Guillermo del Toro deservedly had a four-year long rest after winning the Best Picture Oscar for 2017’s The Shape of Water. But since 2021, he’s gone into overdrive. Firstly, there was the noir Nightmare Alley, then his Netflix series Cabinet of Curiosities, then his critically acclaimed stop-motion animated movie Pinocchio – which is likely to net him another Oscar. And he’s got his next two projects lined up – one live-action, and another stop-motion animation.
Guillermo del Toro is currently working on a live-action monster movie, which we don’t know very much about. He has been connected to many, many titles over the years that haven’t come to fruition, and has many long-gestating passion projects (including a Lovecraft adaptation) – so it could be one of these.
After this, he has lined up his next animated work – which will be an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant. Guillermo del Toro told The Telegraph (via Collider); “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.”
“I’m shooting a live-action feature first. But in the meantime, we’re developing a look-book, and in about two years if everything goes well, we’ll start production.” Given how long it took to make Pinocchio, it’s best not to hold your breaths for The Buried Giant in the near future. Stop-motion is a famously painstaking and laborious process, and it take years to make a feature-length movie. It was all worth it though, according to our Pinocchio review.
Before The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro made the critically-acclaimed Spanish-language horror-fantasy movies The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth. He followed these with blockbusters Hellboy II and Pacific Rim, before returning to his Gothic routes with Crimson Peak. del Toro has been attached to multiple projects over the years – most famous Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which he ended up recommending to his close friend Alfonso Cuaron.
While we wait to hear more details on del Toro’s live-action movie, check out our guide to the best ghost movies.