Netflix has announced the stellar cast for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.
The worldwide pandemic may be impacting on release schedules for this year, but that doesn’t stop studios and streaming services continuing to tease information about forthcoming major releases. Netflix is the latest to make such an announcement, revealing major cast details for Pinocchio, the Guillermo del Toro-directed stop-motion animation production.
Netflix announced in 2018 that they were remaking the Disney classic, with Del Toro writing and directing a stop-motion dark fantasy musical. Since then there have been few details. The full casting news released this week has been worth the wait, bringing together a stellar cast.
Joining Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting) as Jiminy Cricket and David Bradley (Walder Frey in Game of Thrones) as Geppetto is relative newcomer Gregory Mann (young Eli in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society) as Pinocchio. Other star names announced for the project are Chrisoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds), Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), John Turturro (Barton Fink), Cate Blanchett (Carol), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Tim Blake Nelson (Watchmen) and Burn Gorman (The Dark Knight Rises). It is not yet known what what roles have been assigned to this strong line up, although Swinton is rumoured to be the Turquoise Fairy.
“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.”
Guillermo Del Toro
Pinocchio has been a long-unrealised dream of director Del Toro, in what would be his first foray into animation. First set for 2008, the project became entangled in development hell until Netflix came onboard in 2018 to breathe life into the story of the puppet who becomes a boy. The production is expected to be closely based on the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The style of the movie is inspired by Chris Grimly’s illustrations from his 2002 edition of Collodi’s source material. Set during 1930’s Italy under fascism, the fantasy musical is expected to be much darker than the famous Disney take on the story.
Robert Zemeckis is also adapting his own version of Pinocchio, with Tom Hanks set to play Geppetto in that version.
With such a glittering cast and production continuing through the pandemic, excitement is high for an expected 2021 release.
Words by Andrew Butcher
Support The Indiependent
We’re trying to raise £200 a month to help cover our operational costs. This includes our ‘Writer of the Month’ awards, where we recognise the amazing work produced by our contributor team. If you’ve enjoyed reading our site, we’d really appreciate it if you could donate to The Indiependent. Whether you can give £1 or £10, you’d be making a huge difference to our small team.