With the rousing financial success that was Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (over $1 billion combining foreign and domestic sales) Warner Brothers is looking to take a page from Disney’s playbook with their own revisionist adaptation of a classic kid’s tale.
Dan Jinks (Big Fish, Milk, Pushing Daisies) will produce and he has brought on Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies) to script a live-action version of the classic story Pinocchio.
While details are sparse for now, Fuller’s reputation for whimsical and inventive takes on dark stories suggests we can all expect an interesting new twist on the old tale.
For his part, Fuller told Variety, “”Pinocchio is one of the most emotional fairy tales. I’m over the moon at the opportunity to play with all the characters in this toy box with a large-scale re-telling…It’s exactly why I love writing.”
Well, while I’ll be re-watching Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies in anticipation – as there is no news about possible cast choices, let’s speculate, shall we?
For Geppetto I’d like to see Paul Giamatti or Stanley Tucci – or maybe pull from Daisies and get the gruff but loveable Chi McBride? Then maybe for Jiminy Cricket (assuming there is one) let’s say…Mandy Patinkin (Dead Like Me). He’s got a great voice – and he can sing if they go musical, which Fuller’s been known to do. Then they could bring in Kristin Chenoweth as the Blue Fairy!
Who would you like to see as Pinnocchio? Geppetto? Jiminy Cricket? The Blue Fairy?