First look at Pinocchio in Italian live action remake

We're a long way from the cutesy Disney version of Pinocchio here, as director Matteo Garrone unveils his take on the boy carved from wood who comes to life.

Garrone, best known for his gritty 2008 crime drama Gomorrah, is making an Italian language version of the tale, penned in the late 1800s by Italian writer Carlo Collodi.

And as well as the first look at Pinocchio, there's a teaser trailer too – which very much fits the dark, slightly sinister look of his wooden puppet.

With lavish make-up and scenery, it appears this is not quite the family-friendly adaptation that Walt Disney gave us in 1940.

“I don’t know how dark it will be,” Garrone told Italian news agency ANSA, adding that it will be faithful to Collodi's original text.

But he added that he 'would certainly like children to be part of the audience'.

It finds Italian screen veteran Roberto Benigni as the carpenter Geppetto, who makes the marionette in his Tuscan workshop, dreaming that he would one day become a real boy.

The role is Benigni's first since the Woody Allen comedy To Rome With Love in 2012, and not the first time that he's been involved in bringing Collodi's folk tale for the screen.

He played Pinocchio himself in a 2002 adaptation, which he also directed and adapted.

And it's not the only version of Pinocchio in the pipeline either.

Guillermo Del Toro is set to make a stop-motion animated Pinocchio movie for Nexflix, which will be decidedly not family friendly.

Del Toro will set his story of the puppet who wants to become a real boy against the backdrop of rising fascism in Italy in the 1930s.