Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’ Cast Includes Ewan McGregor and Cate Blanchett

Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro
‘Pinocchio’ writer/director Guillermo del Toro (Photo Credit mandraketheblack.de © 2020 Netflix)

Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion animated musical Pinocchio just confirmed its impressive cast. Guillermo del Toro’s directing with Fantastic Mr. Fox‘s Mark Gustafson, and del Toro wrote the screenplay with Patrick McHale.

The cast of the Netflix feature film will be led by newcomer Gregory Mann as the title character. Ewan McGregor (Fargo) will play Cricket and David Bradley (Game of Thrones) is on board as Geppetto. Oscar winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton), two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine, The Aviator), John Turturro (The Batman), Ron Perlman (Nightmare Alley), Tim Blake Nelson (Watchmen), and Burn Gorman (Enola Holmes) have also been cast in Pinocchio.

“After years of pursuing this dream project, I found my perfect partner in Netflix. We have spent a long time curating a remarkable cast and crew and have been blessed by continuous support from Netflix to quietly and carefully soldier on, barely missing a beat. We all love and practice animation with great passion and believe it to be the ideal medium to retell this classic story in a completely new way,” said del Toro.

The film’s Pinocchio character was designed by Gris Grimly. Guillermo del Toro’s behind the scenes team also includes production supervisor Melanie Coombs, co-production designers Guy Davis and Curt Enderle, animation supervisor Brian Hansen, puppet supervisor Georgina Hayns, director of photography Frank Passingham, art director Rob DeSue, and animatic editor Ken Schretzmann.

Guillermo del Toro is producing with The Jim Henson Company’s Lisa Henson, Exile Entertainment’s Gary Ungar, and ShadowMachine’s Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico.

Filming began last fall in Portland, Oregon and has continued (safely) throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Netflix is targeting a theatrical release along with a release on the streaming service.

The Plot, Courtesy of Netflix:

Drawing on the classic Carlo Collodi tale, this stop motion musical follows the extraordinary journey of a wooden boy magically brought to life by a father’s wish. Set during the rise of Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, del Toro’s Pinocchio is a story of love and disobedience as Pinocchio struggles to live up to his father’s expectations.