Although Guillermo Del Toro is rather hit or miss for me, you’ve got to admit the guy has vision and talent; even when involved with films that he isn’t directing, like The Orphanage. And while I’m not a huge lover of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I do have hopes that Del Toro can bring some excitement and visual prowess to his Hobbit project (slated for release in 2011).

But between his directing responsibilities, he has quite an extensive resume of films that he will be producing. One recently announced project will be a stop-motion version of the classic, “Pinocchio.” At a DVD release party for Hellboy II (our r3view), Del Toro talked a litte bit about his plans.

“We are trying to get a full stop-motion version of Gris Grimly’s ‘Pinocchio’ off the ground, with the Jim Henson Company. The idea came from Gris, and everybody loves his book about it. The original story is far more perverse and spooky and semi-necrophilia vibe to it in certain aspects. Gris certainly has that vein in him, he wants to do this with that original spookiness in it, we are trying to get it going. The Jim Henson Company is the behind it and we are currently working on the screenplay! Its not coming to a screen near you any time soon, even if it were to begin today it would be about three years in the making, but we are working to make it happen. A full-scale puppet universe takes time.”

I admit to knowing nothing about “Pinocchio” other than the Disney version. So to see something darker and more twisted come out of the story, particularly from the Jim Hensen camp, has me a little excited. Sounds like it’s going to be a while yet, but this is certainly something to keep a look out for over the next couple of years.

thanks to worst previews for the inside scoop