Disney continues to chug along with their live action fairytale reboots. According to Variety, a new adaptation of Pinocchio is gearing up at the House of Mouse and they already have their eye on a particular director: Sam Mendes. The filmmaker most recently helmed two installments in the James Bond franchise (Skyfall, Spectre) for Sony and recently set up a period piece mystery film with dark fantasy elements () there. Mendes was previously attached to direct a live action reboot of James and the Giant Peach for Disney, but has since dropped out.
The script for Pinocchio has been penned by Peter Hedges (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape). Mendes has not officially signed onto the project just yet, but is expected to close his deal in the coming weeks. The filmmaker is currently overseeing a stage production of The Ferryman in London.
Given Disney’s already-packed fairytale slate, I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that My Favorite Thing Is Monsters will happen first for Mendes. After all, Disney is currently shooting Rob Marshall’s Mary Poppins Returns and is expected to go into production on at least 4 more such films within the next year, including Nicki Caro’s Mulan, Jon Favreau’s The Lion King, Tim Burton’s Dumbo, and Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin. It is unlikely that Mendes’ Pinocchio will happen before that batch.
The House of Mouse has been chasing notable filmmakers left and right for this massive re-imagining endeavor, also enlisting the likes of Marc Forster (Christopher Robin), James Mangold (Captain Nemo), Anne Fletcher (Disenchanted), and David Lowery (Peter Pan). While I haven’t been overly impressed with their reboots of Maleficent, The Jungle Book, and Beauty and the Beast, I found both Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella and David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon to be delightful. If we occasionally get more of these that turn out as well as those did, I’m all for it.
As for Mendes in particular? Given his love of horror, I cannot wait to see what kind of imagery he conjures up when bringing Monstro the Whale and Pleasure Island to life. Sometimes the best family films frighten children a little bit and Mendes is well-equipped to follow that tradition.
