'The Babadook' Director Jennifer Kent Is Working On A Project With Guillermo Del Toro

Jennifer Kent broke onto the scene in 2014 with The Babadook, a movie that managed to be a thoughtful examination of motherhood, grief, and mental illness while also being a movie about a terrifying top-hatted monster who lives in a children's book and haunts an unsuspecting family. Five years later, she's finally back with a new movie and she's talking about another project, one that would unite her with The Shape of Water and Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro.

Kent is currently at the Sundance Film Festival with her new revenge thriller The Nightingale, but she seems to have at least one eye on the future. Speaking with Bloody Disgusting, Kent confirmed that she is working on something with the newly minted Oscar winner, but wouldn't say much more:

"Look, we've got something on the boil. I'm not being secretive but I'm not sure I can talk about it. It's something scary and I really admire him and his work. I think he's a true artist so I'm excited to know more. We're in [the] early stages of that."

So, is this for film or television? A project for Kent to direct and del Toro to produce? The only thing we know for sure is that this must be in the horror genre, because it's "something scary." In any case, del Toro has proven himself in the past to be generous with his influence, using his name to help other filmmakers get projects made. And I can't think of another filmmaker who deserves to make genre movies on the regular more than Kent, an exceptional talent who deserves to release a new movie more often than once every half-decade.

And as a side note, of course del Toro is a Jennifer Kent fan. A horror movie about an instantly recognizable monster that is a metaphor for human frailties who lives in a lavish pop-up book filled with extremely creepy art is the exact kind of thing del Toro would celebrate.

Del Toro is currently working on his long-gestating stop-motion Pinocchio film for Netflix, but he's also producing the upcoming adaptation of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Kent's The Nightingale has been picked up by IFC Films and will hit theaters and VOD this year.