The Academy Award-winning filmmaker’s newest film is a reliving of the classic fork tale about a wooden puppet who embarks on an adventurous journey to become a real kid. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth voices Pinocchio, with Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket’s guide, Lorraine Bracco as Sofia the Seagull, Keegan-Michael Key as “Honest” John, and Luke Evans as The Coachman. Hanks’ Geppetto is still the woodcarver who creates Pinocchio and cares for him as if he were his own kid.
Pinocchio is one of two Disney+ adaptations slated for release this year. The other, a stop-motion animated adaptation directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, will premiere on Netflix in December. Both are inspired by Italian author Carlo Collodi’s renowned children’s tale The Adventures of Pinocchio, which was first serialized in the Giornale per I bambini in 1881 and has spawned a slew of cinema and television productions, including Disney’s 1940 animated masterpiece Pinocchio.
Zemeckis collaborated with Chris Weitz on the adaptation’s screenplay, which they produced with Paul Weitz, Derek Hogue, and Andrew Miano. Executive producers were Jackie Levine, Jack Rapke, Alexandra Derbyshire, and Jeremy Johns.
Take a look here at the first still from Zemeckis’ Pinocchio:
