Guillermo Del Toro Talks Year-Long Break And His Canned Pinocchio Project

The illustrious Guillermo del Toro is about to slip off the directorial radar.

True to his word, and now that The Shape of Water has made a beeline for theaters, del Toro has announced plans to take a year-long break from directing, during which time he’ll still be involved in a number of active projects – Trollhunters included.

Earlier this week, the prolific filmmaker told Collider that the quick turnaround on Blade II ultimately swayed his decision, after he was left juggling both the sequel’s post-production and The Devil’s Backbone, which was just beginning to claw its way into theaters back in 2001. And you can’t fault del Toro’s reasoning; the movie industry operates at a remarkably brisk clip, and it’s these tight deadlines, coupled with studio red tape, that often lead to all kinds of scheduling headaches on both ends of the production line.

I’m 53, I want to not know what I’m doing next, it’s like a privilege, that’s why I’m taking the year off, as a director to really think about what I’m doing next. All of those projects, some of them happen and some of them don’t. The natural state of a movie is not to happen. That’s the reality.

Long before his extended hiatus, Guillermo del Toro pored over a darker incarnation of Pinocchio, which quickly became something of a passion project for the esteemed director. Sadly, a non-Disney version of the little wooden boy never came to be, but while chatting with IGN, the filmmaker briefly outlined the scrapped story.

It’s not happening. But the idea was to do Pinocchio during the ascension of fascism in Italy, with Mussolini. It was a good time to discuss the idea of being a puppet or being a human, but you know, it’s not in progress.

Fast forward to now, and Pinocchio has been earmarked for a live-action redo – just like every other Disney fairytale in the land. Guillermo del Toro, meanwhile, will now take an extended break from the directorial world, but it seems that he still managed to contribute to next year’s blockbuster sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising.