ABC/Randy Holmes(LOS ANGELES) — Director Guillermo del Toro is slowly assembling the cast for his stop-motion remake of the classic children’s fairytale Pinocchio. On Monday, Ewan McGregor spilled the beans that he’s been cast as the puppet’s affable conscience, Jiminy Cricket.
While participating in the ACE Universe virtual panel “A Conversation with Ewan McGregor,” he chatted with host Angélique Roché about his upcoming movie role.
“I’m playing Jiminy Cricket in Guillermo del Toro’s version of Pinocchio,” he teased. “I had started working on [it] before I left for New York. So some of that is recorded. And of course, it’s stop-frame animation so it’s going to take them a great long time to make that film.”
Continued the Star Wars actor, “But my first part of that, which is recording his dialogue, is sort of done. There may or may not be a song that needs to be recorded.”
McGregor took a pause before sheepishly admitting, “I’m not sure that I’m at liberty to discuss that.”
Del Toro’s Pinocchio has long been a passion project for the Oscar-winning director — as evidenced by a 2012 interview with Entertainment Weekly. The movie will head to Netflix once it’s completed.
Netflix nor del Toro have commented on McGregor’s interview.
On a side note: the show host was emboldened by McGregor’s candidness and tried fishing for information on the top secret Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Wars spinoff series… but was unsuccessful. The only tidbit Roché managed to unearth was that the technology used to film the Disney Plus digital series The Mandalorian will also be employed for the Obi-Wan spinoff.
McGregor encouraged fans to watch behind-the-scenes footage of The Mandalorian, gushing on how the new technology far surpasses the blue and green screens used for the Star Wars movie prequels.
By Megan Stone
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