Several directors and writers are busy developing new takes on Disney's animated back catalogue, and Sam Mendes appeared set to join their ranks with news last August that he was considering making a live-action/CG James And The Giant Peach. But there's word today via Deadline that Mendes is now seemingly switching his focus to a Pinocchio project.
The Mouse House has been chiseling away at the new take on the story of the puppet who becomes a real boy for a couple of years, and the most recent draft of the script comes from Chris Weitz, who is also aboard as a producer. Mendes is in early talks to tackle the movie, so don't go betting on him to actually sit in the director's chair just yet. Peach meanwhile, looks like it'll return to limbo for now.
Pinocchio – which Disney brought to life in acclaimed animated form in 1940, drawing from Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel The Adventures Of Pinocchio – is a subject several filmmakers have been targeting in the last few years. Guillermo del Toro has one in the works, and Warner Bros. at one point had Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller pondering another, which may still come to pass one day. But the arms race for the puppet pic continues.
Sam Mendes Considering Live-Action James And The Giant Peach