The director also reveals how his take will differ from Disney's.
Guillermo del Toro's longtime passion project, his adaptation of Pinocchio, is finally coming to fruition, but don't expect it to be anything like what you saw in Disney's most famous fable.
"Oh, believe me. When somebody says, 'Oh, there's another Pinocchio…,'" he told ET's Ash Crossan while promoting his latest film, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. "I said, 'No Pinocchio will be like this.'"
While Disney has reportedly been working on a Pinocchio remake of its own since 2015 -- as part of its ongoing slate of live-action retellings of Aladdin, Mulan and the like -- del Toro's is a completely different project. For starters, it's for Netflix and will be stop-motion animation, the director confirms.
Del Toro's Pinocchio will mine the original source material, Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, and be set in Italy during the rise of Fascism. And considering Mussolini is not exactly a staple of children's movies, it makes sense that del Toro likens his version to a family-friendlified monster who has much darker roots.
"It has some elements that come directly from the books and some others that have never been in the book or the story. But I think it's essential to Pinocchio, like Frankenstein, to understand what the world is about," del Toro said. "It's a very, very personal movie. It's a reflection on what it is to be human."
Del Toro has made a career specializing in stories of misunderstood monsters -- most recently with the Best Picture-winning The Shape of Water -- so this is a natural fit. Pinocchio is still a ways off, however, as del Toro will next direct Nightmare Alley with Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, meanwhile, is in theaters on Aug. 9.
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