Guillermo del Toro (Ali Gradischer/Getty Images), William Friedkin (Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for TCM)

While promoting The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial this weekend at the Venice Film Festival—where the movie, director William Friedkin’s last, will have its world premiere—producer Annabelle Dunne dropped a surprising behind-the-scenes detail: Guillermo del Toro served as the film’s “back-up director,” meaning he was on-board to finish the movie if something happened to Friedkin before shooting had wrapped. (It didn’t. He had completed the film before his death on August 8.)

But, as Dunne noted, this was a contractual obligation that is apparently “very common” in show business even though she calls it a “state secret,” adding that, “Hollywood is ageist.” Friedkin, who was 87 when he died, said he had to “think about” who he would nominate as his back-up director, but he had thought of someone by the next day, with Dunne saying it went down like this: “Ok, honey I have the guy. Get a pen: it’s Guillermo del Toro, you got that?”

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