Guillermo del Toro making 3D stop-motion Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro has resurrected his 2006 plans for a new Pinocchio movie, having teamed up with The Jim Henson Company to create a 3D stop-motion version of the classic tale.

The busy filmmaker, who’s been getting his and others people’s films off the ground after departing The Hobbit last year, will produce this edgier version of Pinocchio .

Directing duties will go to Fantastic Mr Fox animation director Mark Gustafson and Gris Grimly. The latter’s illustrated 2002 Pinocchio book will act as a general guide for the film.

“There has to be darkness in any fairy tale or children’s narrative work,” says del Toro of the film’s scary nature, “something the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Walt Disney understood.

“We tend to call something Disney-fied, but a lot of people forget how powerfully disturbing the best animated Disney movies are, including those kids being turned into donkeys in Pinocchio.

“What we’re trying to do is present a Pinocchio that is more faithful to the take that [ original author Carlo Colodi ] wrote. That is more surreal and slightly darker than what we’ve seen before.”

Sign us up right here. With del Toro backing this new version of the tale, it’s all but guaranteed to be a challenging and enigmatic piece of work.

For more of what del Toro had to say about the film, including his creepy take on the Blue Fairy, head over to Deadline .