The Disney + Pinocchio movie adds Luke Evans as The Coachman

After already helping bring iconic Disney villain Gaston to life in the live-action adaptation of House of Mouse Beauty and the BeastLuke Evans is ready for yet another chilling adversary as he joins Tom Hanks on the Robert Zemeckis line Pinocchio as the owner and operator of Pleasure Island The Coachman, according to Deadline.

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Hanks had been in talks for the role of Geppetto two years earlier when Paddington Helmer Paul King was hired to co-write and direct the film, but when King left the deal with Hanks he was abandoned. Sources previously reported that the new deal with the Nice day in the neighborhood Star are in very early negotiations, but after reading the script by Zemeckis and Chris Weitz (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) he turned to the director to express his interest in a leading role in the project.

The collaboration between Zemeckis and Hanks goes back to the second Academy Awards in a row Forrest Gump and would reunite later Lostwhich earned Hanks another Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win, followed by the Christmas cult classic The polar express. The project is to be produced by Weitz and Andrew Miano through their production banner Depth of Field.

Pinocchio The focus is on the wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a “real boy” and the relationship between father and son, the consequences of lying and creating stories and living in a fantasy world.

The original Pinocchio, based on the 1883 novel The adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, who debuted in theaters for the first time in 1940 and won two Academy Awards. In the 1940 Disney animated film PinocchioThe main role was voiced by Dickie Jones, Jiminy Cricket by Cliff Edwards and Master Geppetto by Christian Rubb.

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Zemeckis is currently in post-production of his adaptation of Roald Dahls The witches for Warner Bros. starring Anne Hathaway, which was recently postponed from its October 2020 release to a currently undated debut in 2021 as theaters still grapple with the ongoing global pandemic.

(Image credit: Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images)