The Scene

From Depp to Downey? Tim Burton Collaborating with RDJ for 'Pinocchio'

Published on Wednesday, January 11 2012
Written by Samantha Blum

Straying from his usual choice of the talented Johnny Depp, Tim Burton has chosen a new actor to team up with for his latest fantasy fairytale film: Robert Downey, Jr.

The film in discussion is to be a big screen Warner Bros. production of a live action adaptation of the classic children's story Pinocchio, about a living puppet who must prove himself worthy of becoming a real boy.

In Burton’s adaptation, the story will be expressed in a unique and dark version of the fairy tale, featuring Robert Downey Jr. as Geppetto, the puppet-maker and creator of the marionette boy.

The script is written by Bryan Fuller, of “Heroes” and “Pushing Daisies”, and features Geppetto seeking to find his lost puppet son; this story focuses more around Geppetto, contrasting Carlo Collodi’s original 19th century story of Pinocchio’s quest to become a real boy and learns the valuable lessons of life. Meanwhile, Guillermo del Toro is also in the process of creating a 3D stop-motion adaptation of Collodi’s classical story.

Although neither Burton nor Downey have signed on to commit to the creation of this film, both the actor and director are extremely interested in the film’s production.

Downey can currently be seen in theaters in his second Sherlock Holmes film alongside Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and he will soon be making another appearance on the big screen as Iron Man in the upcoming superhero team-up, The Avengers, which will be hitting theaters this summer.

Tim Burton is keeping himself busy with post-production of Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp, an adaptation of a supernatural soap opera from the '60s and '70s. He is also working on a full-length feature version of his classic stop-motion animation short film, Frankenweenie, for Disney.

 

- Samantha Blum, YH Staff