It's director's duty to always exceed the budget: Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro says it is important for a director to "always responsibly" exceed the scale of the film he has envisioned.

The Oscar-winning director, whose diverse budget filmography ranges from USD 2 million "Cronos" to USD 200 million "Pacific Rim", believes a filmmaker must always struggle to finish the project under allotted resources.

"As a director, it is your duty to always responsibly exceed the scope and exceed the budget. If you have enough time and enough money, you're f***ing up.

"To direct is a hostage negotiation with reality. The day I go out and say, 'I have an extra day,' something's wrong. You have to not have enough. I think that real art and real freedom exists under the boundaries. Because it's not boundaries, it's structure," del Toro said.

According to IndieWire, he was in conversation with actor Alec Baldwin as part of the Tribeca Film Festival's Director Series.

The filmmaker shared an anecdote to demonstrate his point.

"I remember on the first 'Hellboy,' they came in... and they said, 'You have to cut seven million'. And I said, 'OK, I'll add an action scene'... and we still ended up under budget," del Toro told Baldwin.

The director's next project is stop-motion version of "Pinocchio" with Mark Gustafson for Netflix. He is also producing "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark".