The Paddington films are so tenderly sweet, innocent, and loving. It’s hard to resist their charms. When films are as universally loved as they are, you can be sure that studios want someone like director Paul King on board for one of their projects.

Disney, who has been re-envisioning their animated films and turning them into live-action ones, will now bring in King to direct their live-action telling of Pinocchio. More on the story below.

As Disney continues to mine through their animation vault, more and more acclaimed directors are climbing aboard live-action adaptations. Sam Mendes (Spectre, American Beauty) is the latest filmmaker to join the club. According to new reports, Mendes is in talks to direct a live-action remake of Pinocchio – not to be confused with the Pinocchio starring Robert Downey Jr. that is being developed at Warner Bros – the 1940 classic film about an elderly, impoverished woodcarver named Gepetto, who creates Pinocchio and wishes upon a star that he could be a real boy.

More on the story below.

It’s been perfectly clear that Disney has been all about turning their classic animated movies into new live-action features, but lately they haven’t been wasting time in announcing what’s next. Just in the past month alone we’ve found out about planned live-action adaptations of Dumbo, Mulan, and Winnie the Pooh, as well as castings for the live-action Beauty and the Beast adaptation. These all follow already-released live-action takes on Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty (Maleficent), and Cinderella, and other upcoming titles The Jungle Book and sequel Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass.

Now another project is being added to Disney’s live-action slate, an adaptation of their 1940 animated classic Pinocchio. The movie about a wooden puppet wanting to become a real boy was the studio’s second animated feature after 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.