Guillermo del Toro Producing Stop-Motion 'Pinocchio'

Either writer/director/producer/caterer Guillermo del Toro came across a gap in his schedule for the next five decades, he's allergic to rest, or he's afraid that Luc Besson might beat him to it, but the man has decide to act as executive producer on a stop-motion version of Pinocchio that he's developing with the Jim Henson Company.

Mind you, this is already in addition to his coming duties on The Hobbit, Frankenstein, Drood, next week's Rosenberg bar mitzvah over in Glendale, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and a couple of other projects as well (with any luck, a third Hellboy film is among them).

According to Variety, del Toro is currently working on the screenplay with Gris Grimly, whose strikingly illustrated children's books I've only very recently been introduced to, and Grimly will then co-direct with Adam Parrish King, he of much sound editing background (which really ought to be just as convincing as the animation, no?). Tentatively speaking, del Toro's Pinocchio will be out by 2011.