Guillermo del Toro’s reimagination of Pinocchio is set to debut on Netflix in late 2022.
Even if you haven’t seen the Disney version of the fantasy tale, chances are, you know who Pinocchio is. The classic children’s novel by Italian author Carlo Collodi has had numerous adaptations over the years.
With the tale getting another live-action adaptation from director Robert Zemeckis next, del Toro has promised that his stop-motion animation version will reimagine it in a dark and deep tone.
While speaking to Collider about his upcoming noir Nightmare Alley, del Toro announced the release window for Pinocchio,
The movie will come out last quarter of 2022. It’s curious because it’s been almost five years since Shape of Water, and now it’s going to be two movies in a row, one after the other.
Guillermo Del Toro
The director mentioned Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as one of his inspirations and said that the project still has a long way to go,
It’s a very, very, very personal movie for me. The flip-side for me [has] always been Pinocchio and Frankenstein, are the same story. Because essentially, that’s the same story. The idea of a Pinocchio that talks about things that I consider very deep, but it’s fun, and it’s a musical at the same time, I find it really incredibly moving. Obviously, in animation, you get to see the movie in storyboards beginning to end many, many times, and then you add the stop-motion. Right now, we are 50% animated and 50% in storyboards.
The Shape of Water director had his vision set for the project way back since 2008 but was stuck in limbo due to funding issues and other changes. For del Toro, this project is personal and one that he has put a lot of time and effort in,
Every time I watch the movie, I just sob like a baby. It’s as personal as it gets, as moving as it gets. It’s unlike any version of the story you’ve ever seen. It’s completely unlike it. It subverts the moral underpinnings of the original fable, which is, in order to be a real boy, you have to change. You’re going to become flesh and blood. This is about becoming a real boy by acting…acting like a real human, period.
Netflix picked up the film in 2018, and production on the stop-motion musical began in January 2020 in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Portland, Oregon.
Animation director Mark Gustafson leads the project with del Toro. The film’s star-studded cast includes Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz, Cate Blanchett, Finn Wolfhard, Ron Perlman, and David Bradley.
Del Toro has been on a roll, working on new projects one after the other. Antlers debuted this October, with Nightmare Alley set for a December release.
The director is currently working on an anthology series for Netflix. Titled Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, the project already has a stellar cast, including Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint.
About Pinocchio
Pinocchio is an upcoming stop-motion animated musical fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, based on Gris Grimly’s design from his 2002 edition of the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.
The film stars the voices of Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Ron Perlman, Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Finn Wolfhard, Burn Gorman and John Turturro.
A dark, twisted retelling of the famous Carlo Collodi fairytale about a wooden puppet who comes to life and dreams of becoming a real boy takes place in 1930s Fascist Italy. When Pinocchio comes to life, he turns out not to be a nice boy, causing mischief and playing mean tricks.
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