‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ movie release date, cast, and more

Generations of children have grown up with Harold and his magic purple crayon. Now Sony is bringing Crockett Johnson’s beloved picture book to new audiences with Zachary Levi doing the drawing.

Harold and the Purple Crayon was originally published in 1955, growing into a cultural staple of children’s literature over the decades. It’s spawned several sequels, been adapted into an animated television series, and even been referenced on The Simpsons. A live-action movie adaptation from Columbia Pictures was first reported on back in 2010.

The book tells the story of four-year-old Harold who decides to go for a walk in the moonlight, using a magic purple crayon to draw the moon and a path, as well as the many adventures he encounters on his way. It’s essentially a tale about the power of children’s imagination, curiosity, and desire to explore — all universal and timeless themes that have contributed to the book’s longevity.

When is the Harold and the Purple Crayon live-action movie coming out?

Per Deadline, the new Harold and the Purple Crayon live-action movie is hitting theaters on August 2, 2024. The project had been in the works at Columbia Pictures for 12 years prior to filming and was initially set to be co-produced by Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment.

For a long time, there was no news on young Harold’s big cinematic debut, until 2021 when the upcoming film began to take shape. Blue Sky Studios’ lead filmmaker Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age: The Meltdown, Rio, Ferdinand, and more) was appointed director, while Slumberland and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb scribes David Guion and Michael Handelman would be penning the script. Principal photography took place in Atlanta, Georgia in the early months of 2022.

Who stars in Harold and the Purple Crayon?

The cast of Harold and the Purple Crayon is as whimsical as Crockett Johnson’s story. Zachary Levy will be playing an adult version of Harold, in a plot twist we still don’t know much about but is undeniably reminiscent of his kid-in-an-adult-body superhero in DC’s Shazam!.

Joining Levi for the crayon-fueled adventure are New Girl‘s Zooey Deschanel, Get Out‘s Lil Rel Howery, What We Do in the Shadows’s Jemaine Clement and Animal Control‘s Ravi Patel. The cast also includes Camille Guaty, Tanya Reynolds, and Pete Gardner. Besides Levi as Harold, no information has been disclosed about any of the film’s other characters.

The main poster — one of two promotional images for Harold and the Purple Crayon so far — is jarring. A poorly (and heavily) edited montage of Levi accompanied by what appears to be Reynolds and Howery, even though the former, who you might know as Lily from Sex Education, is almost unrecognizable with a purple mohawk and riding a flashy motor trike. Behind them, the original book’s signature hand-drawn illustrations gradually transform into live-action CGI magical creatures, flying cars, and a giant octopus.

In a twist on Johnson’s premise, the tag in the poster teases that “everything [Harold] draws is about to get real,” seemingly hinting at the fact that the concept will be taken further by making Harold’s drawings actually real via live-action and CGI.