Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton and Cate Blanchett have jumped on board Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming stop-motion animated musical feature ‘Pinocchio’.

McGregor will voice the character of Cricket, Also joining the cast are newcomer Gregory Mann who will star as Pinocchio, David Bradley (Harry Potter franchise, Game of Thrones) as Geppetto, Christoph Waltz, Finn Wolfhard, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson and Burn Gorman.

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.

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The film is directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson from a script by del Toro and Patrick McHale. Alexandre Desplat will write the score with del Toro and Katz writing the song lyrics. The film’s puppets are being built by Mackinnon and Saunders (Corpse Bride).

“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,” says del Toro.

The film is set to debut in cinemas and on Netflix. Principal photography began last Autumn at ShadowMachine’s Portland, Oregon studio, and production has continued uninterrupted during the pandemic.