Tom Hanks as Geppetto would be peak Tom Hanks
TOM HANKS knows he’s America’s dad.
He acknowledged it when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 2016. “A magazine cover recently called me ‘America’s dad,’” he said. “And I would have preferred ‘sexist man alive,’ but I will take it.”
And Dad has been really leaning into it. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Hanks is in early talks to play Geppetto in a Disney live-action remake of “Pinocchio.”
While it’s far from a done deal, such a casting choice could mean Papa Hanks as Papa Geppetto.
In the lauded 1940 animated original, Italian woodcarver Geppetto loves the wooden puppet he’s carved, and wishes upon a star that it becomes a real boy (it’s basically a movie about a lonely old man who wants nothing more than to have a child). Pinocchio comes to life, but learns he has to prove himself to turn into a human. A cricket tries to help out, Pinocchio’s nose grows every time he lies, and Geppetto ends up inside of a whale. Very dramatic stuff.
Paul King of the Paddington movies will direct the remake, with the screenwriter credit unclear, Collider reported. The outlet added that the movie is expected to start production in the summer.
The news comes as Hanks has been working on a biopic about beloved children’s TV icon Mister Rogers (America’s teacher!). The “Untitled Mr. Rogers/ Tom Hanks Project,” as it’s labelled by TriStar Pictures, is based on journalist Tom Junod’s Esquire profile of Rogers and will be released in October 2019.
Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”) and Susan Kelechi Watson (“This Is Us”) also star in the Mister Rogers movie.
Hanks clearly has range — from playing a ship captain facing peril to a stranded man who befriends a volleyball — but there’s something very reassuring about one of the most likeable working actors today only playing loveable characters.
So, yes, we know Hanks can be a tough-guy mobster or a hardnosed newspaperman going up against the Nixon administration. But in 2018, never-ending news alerts and constant shocking revelations have taken a toll on our collective blood pressure, so can Hanks only play fatherly figures from now on?
How about Marlin, the dad fish in “Finding Nemo,” in a live-action remake? Or George Bailey in a “It’s a Wonderful Life” remake? Atticus Finch?
“America is feeling a little nervous these days, and I’m a responsible father,” Hanks said on “SNL” in 2016. “So I thought maybe it’s time we had a little chat.”
Forget the chat, Hanks. Just take nice movie roles. — WP Bloomberg