Has Guillermo Del Toro gone insane?

Before you jumped to any conclusion that Guillermo Del Toro (the renowned horror director who brought you acclaimed films like Pan's Labyrinth, the Hellboy films, The Devil's Backbone, etc.) had jumped the shark with his decision to work on Volition, Inc. and THQ's latest video game, inSANE, the first of a trilogy, do consider these several facts:

1) It is a horror-themed game. Being a master of the genre, Del Toro's inputs on the fledging horror game genre are something definitely a closer look.

2) Despite the, for lack of a better word, insane amount of planned project awaiting his attentions, Interested in these planned project? Well, the films awaiting his directions are:

Frankenstein;
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde;
A remake of Slaughterhouse-Five;
Drood, an adaptation of a Dan Simmons novel published in February 2009;
A film adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft;
A 3D reboot of The Haunted Mansion for Disney in the new label known as "Disney Double Dare You" by Del Toro;

And that is apart from his producing roles for films like Kung Fu Panda 2; his writing roles on novels like "The Strain Trilogy" where he has completed the first volume; his co-writing role on the screenplay of The Hobbit in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (of which he was previously attached as a director).

Just so you know that there is zero exaggeration on our part when we mentioned "insane amount of planned project".

3) Del Toro's love for gaming has been well-documented. Having admitted earlier to be a fan of first person shooter video games like Half-Life and BioShock and games like Bioshock, Left 4 Dead, Uncharted 2, as well as Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, Del Toro also made heads by standing up for gaming with the below comments:

"Video games are the comic books of our time…It’s a medium that gains no respect among the intelligentsia. They say, ‘Oh, video games…’ And most people that complain about video games have never f***ing played them."

"Video games have proven to be incredibly immersive experiences, and not every game is a shooter game…You will see that they are an art form and anyone saying differently is a little out of touch, because they are an art form."

"Like the way they say, ‘Horror movies, they make the kids delinquent! Horror comics, they make the kids criminal!’ Now it’s video games…It’s all bullshit."

"video games are the comic books of our time... It's a medium that gains no respect among the intelligentsia"

With such inspirations, Del Toro had earlier commented on the desire to create a "Citizen Kane of games".

Easily, this is ambitious enough to warrant more than a close look given the prolific director's reputation.

I bet we won't need more reasons for taking more than a "backseat with our fingers crossed" position with this one.

Check out the announcement trailer of inSANE, officially unveiled at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, that practically contains nothing more than the title of the game. Well, it's a start.