Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio Sounds Like Fascist Nightmare Fuel In The Best Possible Way

Guillermo del Toro is the new resident monster movie guy in Hollywood. He gives his creatures a level of humanity that's still hard to find to this day in major motion pictures, from "Pan's Labyrinth" to "The Shape of Water." He knows how to tap into society's anxieties while making them reconsider what it is they truly need to be afraid of. As such, it's fascinating to think about what he'll manage to accomplish adapting one of the most beloved children's properties of all time — "Pinocchio."

After years of false starts and even a period of time when it seemed dead in the water, del Toro finally appears to be getting his next project off the ground in the aftermath of his critically-acclaimed "Nightmare Alley." The stop-motion animation project still likely has a way to go before it's available for audiences to watch, but based on what the director has to say about it so far, there are plenty of reasons to start getting excited, especially when considering how it will have a ton unlike any other "Pinocchio" movie that's come before.

Guillermo del Toro may still be on the interview circuit for "Nightmare Alley," but that isn't stopping outlets from looking toward the future and his fabled "Pinocchio" project. When speaking about the upcoming movie, he drew parallels between the film and his recently-released "Nightmare Alley," which may come across as strange and exciting if you've seen the director's other works. 

As he explained, "[Nightmare Alley and Pinocchio] do have parallels. Obviously, Pinocchio has a big section in a carnival, and there's strange little echoes between the two. And Pinocchio deals with a different thematic. Pinocchio is about what makes a human a human, and what makes a human a puppet, or a puppet a human." While those themes are on par with what we've seen so far out of "Pinocchio" adaptations, del Toro was quick to assure his film would be substantially different. 

He goes on to say, "It's set during the rise of Mussolini in fascist Italy, so it's a really interesting thematic exercise, that one." Del Toro's "Pinocchio" doesn't currently have a release date, but with that kind of description, it can't get here soon enough.