While Disney isn’t slowing down on making live-action adaptations of its entire animated library, it looks like their live-action Pinocchio may have hit a bit of a snag. In February 2018, we reported that Paddington and Paddington 2 director Paul King was on board to direct Pinocchio, and it looked like cameras were gearing up to roll this summer with possibly Tom Hanks on board to play Geppetto. But now it looks like King is off the project.

Speaking to Discussing Film [via ComicBook], cinematographer Seamus McGarvey said that the project is no longer happening:

“I don’t think it’s a secret anymore, but the film has been cancelled over the holidays, over Christmas.

 

“The director basically pulled out of the film, for um, family reasons. Disney are trying to find a new director, but yeah, I read those reports that Tom Hanks and all those other people, but yeah, they’re trying to get it going.”

While Disney has yet to confirm that King is out, that would be a bit of a stumble for the project, which previously lost Sam Mendes back in November 2017. King was set to work from a script he co-wrote with his Paddington screenwriter Simon Farnaby.

Although Pinocchio may be up in the air, Disney still has plenty of other live-action adaptations in the works including a Cruella de Vil movie starring Emma Stone, Maleficent 2, Mulan, The Little Mermaid, Lilo & Stitch, The Sword in the Stone, and Peter Pan. While Pinocchio is obviously a top-tier character with instant name recognition, it’s not like this will slow Disney down when it comes to turning their animated library into live-action movies.

As for King, we previously reported that while Paddington 3 was in the works, he wasn’t on board to direct. Now that he’s no longer attached to Pinocchio, I can’t help but wonder/hope that calculus has changed. However, with King reportedly leaving Pinocchio due to a personal emergency, the most important thing is that he gets that taken care of. We wish him all the best.

geppetto-pinocchio
Image via Disney
pinocchio
Image via Disney
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Image via Disney