Following his Best Picture win for 2017’s The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro took a year off directing as he moved his focus on producing projects such as Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark. Soon he’ll return to the helm of a couple exciting projects, including a stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio. Now the cast hasn’t been officially announced yet by del Toro, but one actor close to the project has revealed an impressive lineup that’s attached.
Game of Thrones’ Walder Frey actor David Bradley told Polish website Na Ekraine (via The Playlist) that he is voicing the role of Pinocchio’s “father” Geppetto in the upcoming stop-motion movie. The 77-year-old actor is well-known for playing Hogwarts’ caretaker Argus Filch in six Harry Potter films and having roles in Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz and At World’s End.
David Bradley also said that he’ll be working with Ron Perlman, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, and Ewan McGregor on Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Those are some massive names! Except word on which roles they will specifically play was not disclosed. Perlman is a frequent collaborator with Guillermo del Toro -- who has worked with him in the Hellboy franchise, Pacific Rim, and Trollhunters -- so it’s no surprise he might return to voice a role in Pinocchio.
Christoph Waltz is a two-time Oscar-winning actor for his roles in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. He recently starred in Alita: Battle Angel and he’ll soon reprise his James Bond role as Blofeld in No Time To Die. Tilda Swinton is an impressive character actress from Snowpiercer, Suspiria, and Okja just to name a few. Ewan McGregor is best known for playing Obi-Wan Kenobi and recently played Black Mask in Birds of Prey.
These are some exciting picks for Pinocchio for Guillermo del Toro’s update of the classic fairytale. The stop-motion film has been described as the filmmaker as a ”brutalist fable” that has Pinocchio living in the Mussolini era of Italy. Just as del Toro has brought his fascination with Frankenstein to his previous films such as Shape of Water, Pinocchio is apparently influenced by the movie monster as well. But this version is not a family flick.
Right now del Toro’s focus is mainly on Nightmare Alley, an adaptation of a ‘40s noir by William Lindsay Gresham. The movie about the team up between a conman and a female psychologist reportedly stars Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Ron Perlman, and Richard Jenkins.
At the same time, Disney is also working on a live-action remake of Pinocchio with Robert Zemeckis directing. Tom Hanks was previously attached to play the role of Geppetto in this version, but updates on the development of this movie have been scarce.
Stay tuned on CinemaBlend for more updates on Pinocchio.
