Guillermo del Toro, the Academy Award-winning director of “The Shape of Water” (not to mention “Hellboy,” “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Pacific Rim”) is making a new version of “Pinocchio” for Netflix.
I’d thought that after del Toro’s awards victory earlier this year he might finally make his long-thwarted adaptation “At the Mountains of Madness.” And while I’m not giving up hope that I’ll see a del Toro-helmed version of the classic H.P. Lovecraft horror story one day, it seems that he’s going in a different direction for now.
The official announcement from Netflix describes this as del Toro’s “lifelong passion project,” and says that it will be both a stop-motion animated film and a musical.
“No art form has influenced my life and my work more than animation and no single character in history has had as deep of a personal connection to me as Pinocchio,” del Toro said in a statement. “In our story, Pinocchio is an innocent soul with an uncaring father who gets lost in a world he cannot comprehend. He embarks on an extraordinary journey that leaves him with a deep understanding of his father and the real world. I’ve wanted to make this movie for as long as I can remember.”
This isn’t the director’s first project for Netflix — he previously created the animated series “Trollhunters,” and he has another series in the works for the streaming service, “Guillermo del Toro Presents 10 After Midnight.” Netflix says that in addition to directing the film with Mark Gustafson (“The Fantastic Mr. Fox”), he will co-write and co-produce it. The Jim Henson Company (which is also making a “Dark Crystal” prequel series for Netflix) and ShadowMachine are producing as well.
Netflix also announced today that it’s raising an additional $2 billion in debt to fund its original content plans. It says production on “Pinocchio” will begin this fall.