Admit it, when you heard Disney was making a live-action Pinocchio movie the first name you thought of to play Gepetto was Tom Hanks. It’s a little too perfect, right? According to a new report by Collider and backed up by THR, Disney agrees with you.
Disney is reportedly in talks to play the fatherly Gepetto in a live-action Pinocchio film, to be directed by Paddington‘s Paul King. It’s unclear who will get final credit on the script but Chris Weitz (Rogue One), Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2), and Jack Thorne (Wonder) have taken a pen to it. This is just the latest in Disney’s hugely successful live-action adaptations of their animated library. Their original Pinocchio film was released in 1940, telling the story of a wooden puppet given life and must prove himself in order to become a real boy. But you already knew that.
The budget is said to be in the $150M range which is pretty normal for Disney’s adaptations. Production on Pinocchio is expected to begin next summer and let’s hope Hanks will be there for it. He still keeps pretty busy, although he hasn’t starred in anything since 2017’s The Post. He previously played Walt Disney himself in Saving Mr. Banks.
