill the girl at the end. Take out the violence.’ And I wanted to make it exactly as you see.

What is it about Bob Berney that sets him apart from other feature marketing and distribution executives?

Bob is unique. He believes in the filmmaker and he believes that the best way to deal with a piece of film is on its own terms. He doesn’t want to superimpose marketing or superimpose what he thinks. There’s that story that a sculptor looks at a block of marble until he sees a sculpture inside. That’s Bob. He’s as close to a marketing and distribution sculptor as I’ve ever seen.

Where did a bulk of the financing come from?
Mexico, Spain and presales. Wildbunch was key in financing the movie. The lynchpin was an American distributor. If we didn’t get that, we wouldn’t get the movie made. We mostly participated with our salaries. Originally, we had money from the same producers who did Devil’s Backbone. Some of them, [the] money went away before we did pre-production.

Tell me about Cineverse stepping in to re-release Pan’s Labyrinth.
I seeked out Chris McGurk. I’ve known Chris for a while. He’s been a seasoned, reliable, solid guy through every company, through every position. We’ve known each other for a long time where I admire his stance. The thing that him and Bob Berney have in common is that they’re personally involved.

L to R: Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez

Picturehouse, Everett Collection

What was on your mind then post 9/11 with the film and what still rings true today? Fascists haven’t gone away in the world.

I remember having this conversation at the time when we were making it where people said, ‘Fascists are not around.’ I said, ‘Give them time.’ The latch of history is a flimsy latch. Unfortunately, they’re always banging at the door. Our worst instincts as a society is manipulated from above — hating each other. If you distract the people below, they’ll never look up. They say, ‘Look around.’ No, look up. If you want to find who is to blame, it’s above, it’s not to your side. It’s an effective technique. The playbook is the same since Goebbels.

Your inspiration for the film. Did you see something going on in Mexico at the time that reminded you of Francoist Spain?

When I was growing up, a lot of the people that worked in the movie business were exiles from the Civil War. There was a big influx of Republicans, Republican Actors, Republican Directors, so many fine character actors were from Spain. A film historian that became my editor and mentor in Guadalajara, his family had exiled during the Civil War. It was very enmeshed.

Picturehouse

Could you still make Pan’s Labyrinth today?

In terms of craftsmanship, sure. In terms of financing, you always find a way. Where there’s a will, there’s a structure that will accommodate it. Other than Mimic, which was the worst experience I ever had as a filmmaker (with Bob Weinstein), this is the second worst experience. It was incredibly difficult to finance, incredibly difficult to shoot.

How long did it take you to get the production off the ground?
It happened right after Hellboy. It wasn’t that many years. It was very intense. I pitched to Alfonso in London over dinner. It was an original. We had a lot of antagonism in making it. The idea of combining history and horror, I did it in Devil’s Backbone. To combine it to this degree, a lot of people were skeptical about it.

One of the shots that stands with me is the broken down locomotive — that’s real? That was a quick shot, yet epic filmmaking, and I was thinking how expensive was it to construct that?

All of my life, I have been very conscious of gestures. The audience needs a gesture to realize this is a big movie when it isn’t. This movie and Shape of Water are both $19.5M. But they are full of big gestures in what are very intimate movies. In Shape of Water, I knew I had to open with an underwater apartment, which is a big gesture. Then go to a giant government lab. In Pan’s Labyrinth, other than the fantasy world, I knew I wanted big gestures. One battle scene. The big locomotive. I wanted to make sure we built every single set in the movie. When I meet with my line producer I say, ‘meatballs and gravy’. You can’t give the audience gravy, you gotta give them a meatball or two.

What do you think of Netflix finally embracing theatrical with Greta Gerwig’s Narnia?

I think it’s great. I think it’s fantastic. It’s incredibly beneficial for everyone.

Is Fury next for you?

No, it’s the stop-motion animation (The Buried Giant). It will be a long gestation. We need to build the whole world. It’s next and it’s with Netflix.

What’s your take on Hollywood and theatrical, and this whole pending merger (Warner Bros. and Paramount) taking place?

There are so many things that are mutating. You have Silicon Valley merging with Hollywood. Corporations that don’t traditionally come from moviemaking. I think there are three or four battlefronts: the creative, the legacy media, the theatrical and there’s not one front. Each filmmaker and each entity has to choose where the trench has to be dug for that particular person or that particular part of the industry. I see movement in all of them. I see movement and concern for dialogue in all of them. I’m on the DGA, PGA, I’m at the Academy. You see dialogues starting to happen. Whether you’re encroached by AI or encroached by ensuring theatrical or shooting on film, or real sets. I talk to filmmakers every week, and each of us is on an interesting journey.

Is AI simply the future of VFX? Or is the media being melodramatic about this? Do we need to watch out?

I think the more you leave your decisions to something and not someone, the worse you are for it. I don’t think art is generated. Art is created. Nevertheless, the tools advance. But they have to be presented as that, as tools.

This interview has been edited for length