We reported a few weeks ago that Guillermo del Toro’s next movie project is going to be an animated adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s fantasy novel The Buried Giant. We now have confirmation that the film will be a stop-motion project set up at Netflix, with animation produced by ShadowMachine (Pinocchio, Tuca & Bertie, Little Demon). The script will be written by BAFTA-winning scribe Dennis Kelly (Matilda the Musical, Together) along with del Toro.
“The Buried Giant continues my animation partnership with Netflix and our pursuit of stop-motion as a medium to tell complex stories and build limitless worlds,” Del Toro said in a statement. “It is a great honor and greater responsibility for me to direct this screenplay which Dennis Kelly and I are adapting from Kazuo Ishiguro’s profound and imaginative novel”
“Guillermo del Toro is a visionary filmmaker and master of his craft,” Netflix Film Chairman Scott Stuber said in a statement. “We couldn’t be more proud of the prestigious recognition for his Pinocchio, and we’re pleased to continue our creative partnership as he develops his next project with Netflix.”
Ishiguro, who has won the Nobel Prize for literature and the prestigious Booker Prize, is best known for his fantasy novel Never Let Me go and the British period drama, Remains of the Day. This year, he is also in the awards season spotlight thanks to his screenplay for the acclaimed movie Living, which is nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. The Buried Giant, which was first published in 2015, is set in a version of England where King Arthur really existed but has long since died, and nobody is able to retain long-term memories. The story focuses on the relationship between Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple who go on a journey to find a son they can barely remember.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is nominated for nine Annie Awards and the PGA Award for Best Animated Feature this weekend and is also a frontrunner in the Best Animated Feature Oscar race. The film has already won the Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Animated Feature and many of the year-end critics prizes. You can read all about the making of his movie, which reached 101.5 hours viewed during its first 28 days of availability, here.
