Guillermo del Toro’s edgy 3D production of Pinocchio moving forward

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Back in August Guillermo del Toro himself broke the news that he was working on a dark new version of PINOCCHIO featuring music by Nick Cave. (If you can’t get behind that fascinating mixture of story and talent, I can’t help you…) To be honest I had pretty much forgotten about the project since then, but now thanks to a story in Deadline.com my memory has been jogged. Read on!

The Jim Henson company will produce PINOCCHIO along with del Toro; artist/author Gris Grimly will co-direct with Mark Gustafson (animation director on THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX), and production will begin later this year. Del Toro and Matthew Robbins, who collaborated on MIMIC and the upcoming DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, co-wrote the screenplay. Nick Cave will be the music consultant for the film, which will utilize 3D stop motion animation.

Here’s a statement from del Toro’s on the matter, which might help you dig on this if you’re currently not: “There has to be darkness in any fairy tale or children’s narrative work, something the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Walt Disney understood.. We tend to call something Disney-fied, but a lot of people forget how powerfully disturbing the best animated Disney movies are, including those kids being turned into donkeys in Pinocchio. What we’re trying to do is present a Pinocchio that is more faithful to the take that Collodi wrote. That is more surreal and slightly darker than what we’ve seen before.”

Meanwhile, del Toro says he still intends on shooting AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS this spring. For some more words of wisdom from the man, check out the Deadline article HERE