Guillermo del Toro to Direct Animated Film Adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s “The Buried Giant”

Guillermo del Toro has lined up his next project…

Following his Best Animated Feature Academy Award nomination for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the 58-year-old Mexican Oscar-winning filmmaker is set to direct another animated film for Netflix.

Guillermo del Torodel Toro will adapt The Buried Giantbased on the fantasy novel by Nobel Prize-winning British writer Kazuo Ishiguro.

The novel follows an elderly Briton couple, Axl and Beatrice, living in a fictional post-Arthurian England in which no one is able to retain long-term memories.

del Toro will produce as well as direct, and is co-writing the script with Matilda the Musical scribe Dennis Kelly.

As on Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, ShadowMachine’s stop motion studio will serve as the production’s home base.

Netflix Film Chairman Scott Stuber sparked to setting another big animated film by del Toro, who won the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars for The Shape of Water, and is now in the center of the Oscar action for the brilliant Pinocchio, which he directed with Mark Gustafson.

“Guillermo del Toro is a visionary filmmaker and master of his craft,” Stuber said. “We couldn’t be more proud of the prestigious recognition for his Pinocchio, and we’re pleased to continue our creative partnership as he develops his next project with Netflix.”

Said del Toro: “The Buried Giant continues my animation partnership with Netflix and our pursuit of stop-motion as a medium to tell complex stories and build limitless worlds. It is a great honor and greater responsibility for me to direct this screenplay which Dennis Kelly and I are adapting from Kazuo Ishiguro’s profound and imaginative novel.”

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio spent a month near the top of Netflix’s global film standings, and had more than 50 million views in its first 28 days.

The film recently won the BAFTA for Best Animated Feature along with a slew of other awards, and he’s nominated by the Producers Guild of America (PGA) for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Picture this weekend.

Guillermo del Toro Wins BAFTAs Best Animated Film Prize for “Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio”

Guillermo del Toro continues his winning ways…

The British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) have been doled out, with the 58-year-old Mexican Oscar-winning filmmaker taking home a prize on Sunday night.

Guillermo del Toro, Pinocchio,del Toro won the Best Animated Film award for his critically acclaimed Netflix film Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio.

It’s del Toro’s third BAFTA award. He’d previously won the Best Film Not in the English Language award for Pan’s Labyrinth and the Best Direction prize for The Shape of Water.

Here’s the full list of winners:

Best Film: All Quiet On The Western Front
Leading Actress: Cate Blanchett, Tár 
Leading Actor
: Austin Butler, Elvis
EE Rising Star Award:  Emma Mackey
Make Up & Hair:
Elvis, Jason Baird, Mark Coulier, Louise Coulston, Shane Thomas
Director: Edward Berger, All Quiet On The Western Front 
Production Design:
Babylon, Florencia Martin, Anthony Carlino
Outstanding British Film
: The Banshees Of Inisherin
British Short Animation: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse, Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy, Cara Speller, Hannah Minghella
British Short Film:
An Irish Goodbye, Tom Berkeley, Ross White
Costume Design: Elvis, Catherine Martin
Sound
: All Quiet On The Western Front, Lars Ginzsel, Frank Kruse, Viktor Prášil, Markus Stemler
Original Score
: All Quiet On The Western Front, Volker Bertelmann
Documentary:
Navalny 
Special Visual Effects:
Avatar: The Way Of Water, Richard Baneham, Daniel Barrett, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon
Original Screenplay:
The Banshees Of Inisherin, Martin Mcdonagh
Animated Film:
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer :Aftersun, Charlotte Wells (Writer/Director)
Cinematography: All Quiet On The Western Front, James Friend
Editing: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Paul Rogers
Casting: Elvis, Nikki Barrett, Denise Chamia
Film Not In The English Language: All Quiet On The Western Front
Supporting Actor: Barry Keoghan, The Banshees Of Inisherin 
Adapted Screenplay
: All Quiet On The Western Front, Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell
Supporting Actress
: Kerry Condon, The Banshees Of Inisherin

Guillermo del Toro to Receive Art Directors Guild’s William Cameron Menzies Award

Guillermo del Toro is receiving a special honor…

The Art Directors Guild will present the 58-year-old Mexican Oscar-winning filmmaker with the William Cameron Menzies Award, to honor his visually striking and emotionally rich body of work.

Guillermo del Toro, Pinocchio,del Toro will receive the award at the 27th ADG’s Excellence in Production Design Awards on Saturday, February 18 at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown.

Del Toro first gained recognition for writing and directing Cronos, which premiered at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Mercedes Benz Award, and went on to earn more than 20 international awards. Del Toro’s most noted films include Pan’s Labyrinth, which garnered Academy Awards for Art Direction, Cinematography, and Makeup and The Shape of Water, which won the Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion as well as Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Production Design and Best Score. His latest project, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, continues his lifelong love of animation and stop-motion filmmaking. Additional credits include The Devil’s Backbone, Hellboy, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak and Nightmare Alley.

del Toro is also a prolific producer of animated films and television. Among his EP credits are Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, Puss in Boots 1 and 2, and Rise of the Guardians; his producing credits include The Book of Life.

Past recipients of the Menzies award include Robert Osborne, John Musker and Ron Clements, Syd Mead, and Denis Villeneuve.

“Guillermo del Toro has stunningly brought humanity to non-human characters and full-fledged existence to environments which could be seen as devoid of life by integrating strong narrative imagery into his collaborations with production designers,” said Coates. “The Art Directors Guild is thrilled to celebrate his captivating work, which has indelibly pushed the bounds of production design to new heights.”

Will Guillermo del Toro Earn a Best Original Song Oscar Nod for “Pinocchio” Music?

He’s already won Academy Awards for directing and producing. And now Guillermo del Toro is hoping to win a songwriting Oscar.

del Toro is part of the songwriting team behind the music of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. del Toro directs his warm and wild stop-motion animated adaptation of the classic story from Carlo Collodi with Mark Gustafson.

Guillermo del Toro, Pinocchio,It’s a project the Oscar-winning filmmaker has nurtured for years, and he also co-wrote the screenplay with Patrick McHale.

The film makes its world premiere at the London Film Festival on Saturday.

the project marks del Toro’s debut outing as a songwriter, too. The musical film features several numbers with music by Alexandre Desplat—who won his second Oscar for his score for del Toro’s The Shape of Water—and lyrics by Roeban Katz and del Toro.

Songs are performed by the cast including David Bradley, Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, and Gregory Mann, the young actor cast as Pinocchio.

Mann performs the song “Ciao Papa” that Netflix will submit to the Academy for consideration in the Best Original Song category at this year’s Oscars. It comes at a crucial turning point in the narrative and reinforces the father-son theme that runs throughout the film.

“To me, it is hands down the most moving song in the film, and the most important song,” del Toro says. “It talks about longing, it talks about the loss of a father, the loss of a son. It talks about the sort of wistful energy that, for me, is at the core of the tale of Pinocchio.”

Desplat tells me that the song stands apart from the other musical numbers in the film because it is the only one not interwoven into the score. “I kept it as a little moment on its own, the most emotional moment of the film,” Desplat says. “I wanted it to be a unique moment. It’s a very strong relationship between father and son, Pinocchio and Gepetto. It’s a sweet and emotional moment, and I think the lyrics say everything.”

del Toro had tinkered with songwriting in the past, writing songs in high school that he never mustered the courage to perform publicly. A decade ago, plans were announced to adapt Pan’s Labyrinth into a stage musical, with book by del Toro and Jeremy Ungar, music by Gustavo Sataolalla and lyrics by Paul Williams. “I tried my hand at suggesting some ideas to Paul Williams, who rightly refused them immediately,” he says. That project is still active, with veteran British producer Robert Fox, del Toro notes.

It was the close collaboration del Toro had with Alexandre Desplat on The Shape of Water that convinced him he could contribute here. “To speak candidly, I rarely used to go to scoring sessions for my films,” del Toro says. “I felt it was unnecessary, because what was I going to say? I’m not a composer. But on The Shape of Water, Alexandre said to me, ‘If you don’t come, the score will not be complete.’ And sure enough, I learned to direct the session—partially at least—to be able to say things like, ‘More expressive, less expressive, more precise, a little less precise.’ And it completely changes the nature of a tune.”

For Pinocchio—the songs for which Desplat, “with a lot of modesty”, likens to the musical stylings of Cole Porter and George Gershwin—the composer suggested assembling an orchestra of wooden instruments. “Wooden percussion, like xylophones and marimbas, and the woodwinds, the strings, the harp, piano, accordion, mandolin, guitar. The panel was huge, and I could really play around with that and create something a bit special.”

“Alexandre said, ‘Fortunately for you and me, French horns are classified as wooden instruments in France,’” laughs del Toro. “But it made sense for this story of a wooden boy.”

Desplat doubted del Toro’s insistence that Mann, then a preteen who had never sung professionally, could carry the weight of performing songs like “Ciao Papa”. “But when I first heard him, I was stunned,” Desplat says. “He already knew the melody, he was singing in tune. But, more importantly, the interpretation was there. He was acting the soul of the character in the song. We could have had another boy—a singer—singing the melody, and that would be great, but he was giving us more than that.”

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio streams on Netflix from December 9 after a theatrical release in November. Columbia Records will release the soundtrack in the fall.

Netflix Releases Trailer for the Upcoming Anthology Series “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities”

Guillermo del Toro is sharing some scary stories.

Netflix has revealed the first trailer for “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” an upcoming anthology series created by the 57-year-old Mexican Oscar-winning director of The Shape of Water and Pan’s Labyrinth.

Guillermo del ToroEach episode will tell a different horror story “curated” by del Toro, who hosts the series and introduces each episode.

Two of the episodes feature stories developed by del Toro, with different writers and directors taking on each episode.

Notable directors and writers who will contribute to the series include Jennifer Kent, David Pryor, Guillermo Navarro, Keith Thomas, Panos Cosmatos, Catherine Hardwicke, Vincenzo Natali and Ana Lily Amirpour (“A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night”).

The teaser shows a series of unsettling images, and reveals the cast list for the episodes.

Alongside previously announced names like Ben Barnes, Essie Davis, Crispin Glover and Andrew Lincoln, the teaser confirms that Eric André, Sofia Boutella, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Rupert Grint, Kate Micucci and Charlyne Yi will star in episodes of the show’s first season.

Other actors who were previously announced include F. Murray Abraham, Luke Roberts, Tim Blake Nelson, Hannah Galway, Glynn Turman, Elpidia Carrillo, Demetrius Grosse, Sebastian Roché, Peter Weller and David Hewlett.

Del Toro serves as co-showrunner of “Cabinet of Curiosities” with J. Miles Dale. The two executive produce alongside Gary Ungar. Regina Corrado co-executive produces.

A release date for “Cabinet of Curiosities” has not yet been announced.

Guillermo del Toro to Receive VES Award for Creative Excellence from Visual Effects Society

Guillermo del Toro is being celebrated for his creative genius…

The 57-year-old Mexican Oscar-winning film director, producer, screenwriter and author will receive the Visual Effects Society’s career honor next month.

Guillermo del Torodel Toro, a two-time Oscar winner for The Shape of Water — whose credits also include such effect-laden films as Pan’s Labyrinth, Blade II and the Pacific Rim and Hellboy films — will pick up the VES Award for Creative Excellence during the 20th anniversary VES Awards on March 8 at the Beverly Hilton.

“Guillermo is a fiercely inventive storyteller, who has pushed the boundaries of filmmaking,” VES Board Chair Lisa Cooke said. “An exemplary talent, he has consistently elevated not just the technical aspect of visual effects but also the emotional.”

Del Toro is up for the Best Picture Academy Award again this year for Nightmare Alleyhis reimagining of the gritty 1947 noir Nightmare Alley

The film starring Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett has four total Oscar nominations and will vie for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature at the VES Awards.

Along with his writing and directing credits, del Toro also is a prolific producer of such acclaimed and successful films as The Orphanage, Julia’s Eyes, Biutiful, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and Mama

He studied makeup effects with legendary artist Dick Smith; spent 10 years as a special-effects makeup designer; and formed his own company, Necropia.

The VES Award for Creative Excellence recognizes individuals who’ve made significant and lasting contributions to the art and science of the visual effects industry by uniquely and consistently creating compelling and creative imagery in service to story, per the group.

“Guillermo is an amazing creative force and a defining voice in our global community, and his body of work is a rich source of inspiration for future generations of artists and innovators,” Cooke added.

First Trailer Released for Guillermo del Toro’s Remake of the 1947 Film Noir Classic “Nightmare Alley”

Guillermo del Toro is sharing his nightmare

The first teaser trailer has been released for Nightmare Alleydirected and co-written by the 56-year-old Mexican Oscar-winning filmmaker.

Guillermo del Toro

del Toro’s latest project is a star-packed remake of the 1947 film noir classic, which is based on the 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham.

“I am prepared to offer you folks one last chance to witness this supreme oddity…. Is it a beast — or is it a man?”

So says Willem Dafoe’s carnival barker in the trailer, which also stars Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper and two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, who take over the roles originally played by Tyrone Power and Helen Walker.

Cooper plays Stan Carlisle, an ambitious young carny who has a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words. He hooks up with a psychiatrist (Blanchett) who is even more dangerous than he is.

The big-name supporting cast includes Academy Award nominees Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara and David Straithairn, along with two-time Emmy nominee Ron Perlman.

The film co-written by Kim Morgan marks Del Toro’s first time behind the camera since 2018’s The Shape of Water, for which he won Best Picture and Best Director Oscars.

 He also produced Nightmare Alley along with his Shape of Water collaborator J. Miles Dale.

The film will open in theaters on December 17 via Searchlight.

Guillermo del Toro Receives Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Guillermo del Toro is a star… And he has the hardware to prove it!

The 54-year-old Oscar-winning filmmaker saw his star unveiled on the Hollywood Walk of Fameon Tuesday. 

Guillermo del Toro

The ceremony took place just a few days before the release of the latest film he’s written and produced, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

At the ceremony del Toro told the large crowd of fans to always celebrate their “weirdness.” He remembered coming to Hollywood as a young man and admiring the stars of Boris KarloffLon Chaney and Alfred Hitchcock.


“What I felt with those stars is there were people who were as weird as me and they were here. And it gave me hope,” said del Toro. “This star is for you, all of you who that feel weird.”

Fellow filmmaker and longtime friend J.J. Abrams celebrated del Toro at the unveiling.

“You are a mind-bendingly, brilliant creator, a curator of the most remarkable collection of art, a man who tells stories of unlikely heroes with hearts almost as large as his own,” said Abrams.


sel Toro also spoke about being an immigrant from Mexico, and encouraged everyone to believe in the possibilities in life, not the obstacles.

“Do not believe the lies they tell about us,” said del Toro. “Believe in the stories you have inside and believe that we all can make a difference.”

del Toro is known for a number of well-known films, including Pan’s LabyrinthThe Shape of Water and Hellboyamong many others. Shape of Water earned the filmmaker two Academy Awards for best picture and best director.

de Toro’s star is the 2,669th awarded on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Guillermo del Toro to Write & Direct the Action Film “Zanbato”

Guillermo del Toro has a new fighton his hands…

The 54-year-old Mexican filmmaker is attached to write and direct the action movie Zanbato for Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot.

Guillermo del Toro

The logline is under wraps. Zanbatocenters on a young girl with lethal fighting skills. del Toro posted the news on his Twitter account that the project has been in development for the past six years without leaking, adding, “We are still developing steadily.”

del Toro also said Friday that he’s in pre-production on Pinocchiofor Netflix, on which he’ll make his animated feature film directing debut in a stop-motion musical version of the classic children’s tale about a puppet who wants to be a real live boy. Netflix and del Toro announced in October that he would write and produce the film, set in Italy during the 1930s, when fascism was on the rise.

del Toro is also producing Scott Cooper‘s Antlersat Fox Searchlight, and Scary Stories to Tell in the DarkatCBS Films

He won Academy Awardslast year for producing and directing The Shape of Water.

Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” Wins Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival

Alfonso Cuaron is the Lion king…

The 56-year-old Mexican filmmaker and Oscar winner’s black-and-white Mexican drama Roma has won the Golden Lion at the 75th Venice Film Festival.

Alfonso Cuaron

It’s the first movie from Netflix to take such an honor at a major festival, and the second movie in a row from a Mexican filmmaker to win here. Last year, Guillermo del Toro’s Golden Lion winner, The Shape of Water, went all the way to a Best Picture Oscar.

Del Toro was jury president this year and in announcing his dear friend as the winner, joked, “Now, let me see if I can pronounce the name correctly.” As it did last year with The Shape of Water, the press room erupted in applause when Roma won.

An ode to Cuaron’s Mexico City childhood, Roma, co-produced by Participant Media and Cuarón’s Esperanto Filmoj, has been embraced here on the Lido and its momentum accelerated when it hit Telluride.

Cuaron said the award and the Venice festival are “incredibly meaningful to me.” He previously opened the festivities in 2013 with Gravity and was jury president two years ago. He also noted the serendipity of today being the birthday of the woman upon whom Roma is based. At the post-awards press conference, Cuaron was asked if it was more meaningful to him that Roma marks Netflix’s first big win at a major festival, or if he was prouder of the movie on a personal level. He quipped of the intensely personal film, “Do you really need an answer to that?”

Del Toro noted the decision to award Roma was “entirely unanimous by the entire jury. So, 9-0.”

Netflix is doing an awards-qualifying theatrical run for the movie that Cuaron wrote, directed, produced and shot, and which is now firmly on the path.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

VENICE 75
Golden Lion
Roma, dir: Alfonso Cuaron

Grand Jury Prize
The Favourite, dir: Yorgos Lanthimos

Silver Lion, Best Director
Jacques Audiard, The Sisters Brothers

Volpi Cup, Best Actress
Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Volpi Cup, Best Actor
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate

Best Screenplay
Joel & Ethan Coen, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

Special Jury Prize
The Nightingale, dir: Jennifer Kent

Marcello Mastroianni Award for for Best New Young Actor or Actress
Baykali Ganambarr, The Nightingale

HORIZONS
Best Film
Manta Ray, dir: Phuttiphong Aroonpheng

Best Director
Ozen (The River), dir: Emir Baigazin

Special Jury Prize
Anons (The Announcement), dir: Mahmut Fazil Coskun

Best Actress
Natalya Kudryashova, The Man Who Surprised Everyone

Best Actor
Kais Nasif, Tel Aviv On Fire

Best Screenplay
Pema Tseden, Jinpa

Best Short Film
Kado, dir: Aditya Ahmad

Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film
The Day I Lost My Shadow, dir: Soudade Kaadan

VENICE VIRTUAL REALITY
Best VR
Spheres: Chorus Of The Cosmos, dir: Eliza McNitt

Best VR Experience
Buddy VR, dir: Chuck Chae

Best VR Story
L’Ile Des Morts, dir: Benjamin Nuel

VENICE CLASSICS
Best Documentary on Cinema
The Great Buster: A Celebration, dir: Peter Bogdanovich

Best Restoration
La Notte Di San Lorenzo, dirs: Paolo Vittorio Taviani