After landing an Academy Award nomination for his dark and heartbreaking version of Pinocchio, Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) is ready to jump back into the animation waters.
This time, del Toro will adapt British writer and Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant into a stop-motion animated movie. According to a recent interview with The Telegraph, del Toro confirmed that he was adapting Ishiguro’s 2015 fantasy novel with co-writer Dennis Kelly (Matilda: The Musical). He added that the design process for the new animated film would start in about two months.
“Animation has given us so many indelible images over the years, but in many ways the industry wants to keep it at the children’s table,” he said. “So, I want to keep pushing the medium into areas that demonstrate its capacity.”
The Buried Giant follows Beatrice and Axl, an elderly couple who set out to find their son. While on their quest, they must confront a series of challenges along the way, including run-ins with ogres, demons, and a fog that affects memories.
“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.
Before The Buried Giant, however, del Toro plans on “shooting a live-action feature first.” Although nothing has been confirmed, some believe del Toro’s next project is a remake of Frankenstein.
“In the meantime, we’re developing a lookbook [for The Buried Giant], and in about two years, if everything goes well, we’ll start production,” Guillermo del Toro said.