Robert Zemeckis to direct Disney’s live-action Pinocchio

With the likes of Jon Favreau for Jungle Book and Lion King, Bill Condon for Beauty and the Beast, Tim Burton for Dumbo and Guy Ritchie for Aladdin, Disney is really trying to bring the big guns in for a lot of their live-action remakes. These films may currently give the studio a license to print money with how successful they have proved to be at the box office, but Disney wants to ensure that they remain in capable hands.

Now to bring their vision for Pinocchio to life the studio has tapped yet another high-profile, big-name director, in Oscar-winner Robert Zemeckis (as revealed by Deadline). Famed for such iconic movies like the Back to the Future series, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and experimental motion capture film like The Polar Express and Beowulf, Zemeckis is no stranger to helming blockbusters and working with ground-breaking visual effects. Something which is bound to come handy for this new adaptation of the classic story by Carlo Collodi.

Zemeckis is the third director to actually be attached to the project after Sam Mendes had initially signed on to direct the film, before handing over to Paddington director Paul King. Both those directors left the project for unknown reasons though, so hopefully, Zemeckis can stick around to make this one happen. For Zemeckis though, despite all of his blockbuster success, his last few films haven’t exactly lit up the box office and so it will be an opportunity for him to return to the top of the box office if he gets this right.

While most Disney’s live-action adaptations have come from the more recent animated fare, the original Pinocchio movie was actually Disney’s second-ever animated movie and released all the way back in 1940. Since then movies have transformed and so expect this live-action adaptation to differ greatly from that first film, though probably not as different as Guillermo del Toro’s planned Pinocchio a few years back would’ve gone – taking the film in more of a creepy direction.

Zemeckis will direct and co-write the Pinocchio script with Chris Weitz. No casting has been made for the film, though if these two make progress on their side, Disney will probably start looking for actors soon. There is no official release date just yet for the film.

Last Updated: January 28, 2020