Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro is working with author Cornelia Funke on a new novel for adults inspired by Pan’s Labyrinth.

Pan’s Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun will be published on 2nd July 2019. It will include illustrations by US artist Allen Williams.

Set in 1940s Spain, Pan’s Labyrinth was released in 2006 and tells the story of Ofelia, whose pregnant mother has married a sadistic army captain and is sent to live with him in a remote mill at the edge of a dark forest. As her mother grows ill and her stepfather’s brutality is revealed, the boundaries between fantasy and reality, dream and waking, fairy tale and horror are eroded.

Funke said that Pan’s Labyrinth was her favourite film. She said: “It demonstrates what I believe to be true: that fantasy is the sharpest tool to develop and unveil all the miracles and the terrors of our reality. It is both political and timeless, a rare achievement in storytelling.

“My life has often given me reason to believe in magic. But when Guillermo del Toro asked me to turn my favourite movie into a novel, even I wondered whether I had entered the realm of fairy tales.”