Disney is set to add Pinocchio to its ever-expanding roster of live action fantasy fairytale remakes, reports Deadline.
Carlo Collodi’s famous marionette with the big dreams – he longs to become a real – and nose that lengthens whenever he tells a lie joins Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo and Winnie the Pooh on the studio’s upcoming slate of films based on its animated back catalogue. In 1940, Disney produced the most famous big-screen retelling of Collodi’s 1883 fable, Pinocchio.
Peter Hedges’ script for the new film will reportedly cleave close to the original novel, titled The Adventures of Pinocchio. With the book in the public domain, Disney might face competition from a previously announced dark take on the dissembling marionette from Guillermo del Toro. The Pan’s Labyrinth film-maker has had a stop-motion version of the story in development since at least 2008, though there have been hints that a green light remains some way off.
Disney has been reworking its back catalogue since the $1bn (£670m) box-office success of Tim Burton fantasy remake Alice in Wonderland in 2010. Its Wizard of Oz and Sleeping Beauty prequels Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) and Maleficent (2014) were also profitable. Kenneth Branagh’s current live-action version of Cinderella passed the $400m mark at the global box office on 6 April, so the strategy appears to be something of a no-brainier for the studio.
A sequel to Alice in Wonderland, based on Lewis Carroll’s followup book Through the Looking Glass, is due in cinemas next year, with James Bobin replacing Burton in the director’s chair.
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