After wowing critics and audiences alike with his stirring and lovingly crafted stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro already has a new stop-motion project up his sleeve. The director recently sat down for an interview with The Telegraph, during which he revealed that he'll next transform the world of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nobel Prize-winning novel The Buried Giant through hand-crafted animation.
"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," del Toro told the publication. "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." If Pinocchio is any indication, the film will be another massive undertaking for the filmmaker and one that is years away from seeing the light of day.
The Buried Giant became an instant classic upon its release back in 2015. In it, Ishiguro depicts elderly British couple Axl and Beatrice as they search for their lost son in a post-Arthurian England where nobody can seem to access their long-term memories thanks to a mist that hangs over the land. They can scarcely recall anything about him, but as they're joined by others in search of answers, namely a Saxon warrior, his orphan charge, and an illustrious knight, they start to uncover the dark, troubling history they share. It's touted as an intense and suspenseful rumination on the power of memory and collective memory of traumatic events.
Del Toro's The Buried Giant Adaptation Has Loads of Promise Already
The premise sounds right up del Toro's alley, though he also landed a strong writing partner in Kelly to ensure The Buried Giant is properly translated to the screen. Kelly is best known for adapting Roald Dahl's 1988 classic children's novel Matilda into the beloved stage play Matilda the Musical. He earned a BAFTA nomination for the recent film version of the musical starring Alisha Weir and Emma Thompson. He's also proven himself a capable writer on TV, scoring another BAFTA nomination for the sitcom Pulling in 2007 and finally winning one in 2021 with the television film Together.
Although it's certain to be a while until del Toro's The Buried Giant reaches screens, the director has much to look forward to with the upcoming Academy Awards. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio has hoovered up awards so far, but it'll next go for Best Animated Feature, facing down A24's Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Pixar's Turning Red, Dreamworks' Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Netflix's The Sea Beast in the process. It's the culmination of a fantastic 2022 for the director which also included the release of his acclaimed Netflix horror anthology Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities
Check out the trailer for Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio below and stay tuned here at Collider for more on the acclaimed director's adaptation of The Buried Giant.