He's been thinking about it for decades.
His
Pinocchio
, Guillermo Del Toro confesses to having imagined every curve, every color and the way in which he would put, in this story already adapted dozens of times for the cinema, a touch of the fantastic which makes it unique.
While the little wooden puppet with candid eyes and a laughing voice is about to see the light of day on Netflix - the animated film will be available on the platform on December 9 -, its director, passionate about animation since his debut , is already projecting itself into new adaptations.
At almost sixty years old, the director evokes the possibility of adapting
Les Montagnes hallucinées.
The fantastic novel by HP Lovecraft almost saw the light of day in the cinema in 2011. Del Toro had proposed his project to the Universal studio, carried a Tom Cruise wishing to be the main character.
But the project was too expensive for investors.
The 100 million dollars budgeted, coupled with a probable ban on unaccompanied children under 17, have finished discouraging producers.
Now that he has signed with Netflix – and obtained $ 35 million from the platform to finance the production of his Pinocchio – the filmmaker sees things big.
“It would be ideal to do
Mountains of Madness
in stop motion
,” he told
Indiewire
on Nov. 30, referring to this method of animation that creates motion from stationary objects.
“[The animation] is almost a hypnotic act, and the relationship to the story is more intimate,”
he admits.
Read alsoGuillermo del Toro, dark hero of Hollywood
The filmmaker confesses to having always been passionate about the world of animation.
In his early days, when he was still only a special effects make-up artist from Guadalajara, Mexico, the artist already had an unparalleled admiration for animation.
"It's a medium that has produced some of cinema's most enduring landmarks
," he
told Indiewire.
He persevered, proved himself in the cinema and received no less than four statuettes at the Oscars in 2017, for
The Shape of Water
.
He gets hired as a consultant at DreamWorks studios, where he collaborates on the films
Kung-Fu Panda
and
Puss in Boots
.
Now employed by Netflix as a screenwriter, director and producer – for animations like
Trollhunter
or more personal projects, like his
Cabinet of Curiosities
– Del Toro hopes to launch his new adaptation project.
Devoted to Hollywood and with its
Pinocchio,
favorite for the Oscars, it has never been so close to the goal.