After the success of Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro was ready to dive back into the world of stop-motion animation with an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nobel Prize-winning fantasy novel, The Buried Giant. During a recent British Film Institute Q&A, del Toro teased a bit about the upcoming project, which he described as a “fascinatingly difficult stop-motion movie for adults” being produced “without any concession to a family audience.”

The Buried Giant

The Buried Giant follows “an elderly British couple, Axl and Beatrice, living in a fictional post-Arthurian England in which no one is able to retain long-term memories.” Del Toro has adapted the story with Dennis Kelly (Matilda the Musical) and decided early on that stop-motion was the best medium to preserve its authenticity.

“If you do a live action Pinocchio and all of a sudden a puppet walks through it becomes uncanny valley, which is a horrible thing that doesn’t belong in the same world,” he said. “Just like if you do a live action movie about an old couple crossing a landscape full of trolls and fairies, and there are special effects and actors.“

Del Toro added, “I want all the creatures to be of the same material. It’s gonna take us years. And it’s incredibly difficult.” The director also stated that his longtime collaborator, Ron Perlman, will have a role in The Buried Giant. Perlman appeared in del Toro’s very first movie, Cronos.

Frankenstein

The director’s last film was an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a project he had long dreamed of. Our own Chris Bumbray said that while the film was impressive, it wasn’t quite the masterpiece he was hoping it would be. “While I can’t quite call this my favorite Frankenstein adaptation, I’ll admit the overly drawn-out first half tested my patience,” he wrote. “Still, once the movie finds its footing, the second half is close to brilliant. Even if it’s uneven and slow to start, it ultimately blossoms into something powerful, a film that demands to be seen. It may take longer than it should to arrive at its peak, but when it does, it’s a striking reminder of what happens when a filmmaker is granted the freedom to pursue an undiluted vision. Del Toro has earned that privilege, and the result, while imperfect, is still essential viewing.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.

Frankenstein did pick up nine Academy Award nominations, including ones for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor.