We hear about Guillermo del Toro so often that it’s easy to forget he hasn’t had a movie in theaters since Hellboy II in July 2008. Not for lack of trying; both The Hobbit and At the Mountains of Madness were plagued with financing and studio problems, to the point where he left the former and is still trying to get the latter moving. After a little misfortune, the Mexican filmmaker has finally nailed down Pacific Rim, and an interview with Wired brings us some great news: the project has just started filming.

del Toro‘s “giant robots vs. giant monsters” movie, considered by him to be “a very, very beautiful poem to giant monsters,” kicked off shooting this past Monday in Toronto. Although things are currently underway, and despite some plot descriptions coming, it’d be safe to say that we’re in the dark on what to expect from the film, visually and tonally speaking. del Toro did say, however, that he and his team are “trying to create a world in which the characters are real and how it would affect our world politically, how it would affect the landscape if creatures like this really came out of the sea, etc.” Those of you who want to know what that really means might be wise to remain patient.

Regardless of how little is out there, it’s already a promising film. Want it to be even more promising? Well, you should also know taht Ron Perlman, star of del Toro‘s Hellboy films, Blade II, and Cronos, will be a part of the cast that includes Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Charlie Day, and Rinko Kikuchi. Not bad. His name was only brought up in passing, but I’d still bet del Toro doesn’t give a good friend some bit part; maybe the evil scientist Willem Dafoe was in talks to play? He could pull it off.

Pacific Rim opens on May 10th, 2013.

Do you see promise in Pacific Rim? What does the addition of Perlman do for your expectations?