After wrapping up the miniseries “Wizards: Tales of Arcadia”, Netflix has unveiled the cast of Pinocchio: Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming animated stop-motion musical film, which will star newcomer Gregory Mann in the lead role, alongside Ewan McGregor as Jimminy Cricket and David Bradley as Gepetto.
The rest of the list includes Tilda Swinton (The French Dispatch), Christoph Waltz (No Time to Die), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Cate Blanchett (Mrs. America), John Turturro (The Batman), Tim Blake Nelson ( Watchmen) and Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim). The cast wouldn´t be complete without the always present Ron Perlman.
Based on the classic tale by Carlo Collodi, this stop motion musical follows the extraordinary journey of a wooden boy who was magically brought back to life thanks to his father wish to have a son. Del Toro´s story takes place during the rise of fascism, in 1930s Italy. It´s a story of love and disobedience where Pinocchio fights to live up to his father’s expectations.
“After years of pursuing this dream project, I found my perfect match on Netflix,” Del Toro said in a statement. “We’ve spent a lot of time putting together a great cast and crew and we’ve been blessed with Netflix’s continued support that has allowed us to continue working quietly and cautiously, without wasting a single moment. We all love animation and believe this is the perfect way to tell this classic story in a whole new way. ”
The film is directed by Del Toro and Mark Gustafson (Fantastic Mr. Fox) from a screenplay written by Del Toro and Patrick McHale (Adventure Time, The Stranger Forest). The lyrics are by Del Toro and Katz, with music by Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat, who will also write the score. Grimly Gray created the original Pinocchio character design. The sumptuous puppets in the film are built by Mackinnon and Saunders (Corpse Bride).
Pinocchio is produced by Del Toro, Lisa Henson (The Jim Henson Company), Shadow Machine´s Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico, as well as Exile Entertainment´s Gary Ungar. It is co-produced by Blanca Lista from The Jim Henson Company and Gris Grimly (who was once the director but backed out of the project in 2010). Pupeteer Georgina Hayns is also involved in the project.
Main shoot began last fall at Shadow Machine’s Portland studio, and production continued uninterrupted even during this year´s lockdown. However, it is difficult to know if Pinocchio will come out in 2021 as planned, which at this stage will only be a bump in the road of this project that has experienced many ups and downs.
After wrapping up his Nightmare Alley production (with Bradley Cooper & Cate Blanchett, on hold due the COVID-19 pandemic), Del Toro will be hands on to finish his stop motion musical.
