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SYFY WIRE Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor wishing upon a star as Jiminy Cricket in Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

By Jacob Oller
Ewan McGregor Jiminy Cricket

Disney may have a live-action version on the way (they have one for everything else), but those looking forward to Guillermo del Toro's stop-motion animated Pinocchio now have an extra reason to "Give a Little Whistle." Ewan McGregor (Star Wars, Birds of Prey) will be voicing Jiminy Cricket for the iconic director's vision of the classic wooden puppet, whose nose grows when he lies.

As McGregor discussed during a recent ACE Universe interview with Angélique Roché (who's also a SYFY contributor), he'll be playing the fancy bug that acts as the title character's conscience. And there may be singing.

"There may or may not be a song that has to be recorded. I'm not sure I'm at liberty to discuss that," McGregor teased during the interview, beginning around the 2-minute mark.

Check out the interview below:

Anyone getting Moulin Rouge vibes? But singing (or not) is just one hint the actor gives for the role.

"I'm playing Jiminy Cricket in Guillermo del Toro's version of Pinocchio," McGregor said. "That I had started working on before I left for New York, so some of that is recorded. And of course it's stop-motion animated so it's going to take them a great long time to make that film. But my first part, which is recording his dialogue, is sort of done."

Excepting, of course, for any potential music. "That's maybe yet to be done," McGregor smiled.

The actor also knocked on wood regarding the production of his Disney+ Obi-Wan series, saying that he'll be able to start production as the Jedi "hopefully early next year."

Pinocchio — based not on the Disney animated film, but the Carlo Collodi story — has long been a labor of love for del Toro, toiling alongside many of his other scrapped projects in development hell until Netflix agreed to finance it and give the director creative control. The film will be co-directed by the man behind the animation of Fantastic Mr. Fox (another lovely stop-motion adaptation), Mark Gustafson, and written by Patrick McHale (Adventure Time).

If all goes well Pinocchio may hit the streaming service sometime in 2021.