It’s great to see that Guillermo Del Toro is finally finding his footing after he had to leave The Hobbit and At the Mountains of Madness. It is expected that after del Toro completes his work on Pacific Rim, he will immediately jump in to co-direct his first stop-motion animated film, Pinocchio, with Mark Gustafson (animation director for Fantastic Mr. Fox).

But this won’t be a kid-friendly Pinocchio; no, the film will be based on Gris Grimly’s dark interpretation of the story that takes place in Italy between World War I and World War II. Looking at del Toro’s IMDB profile, this should not come as a big surprise. The film will also be in 3D.

The new telling of Pinocchio is very much in the early pre-production phase, but del Toro already has a shortlist of actors that he would like to see voicing various characters. Some of the most notable names on the list are Christopher Walken and Tom Waits. The filmmaker also mentioned that Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has expressed an interest in joining the project. But at this point no one is officially signed on to voice any parts.

This will be the first time that del Toro has helmed an animation project. But he should be able to make an easy transition from live-action to stop motion, since he will be working with Gustafson. The Jim Henson Company will also be a part of the film making process.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, production is moving according to schedule, and given the amount of time it takes to film stop-motion projects, the earliest we could be seeing Pinocchio is in 2014.

[Source: THR]