Tom Hanks could be eyeing his next project after is Oscar nomination for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and his most recent Apple TV+ effort, Greyhound. It has been announced that Hanks is in talks to join Robert Zemeckis’ live-action take on Disney’s Pinocchio as Geppetto.
Negotiations are said to be very early but reports from “Deadline” say that after reading the script, Hanks has reached out to Zemeckis to let him know he wants to do the film. The studio has wanted Hanks for the part for quite some time, having approached him a year ago to take on the role when Paul King was attached to direct. That deal never finalized but given Hanks and Zemeckis’ long-standing relationship going back to when they both won Oscars for their work on Forrest Gump, the deal is more than likely to happen. The film would mark the fourth collaboration between Hanks and Zemeckis after Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and the Christmas classic The Polar Express.
Hanks is still filming the Elvis Presley biopic at Warner Bros, which had to halt production after he and his wife, Rita Wilson, fell ill with COVID-19. They have since recovered and the studio is hoping to start production again in the fall in Australia. The assumption is that, if Hanks accepts the role, Pinocchio would be the next project he would take on. The 1940 Disney animated classic, which is being retold with a script from Chris Weitz and Robert Zemeckis, tells the story of a living puppet who, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy.
