Guillermo del Toro will be making his animated feature film directorial debut at Netflix with his lifelong passion project ‘Pinocchio.’ He is best-known as the Academy award-winning director behind ‘The Shape of Water’

Del Toro is set to direct, write and produce the feature, which will be a stop-motion animated musical.

The project is separate to the live-action ‘Pinocchio’ movie that Disney are working on, which is a remake of their 1940 animated feature. The movie was originally going to be directed by ‘Skyfall’ helmer Sam Mendes but has more recently fallen into the more fitting lap of ‘Paddington’ director Paul King.

The classic tale of 'Pinocchio' by Carlo Collodi has been adapted for film and television numerous times. Del Toro is setting his retelling in Italy during the 1930s.

Disney Pinocchio (1970)Pinocchio (1970)

Guillermo del Toro previously who created the Emmy award-winning television series’ DreamWorks’ Trollhunters’ for Netflix, the first instalment of the DreamWorks’ Tales of Arcadia trilogy. He is also the creator of the upcoming Netflix series, ‘Guillermo del Toro Presents 10 After Midnight’.

Netflix expects production on Pinocchio to begin this fall.

Pinocchio is a production of Guillermo del Toro, The Jim Henson Company (best-known as the creator of ‘The Muppets’, they’re also producing ‘The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’ for Netflix), and ShadowMachine (‘Bojack Horseman’), which will house the stop-motion animation production.

Alongside del Toro, Patrick McHale (‘Over The Garden Wall’, ‘Adventure Time’) will co-write the script, Mark Gustafson (‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’) will co-direct. Guy Davis will serve as co-production designer, taking inspiration from Gris Grimly’s original design for the Pinocchio character.

The film’s puppets will be built by Mackinnon and Saunders, who worked on ‘Corpse Bride’.

The Adventures of Pinocchio 1996The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996)

Guillermo del Toro said: “No art form has influenced my life and my work more than animation and no single character in history has had as deep of a personal connection to me as Pinocchio.

“In our story, Pinocchio is an innocent soul with an uncaring father who gets lost in a world he cannot comprehend. He embarks on an extraordinary journey that leaves him with a deep understanding of his father and the real world.”