Guillermo del Toro is writing a book of short stories

The visionary, award-winning director of Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water is writing another book. Amazon announced Tuesday that he will be writing a book of original short stories for its Amazon Original Stories imprint. In a statement, the publisher teased that the book “will introduce a world of strange happenings, otherworldly horror, and dark fantasy.”

“Throughout the years, I’ve been inspired by reading short stories, from ghost stories to fairy tales,” del Toro, who previously co-authored The Strain novels with Chuck Hogan, said in a statement. “Now I have the privilege to create and share my own.”

Del Toro produced this year’s Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark adaptation, and told EW about how the original books by writer Alvin Schwartz and artist Stephen Gammell had stayed with him over the years because “they had the simplicity of campfire stories. They had that flavor of folklore and oral narrative, with a great sense of setup and punchline.”

Del Toro has demonstrated a talent for translating stories to the screen. In the wake of Scary Stories, he’s also working on a stop-motion adaptation of Carlo Collodi and Gris Grimly’s Pinocchio for Netflix. His next live-action film is an adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s novel Nightmare Alley, previously adapted into a movie in 1947. Interestingly, it will be his first film without any supernatural elements (though creepy carnival ephemera will surely abound).

The book is untitled at this point, but considering that most del Toro films have titles like The Devil’s Backbone, fans should probably expect something fun there. Look for it in 2021.

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• Guillermo del Toro says Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is ‘greatest hits’ of books