Who?
You know — this guy!
No? What about this guy?
Still nothing?
Hmmm… well whatever, you best get that last image secured in your cortex because not only is Roberto Remigio Benigni Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI back, he’s a bringing fellow countryman with him.
Pinocchio!
Yeah, That’s Right
Not to be deliberately confused with the version Guillermo Del Toro is working on, this one comes straight out of Italy as a:
Live action adaptation of the classic story of a wooden puppet named Pinocchio who comes to life.
Your move, Del Toro.
This version is being brought to you by Italian director Matteo Garrone (Tale of Tales) who also co-wrote it with Massimo Ceccherini (lots of Italian stuff) and will star the 1997 Best Actor winner Roberto Benigni as Geppetto.
Check it out:
Something Seems Very Familiar About All This
Well, that makes you at least old enough to remember the 2002 live-action version of Pinocchio that was written, directed and starred in by Benigni.
Which, incidentally, also ended pretty much everyone besides his polite country people’s interest in any projects with his name attached to it.
It’s got a 4.4 on IMDB and made $3.6 million in the USA and $44 million worldwide off a roughly $50 million budget.
So don’t feel bad.
Despite the delightfully morbid romp that was Life Is Beautiful this dude’s charm remains on a deep shelf.
The Moral Is To Not Tell Lies
Alright, fine.
To be fair, besides the stark-looking / under-budgeted sets, this looks kind of cool and I like the look of the wooden boy and the giant fish so if this comes to Netflix and the mushrooms are still working I will probably give this a look.
It came out in Italy in December of 2019 and there’s shockingly no word on a wider release at this point so keep your eyes out for it on a streaming service I guess.
