Guillermo del Toro will turn to Nobel Prize–winning author Kazuo Ishiguro for his next animated film, Deadline reports.
Del Toro, known for movies including Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water, will direct a film adaptation of Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant. The novel, published by Knopf in 2015, is set in post-Arthurian England, and tells the story of a couple, accompanied by a warrior and a knight, who go in search of their son.
The screenplay for the film will be written by del Toro, who will also produce, and Dennis Kelly (Pulling, Utopia). Netflix is developing the project.
Del Toro’s most recent film, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, is also a literary adaptation, based on Carlo Collodi’s classic children’s novel. The film was a hit with critics, and won the Golden Globe and the BAFTA Film Award for best animated feature. It’s also in contention for the Academy Award in that category. (Ishiguro is also nominated for an Oscar this year, for his screenplay for the film Living).
“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,” del Toro said. “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.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
