'I love it': Guillermo del Toro shares love of Edinburgh after filming Frankenstein

In a video shared by Film Edinburgh, Guillermo del Toro described Scotland’s capital as a “cultural centre” and said the experience of shooting in Edinburgh was “extraordinarily friendly”.

Frankenstein has finally launched on Netflix after filming in Scotland took place last year. Crews shut down areas including the Royal Mile and St Giles Cathedral to shoot the film, with further filming taking place in locations including Glasgow, Arbroath, Aberdeenshire and East Lothian.

Discussing his experience, the director said it was his sixth visit to Edinburgh and joked he may even become a resident of the city. “I love it,” he said.

He continued: “It is a city with a rich culture, a cultural centre in the history of Europe, publishing, writing, the arts, medicine, science. It’s as rich a capital in history as any other city in the world.

“But on top of that, visually, it has the beauty and the sort of aura of mystery and the diversity and richness of any other capital.”

He went on to hail the historic city as an “extraordinarily friendly” destination to shoot.

“The people are tremendous, the facilities that are given to a movie are tremendous,” he said.

“The looks that you can do in this city is anything. You can do Russia, you can do America, you can do 1800s, you can do 1600s, you can do anything. It’s been a total pleasure to work here.

“I plan to return and I could not recommend it more openly or more thoroughly than I do in this video.

“As a filmmaker with 30 years of experience, shooting all over Europe and all over the world, this is the single most gratifying experience I’ve had shooting outside of America.”

It was recently revealed the director paid a personal visit to the Wallace Monument in 2023 before it was cast in a key role in the Frankenstein movie.

Production designer Tamara Deverell said: “The Wallace Monument was a very strong design influence for the look of our abandoned water tower, which transforms into Victor Frankenstein’s cliffside laboratory.

“Guillermo, our concept artist Guy Davis and I visited the monument on our first location scout in Scotland in April 2023.

“We used the overall silhouette, the textures of the stone, the arched architecture, and, particularly, the turreted top in the design of our Frankenstein tower.

“Like so much of Scotland, our first view of the Wallace Monument rising on a high point in the mist over the countryside was both breath taking and extraordinarily inspirational.”