During their earnings call tonight, Disney revealed The Little Mermaid cast for their upcoming live-action feature! They also revealed that director Robert Zemeckis’ Pinocchio and director David Lowery’s Peter Pan & Wendy will be going direct to the Disney+ streaming service. Check out sizzle reels below!
Meet the cast of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, starring Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Awkwafina, Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, Melissa McCarthy & Javier Bardem. Directed by Rob Marshall, featuring music from the animated original & new music by Alan Menken & Lin-Manuel Miranda. pic.twitter.com/yJLjNs4GEa
— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) December 11, 2020
Peter Pan & Wendy will be flying to #DisneyPlus. David Lowery directs an amazing cast including @YaraShahidi in the role of Tinker Bell and Jude Law as Captain Hook. pic.twitter.com/U8tWoxxSOk
— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) December 11, 2020
One of Disney’s all-time classics is coming to #DisneyPlus with the new live-action retelling of Pinocchio, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Robert Zemeckis. pic.twitter.com/44bHbFRhMe
— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) December 11, 2020
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Hanks had previously been in talks for the role two years prior when Paddington helmer Paul King was attached to co-write and direct the film, but once King left the deal with Hanks was abandoned. Sources report that the new deal with the Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood star are in very early negotiations but that after having read the script co-written by Zemeckis and Chris Weitz (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), he reached out to the director to express his interest in starring in the project.
Zemeckis and Hanks’ collaborative partnership goes back to the latter’s second-consecutive Oscar-winning turn in Forrest Gump and would later reunite on Cast Away, which netted Hanks another Oscar nom and a Golden Globe win, followed by the Christmas cult classic The Polar Express. The project is set to be produced by Weitz and Andrew Miano via their Depth of Field production banner.
Pinocchio will center on the wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a “real boy,” and the relationship between a father and son, the ramifications of lying and creating stories and living in a fantasy world.
RELATED: Disney Sets Live-Action Remakes of Pinocchio & Bambi
The original Pinocchio, based on the 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, first debuted in theaters in 1940 and won two Academy Awards. In the 1940 Disney-animated film Pinocchio, the lead role was voiced by Dickie Jones, Jiminy Cricket by Cliff Edwards, and Master Geppetto by Christian Rubb.
