NEWSREEL: When you wish upon a star!
Dec 1, 2018, 11:05 AM | Updated: 7:55 pm
Movie Star Tom Hanks is said to be in early talks to bring to life Geppetto in a live action film of Disney's classic Pinocchio
If you’ve been paying attention to Disney movies lately, you’ve noticed a trend towards making live-action reboots of its prior hits and it seems to be working out for them financially.
“I hope that they maintain the quality and so far so good Beauty and the Beast made 1.2 billion worldwide in 2017, The Jungle Book both you and I love the dead just a shade under a billion dollars worldwide next year. I mean, it’s Dumbo, which is coming up in March Aladdin opening in May Lion King open in June. It sounds almost overdose to me, but we’ll see.” Said Doug.
In addition to their stacked movie release schedule for 2019, there have also been some early talks of breathing some new life into another Disney Classic, Pinocchio.
Originally released in 1940 and based off of the Italian children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio was only the second animated feature film Walt and his crew created on the heels of their successful 1937 release of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs.
Even though it might be a while before we all start wishing upon a star or seeing a little Pinocchio start dancing around without any strings, there have been talks about who might play one key role on the big screen, and that’s the old woodcarver Geppetto.
So what’s slotted to take the role?
Tom Hanks.
Hanks is in early talks with the studio to play the fatherly figure to the little puppet Pinocchio, and as Doug explains, if this deal goes through, that would mean quite a lot of work for the actor.
“He’s becoming kind of a Meryl Streep, you know, he does everything!
“I mean, listen to what he’s got coming up in 2019, he’ll be in a World War II pic called Greyhound, followed by the return of Toy Story, he’s also filming the untitled Mr. Rogers movie for TriStar right now, and he’s in the conversations about being Geppetto!” says Doug.
Hanks would be another one of the A-list celebs to lend themselves to these classic roles along with Will Smith who is also said to be in early talks to voice the Genie in Aladdin.
To hear the rest of this conversation, as well as all the other big movie news, including news about the 30th anniversary of When Harry met Sally, the latest Sundance news and more, check out the rest of the podcast linked below:
