The dark storyteller shares new stop-motion project; will co-write and direct new film based on Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro's novel about a memory challenged elderly British couple on a quest to find their long-lost son.
Fresh off Oscar and Annie Award nominations for his critically acclaimed stop-motion feature Pinocchio, illustrious dark storyteller Guillermo del Toro has just announced his next film. The Oscar-winning filmmaker is set to adapt Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Buried Giant into another stop-motion animated feature.
Speaking with The Telegraph, del Toro revealed, “The next stop-motion film I’m making is an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant, which I’m currently co-writing with Dennis Kelly, and we start the design process in two months.” Kelly recently received a 2023 BAFTA nomination for the stage play Matilda the Musical, his adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel Matilda.
“The Buried Giant” novel follows elderly British couple Axl and Beatrice in a fictional post-Arthurian England, where people can only maintain short term memories. The couple are one day able to vaguely remember having a son and embark on a journey to a nearby village to find him. “With the help of a brash yet determined knight and a mysterious young boy, [Beatrice and Axl] travel across lands familiar and strange, ever closer to learning their son’s fate,” a description from the publisher reads.
While we’re excited by the new project news, Pinocchio took nearly two-and-a-half years just to shoot, so we don’t expect to watch The Buried Giant any time soon. In the meantime, del Toro reassures fans that “we’re developing a look-book, and in about two years if everything goes well, we’ll start production.” No word yet whom del Toro will partner with to produce the animation.
Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologist—L'Wren brings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.
