Actor Luke Evans who previously played Gaston in Beauty and The Beast is set to join Disney's live-action Pinocchio film. Robert Zemeckis, known for his work on Back to The Future, Forrest Gump, and The Polar Express, will be spearheading the project as director. Disney+ has steadily continued to create live-action versions of its original animated films, with movies like Beauty and the Beast making billions at the box office.
Pinocchio first reached audiences on the big screen in 1940 when Disney made an animated version of the classic 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The story follows a puppet who comes to life and dreams of being a real boy. The original film was a huge success and won two academy awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score before being deemed a culturally significant film by the Library of Congress in 1994. The latest live-action installment of the film was announced during Disney's Investor day in December 2020 as a film that would release directly to Disney+, alongside a new live-action version of Peter Pan & Wendy.
Deadline reports that Luke Evans is signed onto Pinocchio as The Coachman, one of the film's many notable villains, known for luring children to Pleasure Island, where they are transformed into donkeys and sold on the black market. The role was initially voiced by actor Charles Judles who appeared as a voice actor in 137 different animated films between 1915 and 1949.
Although Evans hasn't voice acted in a feature before, he has played several notable antagonizing roles throughout his career, such as Gaston in Beauty and The Beast and the lead bloodsucking vampire in Dracula Untold. Evans has had additional credits in the feature films Furious 7, Murder Mystery, The Girl on the Train, and The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies. More recently, Evans will appear in Hulu's upcoming mini-series Nine Perfect Strangers with Melissa McCartney and Nicole Kidman.
Evans will be acting alongside Tom Hanks, who is set to star in the film as Gepetto, the Italian woodcarver who creates Pinocchio. The film is written by Zemeckis and Chris Weitz, who wrote the Cinderella remake in 2015. Weitz and Andrew Miano will be producing the film under their production company, Depth of Field.
Although Evans may not seem like the obvious choice to play a greedy, fat, white-haired villain such as The Coachman, it could be a sign that the new film may depart slightly from the original movie. Pinocchio was Disney's second animated film and a major box office earner, so it'll be interesting to see what direction the more modern, live-action film will take moving forward. There's no official release date for Pinocchio as of yet. Still, as Zemeckis and Weitz continue to bulk up their cast and move toward production, fans can expect more exciting developments soon.
Source: Deadline