Maybe Guillermo del Toro will just turn entirely into Tim Burton and we can have the two be surgically joined at the hip and work on the same films forever as news now turns to the latest flick pasted to del Toro’s producing filmography as Bloody-Disgusting reports he is now working with the Jim Henson Co. on a stop-motion feature adaptation of Pinocchio. The twist is that it will be “a darker version of the original fairy tale.” Oooo, scary long nose man!
Variety has expanded on the BD report where del Toro revealed he is working on the screenplay with Gris Grimley, who illustrated a 2002 version of “Pinocchio” with news that Grimley and Adam Parrish King are set to co-direct the film. Sounds to me like del Toro is forming his own Tim Burton/Henry Selick team-up.
It’s an interesting choice to tackle, but with the Disney adaptation of the story being so iconic I wonder how big this flick could actually be. Del Toro’s projects still remain something of a cult hit, a large cult admittedly, but still a cult. To date his biggest hit remains Blade II and it already had a built in audience. Hellboy II did better than the first flick in terms of box-office gross, but comparing the budgets and box-office returns on each I would say it is basically a tie. The first Hellboy was made for $66 million and managed $59 million at the box, while the second Hellboy was budgeted at $85 million and only managed $75 million at the box. Sure, critics and del Toro fanatics grasped on to the second flick, but the numbers don’t lie.
As much as I would be interested in seeing a new and twisted take on the story of Pinocchio I am wondering if any studios will rush to back such a project. Does del Toro’s name alone have the box-office pull so many assume it has? Hellboy II used Pan’s Labyrinth to sell it’s amazing creature effects and visual style, but Pan’s Labyrinth, while a great film, remains a foreign film that not many in the general public rushed out to see.
Of course, things could all change after The Hobbit and its sequel as del Toro’s name will be raised to the clouds if the films perform on the same level as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and one would assume so many of the films in del Toro’s production slate would be held until after The Hobbit and its sequel are released in 2010 and 2011 respectively. It is at that point we will be able to gauge what del Toro’s future with such films as remakes of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Slaughterhouse-Five will look like.
I am personally hoping for the best, because outside of not enjoying Hellboy II I am a big fan of del Toro’s and look forward to what he has in store.
