Guillermo Del Toro is currently working hard on Hellboy II: The Golden Army, but he's thinking ahead as ever. The obscenely talented director has, in fact, signed up to write, direct and produce The Champions, a film version of the 1968-'69 British TV show. No word yet on whether Del Toro will handle the catering as well, but we hear he does a mean chili con carne so don't rule it out.
For those of you not au fait with your late '60s spy thrillers, The Champions followed three spies - codebreaker Richard Barrett, pilot Craig Stirling and scientist /doctor Sharon Macready - whose plane crashed high in the Himalayas. The three awoke three days later with vague memories of being treated for their injuries, to discover that an ancient civilisation had rescued them and given them powers "to the limits of known human abilities". They heal fast, have increased strength and endurance and ESP and precognition - all of which are pretty handy for spies.
There's no word yet on where this fits in to Del Toro's schedule - he also has 3993 lined up ( one of his smaller scale Spanish-language efforts, once again involving ghosts and the Civil War) and At The Mountains of Madness, the Lovecraftian project he's been circling for ages, is still a possibility. We'd guess that this will come after the former and before the latter, but only time will tell.
So is this a fitting use of Del Toro's talents? And isn't it about time we saw an adventure story with a bit in the Himalayas again?