Live-Action Pinocchio Starring Tom Hanks Sets Disney+ Release

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Live-Action Pinocchio Starring Tom Hanks Sets Disney+ Release

Walt Disney Studios has finally confirmed the release timeline for Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming live-action Pinocchio film, featuring an all-star cast led by Oscar winner Tom Hanks.

The highly-anticipated retelling of the classic children’s tale is currently slated to make its debut in the fall of 2022.

The film will star Tom Hanks as Geppetto, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as the titular character, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket, Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy, Luke Evans as the villainous Coachman, Keegan-Michael Key as Honest John, and Lorraine Bracco as Sofia the Seagull, a new character made just for the live-action film.

Disney’s live-action Pinocchio is directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay he co-wrote with Chris Weitz, based on the classic children’s tale by Italian author Carlo Collodi. It will center on the wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a “real boy,” and the relationship between a father and son, the ramifications of lying and creating stories and living in a fantasy world.

Zemeckis and Hanks’ collaborative partnership goes back to the latter’s second-consecutive Oscar-winning turn in Forrest Gump and would later reunite on Cast Away, which netted Hanks another Oscar nom and a Golden Globe win, followed by the Christmas cult classic The Polar Express. The project is produced by Weitz and Andrew Miano via their Depth of Field production banner.

The original Pinocchio first debuted in theaters in 1940 and won two Academy Awards. In the 1940 Disney-animated film Pinocchio, the lead role was voiced by Dickie Jones, Jiminy Cricket by Cliff Edwards, and Master Geppetto by Christian Rubb.