Disney’s procession of live-action remakes based on their extensive back catalogue of animated classics have been a license to print money over the last decade, yielding more than $9 billion at the box office. However, not all of them are guaranteed to be smash hits, and the takings vary wildly from the paltry $299 million of Alice in Wonderland sequel Through the Looking Glass to Jon Favreau’s The Lion King, which ranks as the seventh highest-grossing movie ever made after raking in over $1.65 billion.
This summer’s release of Mulan via the Premier Access model was a test run of sorts to see how Disney Plus subscribers would react to some of the studio’s biggest projects heading straight to streaming, and despite the controversy, the numbers were hugely promising. Of course, last year’s Lady and the Tramp was the first live-action remake to be sent directly to the small screen, and the Mouse House have now announced that the upcoming Peter Pan & Wendy and Pinocchio will follow suit.
Pete’s Dragon director David Lowery is helming the former, with unknowns Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson set for the title roles, and Jude Law on board as Captain Hook. Pinocchio is an altogether more star-studded affair, though, with Back to the Future and Forrest Gump‘s Robert Zemeckis behind the camera working from a script he co-wrote with Rogue One‘s Chris Weitz, while Tom Hanks has been cast as Gepetto.
Guillermo del Toro is also working on his own dark fantasy version of Pinocchio that’s scheduled to hit Netflix next year, but Zemeckis’ take has the benefit of Disney’s backing and the presence of the universally beloved Hanks, although the filmmaker’s last few movies haven’t come anywhere come close to recapturing his glory days. Neither of the remakes have official release dates as of yet, but 2022 seems like the best bet at this point.
