While his Netflix original movie Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio continues to power through awards season, Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has revealed that he will return to the world of stop-motion to adapt the acclaimed fantasy-adventure novel The Buried Giant to an animated feature. Written by Nobel Prize-winning British author Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go, The Remains of the Day), the 2015 book centers on an elderly, amnesiac couple on a quest across post-Arthurian England to reconnect with their son.
The news was shared by del Toro in a recent interview with The Telegraph, where he said:
“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. 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.”
Writer Dennis Kelly handled the adaptation of Matilda the Musical, this year given the film treatment in the British Film of the Year-nominated Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical. He won a BAFTA TV award for Together last year, and has also been recognized with an International Emmy for Utopia (Best Drama Series) and a British Comedy Award for Pulling (Best Comedy-Drama). The Buried Giant would be his first animated project.
The Buried Giant synopsis:
In post-Arthurian Britain, the wars that once raged between the Saxons and the Britons have finally ceased. Axl and Beatrice, an elderly British couple, set off to visit their son, whom they haven’t seen in years. And, because a strange mist has caused mass amnesia throughout the land, they can scarcely remember anything about him. As they are joined on their journey by a Saxon warrior, his orphan charge and an illustrious knight, Axl and Beatrice slowly begin to remember the dark and troubled past they all share.
Directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson, written by del Toro and Patrick McHale, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature as well as the BAFTA animation honors and nine Annie Awards, having already taken home the animated film prizes from the Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes, among its dozens of awards and over 130 nominations.
[Source: The Telegraph via Collider]
