Live-Action ‘Pinocchio’ Casts Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket
This time when Pinocchio becomes a real boy, he’s going to really become a real boy.
Disney is adding Pinocchio to the long list of animated classics it has updated for the 21st century with a modern, live-action remake. This version will be directed by Robert Zemeckis, who’s currently in the process of filling out his cast. Variety reports that Zemeckis has chosen Joseph Gordon-Levitt to play the voice of Jiminy Cricket, who advises Pinocchio and sings the Disney classic “When You Wish Upon a Star.” The pair previously worked together on Zemeckis’ 2015 film The Walk.
Zemeckis’ Pinocchio will also star Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy who brings the Pinocchio puppet to life. They join a cast that includes...
...Tom Hanks as Geppetto and Luke Evans as The Coachman. In addition, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, who previously starred in “Flora and Ulysses,” will voice Pinocchio, the puppet who dreamed of becoming a real boy, with Keegan-Michael Key as the voice of Honest John and Lorraine Bracco as the voice of Sofia the Seagull, a new character.
This is not the only big-budget Pinocchio project in the works. Guillermo del Toro is currently finishing his own stop-motion animated Pinocchio for Netflix. That one features the voice of Ewan McGregor as Jiminy Cricket, David Bradley as Geppetto, and Tilda Swinton as the Blue Fairy. It’s expected to be released at some point in 2021. And it comes on the heels of another Pinocchio adaptation, that one in Italian and starring Roberto Benigni. (And that Pinocchio was the second Pinocchio starring Benigni, who starred in and directed yet another version in 2002.) That‘s a lot of wishing upon a star.
Robert Zemeckis’ Pinocchio does not yet have an official release date.
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