It’s quickly becoming apparent that the next big trend to hit theaters will come in the form of gritty, updated fairy-tale movies. We already have more than one Snow White film in development, and a darker, Twilight-esque Red Riding Hood movie arriving in theaters next month, and now Guillermo Del Toro is teaming with the Jim Henson Company and Pathe to deliver a darker, more twisted 3D version of Pinocchio – which, when you think about it, is a pretty messed up story to begin with.
Naturally, since it’s Del Toro we’re talking about, he’s going to kick up the creep factor a bit and this won’t be like the classic Disney cartoon. It’ll be based on the Carlo Collodi fairy tale, and it’ll be designed for kids 10 and up. Says Del Toro, "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 Collodi wrote. That is more surreal and slightly darker than what we’ve seen before."
Sounds like a cool project, and coming from the mind of Guillermo Del Toro immediately makes it something genre fans should get excited about. What do you think? Take a look at the concept images and let us know if Pinnochio works as a darker, edgier story.
