*UPDATE* Deadline has now confirmed what Guillermo Del Toro told us himself a month ago. Why does that need a confirmation? Wouldn’t HE be the guy to know what he’s doing next? Anyway, it will indeed be an animated adaptation of The Buried Giant, from Never Let Me Go author Kazuo Ishiguro. He will be reteaming with Netflix, which released his groundbreaking stop-motion Pinocchio that is now nominated for the Best Animated Feature award at the Oscars. Original story follows.
The reception to Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio has been overwhelmingly positive. Not only did the stop-motion animated fairy tale get some of the best reviews of Del Toro’s career, it is the clear frontrunner to win Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. And while Del Toro is moving on to live-action for his next project, animation is very much on his mind.
Speaking with The Telegraph, Del Toro revealed that his next animated feature will be an adaptation of The Buried Giant, from Never Let Me Go author Kazuo Ishiguro.
“The next stop-motion film I’m making is an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘The Buried Giant,’ which I’m currently co-writing with Dennis Kelly, and we start the design process in two months,” said del Toro. “I’m shooting a live-action feature first. But in the meantime, we’re developing a look-book, and in about two years if everything goes well, we’ll start production.”
Del Toro added, “Animation has given us so many indelible images over the years, but in many ways the industry wants to keep it at the children’s table. So I want to keep pushing the medium into areas that demonstrate its capacity.”
In other words, expect this project to have adult themes similar to Pinocchio, and not something you’ll find on Disney+.
The Buried Giant takes place in a post-Arthurian England where people can no longer retain long-term memories. An elderly British couple comes to realize that they must have had a son at some point in their lives, and so they set out on a journey to find him.
It’s assumed that Del Toro’s next film will be a Frankenstein movie possibly starring Oscar Isaac, but that has yet to be confirmed.
