Even as Disney looks to secure Tom Hanks' services for its live-action take on Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro is forging ahead with his stop-motion version. And he's announced an all-star cast, which features Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Gregory Mann, David Bradley, Christoph Waltz and more.
Ewan McGregor is confirmed as Cricket (who serves as the wooden boy's conscience), while the ensemble will also include John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Tim Blake Nelson, Ron Perlman and Burn Gorman. The animators started work on the film last autumn in Portland, and thanks to the more isolated nature of the production, it continued – with requisite safety procedures – through the pandemic even as it shut other movies down. Del Toro wrote the script with Patrick McHale, and like Pan's Labyrinth, it'll explore real world horrors in a fantasy setting, in this case a blend of the rise of Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy and a story of love and disobedience as Pinocchio struggles to live up to his father’s expectations.
"After years of pursuing this dream project, I found my perfect partner in Netflix," says del Toro, who is directing with Mark Gustafson. "We have spent a long time curating a remarkable cast and crew and have been blessed by continuous support from Netflix to quietly and carefully soldier on, barely missing a beat. We all love and practice animation with great passion and believe it to be the ideal medium to retell this classic story in a completely new way."