Guillermo del Toro to Co-Direct His Own 3D Stop-Motion ‘Pinocchio’

Over a year ago we got our first look at Guillermo del Toro’s new spin on the classic story of Pinocchio. The brilliant director revealed their collaboration on a stop-motion animated version of the story with The Jim Henson Company & Pathe back in 2008 and the concept art looked positively astounding. At the time Gris Grimly, who illustrated the 2002 take on the story, was directing with Mark Gustafson, but now Variety has word that del Toro himself has decided to co-direct, his first animated film, with Gustafson with an eye towards shooting once he’s completely done with Pacific Rim sometime next summer. More below! Gustafson served as animation director on The Fantastic Mr. Fox, so he’s in good company for his first outing with stop-motion animation in a feature film (though he has executive produced Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda 2 and the forthcoming Rise of the Guardians. …