Academy Award winning director Guillermo del Toro will be directing a stop-motion animated version of Pinocchio at Netflix. The script, co-written by del Toro and Patrick McHale, will take place in Italy during the rise of fascism in the 1930s. del Toro had this to say about the project:
“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,” he 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.”
The film will be co-directed by Mark Gustafson, a frequent collaborator of the the late Oscar and Emmy Award winning stop-motion animation director Will Vinton.