Sam Mendes in Early Talks to Direct Live-Action Pinocchio for Disney

The Oscar-winning director is known for dark films like American Beauty and franchise giants including Skyfall and Spectre, but per Variety, Disney is now eyeing Sam Mendes to direct the live-action remake of Pinocchio.

In 2015 Peter Hedges (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) began penning a script based off of the 1940s Disney original. Recently, Mendes was in talks to direct a different Disney live-action of James and the Giant Peach, but his involvement with that project fell through.

Disney has been releasing a slew of live-action remakes lately, with The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast out recently, and have more on the way including Niki Caro’s Mulan, Jon Favreau’s The Lion King and Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin.