Guillermo del Toro Pulls Strings on New ‘Pinocchio’ Film

By Michael Lopez

Don’t you love it when imaginative directors give classic fairy tales a darker twist? Whether it’s Tim Burton reworking Alice in Wonderland or Twilight’s Catherine Hardwicke taking on Red Riding Hood, it always makes for interesting storytelling. Now, Mexican movie maestro Guillermo del Toro will be lending his expertise to the famous tale of Pinocchio.

According to Latino Review, del Toro will oversee a new stop-motion film version of the Italian fable. Except this time, instead of cute little crickets and blue fairies, Pinocchio will have to deal with treacherous orphan boys and greedy puppet masters. In fact, Guillermo believes the darker tones are an essential part of fairy tale storytelling.

"There has to be a darkness in any fairy tale or children's narrative work,” del Toro explained. “Something the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Walt Disney understood."

Don’t worry, the film will still have plenty of family-friendly elements. Guillermo’s partnering with The Jim Henson Company to create Pinocchio’s world, and rumor has it that the movie will be released in 3D. With that in mind, it’s doubtful that it will be as horrific as del Toro’s earlier works.

Overall, Guillermo seems pretty excited about the project and the opportunity to put his spin on such a beloved character.

“[Pinocchio] is one of the great characters, whose purity and innocence allows him to survive in this bleak landscape of robbers and thugs, emerging from the darkness with his soul intact."

Pinocchio is still in the very early stages of production, so it will likely hit theaters in the next two years.

What other fairy tales would you like to see 're-imagined?’ Sound off in the comments or @MTV3.

Tags Fairy Tales, Guillermo del Toro, Hot Stuff, Movies & CineMás, Pinocchio