In a recent interview with SCI FI Wire Guillermo del Toro back Neil Gaiman as director of the film even though he's never before directed a feature length film.
On Gaiman as a director del Toro offered his thoughts; "I think that if anyone knows that character, it's him,...And then, if we need to create a support structure, we will. I mean, there is without a doubt no one more qualified to tell that story than Neil Gaiman in my mind."
Gaiman has visited the Hellboy II set to talk with del Toro about the project. "We talked a lot," del Toro said. "We talked about him directing as soon as possible."
In the three issue miniseries "Death: The High Cost of Living" the character of Death is in the form of a young goth woman and is part of Gaiman's critically acclaimed comic-book series Sandman.
Del Toro has a lot of confidence in Gaiman's ability to fill the writer and director role. "I think that Neil is a guy that thinks in terms of ideas and very concrete images," he said. "He's not an artist in the sense that he's not a draftsman, but he is the creator of that universe. ... I think there's a great advantage to not knowing how things should be done. People just go and make them happen, because they don't know that they are impossible. ... I prefer first-time mistakes than 10th-time mistakes. I think these guys are going to have first-time things that no one else is going to do. So hopefully it will happen."