According to Deadline, Beauty and the Beast star Luke Evans is joining the upcoming remake of Pinocchio as the Coachman, a villainous character who lures kids to Pleasure Island, who are then turned into donkeys. The Coachman appeared in the original 1940 film, in addition to an appearance in the 2000 musical Geppetto, where he was played by Usher.
Read: Disney Eying Oakes Fegley for Role in Pinocchio
For Disney, Evans previously starred as Gaston in 2017’s remake of Beauty and the Beast. In other work, he is well known for his role of Bard in The Hobbit trilogy. He will also be reprising his role of Gaston in the Beauty and the Beast prequel series, which will be released on Disney+.
Evans joins a cast of several announced roles including Tom Hanks as Geppetto and Oakes Fegley as Lampwick.
Pinocchio, under the working title “Maestro”, will be directed by Robert Zemeckis of Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In addition to the confirmed cast, Alan Cumming is being considered for the roles of Honest John.
It was also confirmed that the film would release on Disney+, though no official date has been announced. In December, we exclusively reported that the film will be a musical, with new songs being written by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard.
Source: Deadline
