Guillermo Del Toro Brought A Special Guest To Pinocchio
Guillermo Del Toro attended the 66th annual BFI London film festival to celebrate the Netflix release of Pinocchio, and he brought along a figurine of the wooden puppet.
The 66th BFI London Film Festival recently took place at the Southbank Centre, and several celebrities were in attendance to promote their new films including Florence Pugh, Jessica Chastain, and Guillermo del Toro, who according to AV Club, brought along a special guest to celebrate Pinocchio. The acclaimed director was photographed on the red carpet during the premiere of Netflix’s upcoming film, which is scheduled to arrive on the streaming platform in December. Del Toro, who co-directed, co-wrote, and co-produced the forthcoming feature, posed for photos with a tiny Pinocchio figurine, and the internet is going wild.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is not to be confused with the recently released Disney+ live-action remake starring Tom Hanks. As anyone familiar with del Toro’s previous work might expect, the forthcoming Netflix flick is a darker version of the classic children’s fairy tale of a wooden puppet that transforms into a real living boy. Although the film itself may be gloomier, the red-carpet images of various cast and crew members holding the cute, wax figurine have lit up the movie’s official Instagram page.
Produced by Netflix Animation, The Jim Henson Company, and ShadowMachine, Guillermo del Toro announced his Pinocchio picture in 2008, which was originally scheduled to be released in 2013 before the project fell into development hell. In 2017, Patrick McHale was tapped to co-write the screenplay with del Toro, but production was suspended because no studios were willing to provide financing. In 2018, production resumed on the project after being acquired by Netflix.
In addition to being co-helmed by Guillermo del Toro, Pinocchio features an ensemble voice cast including Ewan McGregor, Finn Wolfhard, Ron Perlman, Cate Blanchett, David Bradley, Tilda Swinton, Gregory Mann, John Turturro, and Christoph Waltz. Mark Gustafson also serves as director, with Patrick McHale and del Toro penning the screenplay from a screen story by Matthew Robbins. The film is based on the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio has already screened for select critics, and so far, the reception has been remarkably positive. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rare score of 100% based on reviews from 11 critics. Of course, we fully expect that number to fluctuate as more reviews pour in, but the early praise is a good indication that Netflix has another critically acclaimed hit on their hands.
Speaking of Netflix, Guillermo del Toro signed a multi-year deal with the streaming giant back in 2020 that would allow him to produce, write, and direct more projects with almost total creative control. In addition to his upcoming Pinocchio feature, the famous filmmaker brought the streamer Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, 3Below: Tales of Arcadia, and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, which is an anthology series that premieres October 25th. Outside of streaming, del Toro recently teamed up with Disney for a Haunted Mansion remake, and pre-production is underway on a sequel to the smash horror hit Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which he’s co-producing.
Regarded as one of the most visionary directors of all-time, Guillermo del Toro is renowned for conceiving imaginative worlds such as the ones seen in Pan’s Labyrinth and Crimson Peak. Considering there have been seemingly countless iterations of Pinocchio throughout the history of cinema, we’re eager to see how the Academy Award-winning filmmaker tackles the fairytale. Fortunately, the wait is almost over as the Netflix original is scheduled to premiere on December 9th, 2023.
