Paul King Reveals the Tearjerking Ending to His Take on Disney’s ‘Pinocchio:’ ‘I Was Interested in the Idea of Parenthood’

Once upon a time, “Paddington” and “Wonka” filmmaker Paul King was going to direct the live-action adaptation of Disney’s “Pinocchio,” perhaps the greatest animated feature ever made. And he’s finally talking about what his version would have been like – including its heart-tugging (of course) final scene.

King worked on the project for a while, before Robert Zemeckis came on board to direct with his “Forrest Gump” and “Cast Away” star Tom Hanks in the Geppetto role. That film was rushed onto Disney+ ahead of Guillermo del Toro’s eventually Oscar-winning “Pinocchio” on Netflix.

“I love ‘Pinocchio,’ there’s something really magical about that story. And it was a shame. It didn’t work out for various personal reasons, which had nothing to do with the movie at all,” King told TheWrap about why it fell apart.

He then described what drew him to the project: “I was really interested in the idea of parenthood, I think. And I was writing at a time when I was expecting my first child. And it was really about children breaking away from their parents. That seemed to me a key way into it,” King said.

In particular, King was “really proud” of the ending. “I will now go ahead and spoil because it will never see the light of day,” King said.

In King’s ending, Pinocchio and Geppetto have been reunited. He still remembers the storyboard – “this tiny little wooden hand holding onto a finger.” The final scene would have been Pinocchio standing at the steps of Geppetto’s toy store, “about to step out into the world.” He doesn’t want to go, since he’s been reunited with his father after a dangerous adventure.

Geppetto says, “You can go.” To which Pinocchio replies, “I don’t know if I want to. Not without the strings.” To which Geppetto replies: “There will always be strings joining you to me.”

“Oh weeping,” King said.

King hasn’t watched the Zemeckis version yet either. “I think I realized that either I would lose all confidence in myself forever or I would be kicking myself forever,” King said. “Neither of those are good outcomes.”

At the time that King was working on “Pinocchio,” they knew about Guillermo del Toro’s version as well as Matteo Garrone’s version (that wound up coming out in 2019). The prospect of making a remake of a Disney classic was “nerve-wracking enough.” The other versions only added to the pressure. “Well, I could make the third best Pinocchio movie of the year,” King joked.

King’s latest film “Wonka” was just released on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray.

The post Paul King Reveals the Tearjerking Ending to His Take on Disney’s ‘Pinocchio:’ ‘I Was Interested in the Idea of Parenthood’ appeared first on TheWrap.