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Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Disney+ on Wednesday shared a new trailer for its upcoming film Pinocchio, a live-action adaptation of the classic 1940s film by Walt Disney. The trailer showed Tom Hanks in the starring role as Geppetto, a woodcarver who initially builds the puppet Pinocchio to raise as if he were real. However, when a mysterious fairy (Cynthia Erivo) brings Pinocchio to life, Geppetto's dream of having his own son comes true.
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"An almost real boy," Geppetto says upon seeing Pinocchio come to life. It becomes evident that Pinocchio wants to be completely human, saying, "I want to be real."
When Pinocchio is whisked away on a dangerous adventure, though, his new friends and family will be forced to embark on a journey after him.
The film is set to be released on Disney+ on Sept. 8, which is marketed as Disney+ Day and will see a large slate of premieres on the streaming platform.
Beyond Hanks and Erivo, a number of talented voice actors will be heard in the film.
This includes 13-year-old Benjamin Evan Ainsworth in the title role, along with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket and Keegan Michael-Key as the antagonizing fox Honest John.
Beyond the talented voice cast, many of the songs from the original 1940 film will be heard on the soundtrack.
This includes "When You Wish Upon a Star," which will be performed by Erivo. The tune has become known as The Walt Disney Company's signature song, and has been used in the opening credits of Disney projects for decades.
Pinocchio was directed by Robert Zemeckis, known for his collaboration with Hanks on the 1994 classic Forrest Gump. Zemeckis also served as co-writer and executive producer on the film.
Development on the film was first announced back in 2015, but a number of issues with the production and script caused Pinocchio to go through at least two different directors prior to Zemeckis.
Filming on Pinocchio finally got underway in March 2021.
Disney's feature is just one of many attempts to put Pinocchio onto the screen, and the tale has seen renewed interest in recent years.
A 2019 Italian version of the film was received positively and nominated for two Academy Awards.
Another version of the tale, also called Pinocchio, was directed by Guillermo del Toro and features stop motion animation. The film stars the voices of Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton, and is due to be released this November.
Yet another version of Pinocchio, this one a Russian direct-to-DVD animated version of the story. Pauly Shore voices Pinocchio in the English dub of the film.
