With Guillermo Del Toro still plugging away at Pacific Rim, it'll be awhile before he has time to tackle anything else. That includes his 3D stop-motion animated Pinocchio, which he just recently jumped back in the saddle for, co-directing alongside Mark Gustafson(Fantastic Mr. Fox) and with creature designs by the Jim Henson Company. Filming probably won't begin until late next year, but we're already being treated to some concept at from the film, and it's dark and weird in a way you'd expect from the man behind Pan's Labyrinth.
EW and Dread Central have the images, and right off the bat you can tell this will be about as far from the Disney version as possible. It's actually based on the book by Gris Grimly, which is much closer in keeping with Carlo Collodi's 1883 vision. Pinocchio is a bit more screwed up, the characters he runs into are meaner, and the blue fairy is the spirit of a dead girl. Nope, not so happy and cheery. Hopefully we'll hear more on the possibility of Daniel Radcliffe coming on to voice the title character. With Del Toro also planning a Beauty and the Beast adaptation(with Emma Watson), he may be the best guy to put a fresh spin on these familiar fairy tales....
