Back in 2018 we had exclusively reportedthatTom Hankswas in negotiations to star as Geppetto in a live-actionPinocchioremake for Disney. At the timePaddingtondirectorPaul Kingwas helming the project, which was one of a constellation of live-action remakes of Disney’s beloved animated properties that were currently in development. Of course, that version never materialized and King left the project. Now, Deadline is reporting that Hanks is back in the picture, this time for thisForrest Gump/The Polar ExpressdirectorRobert Zemeckis.
Apparently, Hanks is far from a done deal, but he has reached out to Zemeckis and said that he wants to do the movie. He would play the kindly woodcarver who creates a living puppet who longs to be a real boy. This new version will be produced byAndrew MianoandChris Weitz, with Weitz also writing the screenplay (he previously co-wrote Disney’s live-action reimagining ofCinderella).
Hanks, who was just nominated for another Oscar for his work inA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, hasGreyhoundcurrently streaming on Apple+ and will resume work onBaz Luhrmann’sElvis Presleyin Australia in the fall. Hanks’ 2021 sci-fi dramaBiosis produced by Zemeckis, who is still putting the finishing touches on his reimagining ofRoald Dahl’sThe Witches(co-written and produced byGuillermo del Toro, who has his own version ofPinocchioin the works for Netflix) for Warner Bros for release sometime next year.
Zemeckis’ relationship with Disney through the years has been interesting. He initially tried to makeWho Framed Roger Rabbit, with a completely different artistic team, in the early 1980s. But at the time the Disney Company wasn’t prepared for a live-action/animation hybrid of such complexity (both technologically and when it came to licensing agreements). Zemeckis returned to the project in the late 1980s, when a new management team had been installed at Disney andSteven Spielberghad agreed to help out. The resulting film was one of the biggest movies of the decade and proved that the new leadership at the company could tackle challenging, edgy material. Zemeckis, for his part, vowed to never work for the studio again, mostly due to the micromanagement and penny-pinching of executiveJeffrey Katzenberg. This, in part, led to thedevelopment on a sequel stalling outon a number of occasions.
The filmmaker almost kept his word, too, until Disney signed a multi-picture deal with Zemeckis’ ImageMovers Digital to release a series of movies utilizing then-groundbreaking motion-capture technology. But after the second film in the dealMars Needs Moms, which Zemeckis didn’t direct, resulted in one of the costliest bombs in Disney history, the company severed ties with Zemeckis, canceling a nifty-soundingYellow Submarinemo-cap remake in the process.
It’s unclear how Zemeckis is going to pull offPinocchio, but we imagine there will be some mo-cap shenanigans involvedfor sure. It’ll be interesting to see if audiences warm to this newPinocchio, largely considered to be the crown jewel of the animated filmsWalt Disneyhimself worked on (we put it at #1 onour list of Disney Animated classics). Dumbo didn’t exactly set the world on fire. ButDumboalso didn’t have Zemeckis and Hanks, together again.
