Kurt Vonnegut’s landmark anti-war novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” is written in the style of the Tralfamadorian aliens who view all time as simultaneous and pre-determined, the author notes in his brilliant opening chapter. With no future or past or present, they are able to concentrate on this moment or that moment, but unable to change their behavior in any one of them. It’s something of an anti-narrative, a structure which Vonnegut himself calls “short and jumbled and jangled.”

But could it possibly work as a movie for ALL audiences? (The book was previously adapted in 1972, won the jury prize at Cannes, but failed to connect with viewers.)

Yes, insists Guillermo Del Toro, who lists “Slaughterhouse-Five” among his many possible post-“Hobbit” projects. The trick, he says, is to marry modern techniques in digital wizardry with new narrative possibilities. Read more...