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Guillermo del Toro's Two Full Puppet Projects - Pinocchio Included!
by Alex Billington
November 13, 2008
Source: Bloody Disgusting
With Guillermo del Toro working on writing and pre-production for The Hobbit, one would've thought it would be impossible for him to be thinking about anything else. Well, Bloody Disgusting brings us some news to the contrary today and shares some details on two new projects that weren't even on his Roadmap to 2017. The interesting thing is that both of them are puppet based projects - which is quite timely considering Hellboy II just hit DVD and the entire opening sequence to that film was done with puppets. First up, Guillermo confirms that he's trying to get a full stop-motion version of Gris Grimly's Pinocchio into production, and second, that he's got a full-scale puppet movie of his own in the works.
Guillermo explains, "We are trying to get a full stop-motion version of Gris Grimly's Pinocchio off the ground, with the Jim Henson Company. The idea came from Gris, and everybody loves his book about it. The original story is far more perverse and spooky and semi-necrophilia vibe to it in certain aspects. Gris certainly has that vein in him, he wants to do this with that original spookiness in it, we are trying to get it going. The Jim Henson Company is the behind it and we are currently working on the screenplay!" He adds that it might take up to three years to finish in its entirety, so at that rate it's high unlikely that we'll be seeing this within the next few years. "A full-scale puppet universe takes time," del Toro adds.
Grimly's Pinocchio is much like the original fairy tale that we all know, except that once Pinocchio comes to life, he turns out to be a bad kid instead of a good one. "Pinocchio enjoys nothing better than creating mischief and playing mean tricks. As he discovers, being bad is much more fun than being good. For a while, anyway. Happily for Pinocchio, he will learn that there is much more to being a real boy than having fun." Sounds like a bit of a twisted take on the story (described on Amazon as "darker, comical, and so much more rich than the Disney adpatation"), but apparently it's very good story anyway.
In addition to Pinocchio however, Guillermo reveals one more puppet project. "I am not at liberty to speak about it right now, but one of the hundred things we are doing is developing a full-scale puppet film of my own as well." He goes on to tell Bloody Disgusting about how the idea came about when they were putting together that opening sequence of Hellboy II. In the context of the Hellboy universe, I didn't think it fit too well, but I'll admit that opening scene with the puppets did look pretty awesome in the end. I really love the idea of seeing a full-length puppet movie done like that because it's so creative and unique and something we haven't really seen before (or at least not as well-done as Guillermo is planning). Thoughts?
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8 Comments
1
How creatively twisted...
Peloquin on Nov 13, 2008
2
Just ordered the book for my 10 year old son.
Justin on Nov 13, 2008
3
As long as it's no Pinocchio's Revenge
Jaf on Nov 13, 2008
4
Sweet. Puppets. With the Muppets, Fraggles, etc movies looming ahead, it's safe to say puppet movies are back (or will be, very soon).
Alfredo on Nov 13, 2008
5
Jim Henson + Dark + Del Torro... Hmmmm Maybe a 3rd Dark Crystal flick? Also, I read that Genndy was dropped or had stepped away from the the 2nd Dark Crystal moive... Any chance Del Torro's people are putting the finishing touches on it? Either way. I can't wait.
j money on Nov 13, 2008
7
First of all I highly recommend the book, but it should be noted that it's not exactly "Gris Grimly's" Pinocchio, as all he really did was re-illustrate it in his own style. The story itself is the original story of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, and the only change made for this edition is that it's in English instead of Italian. The article is correct in saying it's very different from the story you grew up with, though... unless you're me, you probably grew up with the Disney version, and this book is ANYTHING but traditional Disney material. It's a good thing Walt didn't have any expectations for what traditional Disney material should be, huh!
G'Tron on Nov 29, 2008
8
Wonderful! It's about time puppets made a comeback, and I can think of no other director better qualified to get new generations hooked on all things puppet.
Mac McCord on Jun 6, 2010
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