Guillermo del Toro Boards Spanish Thriller 'Julia's Eyes'

Guillermo del Toro (top)
Belen Rueda (left) & Lluis Homar (right)

According to Variety, Guillermo del Toro the prolific Mexican multihyphenate who is currently in New Zealand prepping The Hobbit, will produce the dark Spanish-language thriller "Los ojos de Julia", Julia's Eyes along with Barcelona's Rodar y Rodar.

The project, which sees del Toro and the Spanish shingle reuniting after their previous collaboration, The Orphanage, is the latest to draw on the seemingly bottomless well of young genre talent in Catalan capital Barcelona.

Julia's Eyes will be directed by Guillem Morales, who is co-writing along with Oriol Paulo. It will be produced by Rodar's Joaquin Padro and Mar Targarona and co-financed by Focus Features Intl. Belen Rueda (The Orphanage) and Lluis Homar (Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces) are attached to star in the film, which tells the story of a woman slowly going blind as she investigates the mysterious death of her twin sister.

"Eyes" is shot from Julia's POV, so the scare tactics include panic attacks as her sight fails. Says [producer] Padro, "The thriller's an excuse to talk about a woman who overcomes her limitations; it's a journey of self-discovery."

"Julia's Eyes" reps a re-teaming of del Toro with Focus. The filmmaker's shingle Cha Cha Cha, which he founded along with fellow Mexicans Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, has a five picture deal with Focus. del Toro also has a separate first-look deal with Universal Pictures.

Lensing begins on Oct. 5