In what would appear to be the natural evolution of tweaked fairytales crossbred with a virulent strain of prequel fever, 20th Century Fox has picked up the rights to The Three Misfortunes of Geppetto for Shawn Levy to possibly direct.
Geppetto, as you’ll likely know, is the kindly, elderly carpenter who crafts Pinocchio, the puppet who dreams of becoming a real, live boy. But Michael Vukadinovich’s script aims to explore his life before the wooden one comes along. In what appears to be a blend of Big Fish and The Princess Bride, the story will follow Geppetto’s struggle with misfortune, war and misadventures, all for the love of a woman named Julia Moon.
Levy, of course, is on a roll at the moment, with robo-boxing drama Real Steel riding high in the US box office for a second weekend. He’s also got a raft of other projects in various stages of development, with Fox hoping he’ll make their take on the Frankenstein story his next directing gig. So Geppetto might have to wait a little while before Levy gets around to him.
According to Deadline, Fox jumped on Vukadinovich’s script after it was circulated late last week. The writer also has an indie comedy called Pete & Goat bubbling away with Anton Yelchin and Amanda Seyfried attached to star and another script called Do Over sitting with Shrek director Andrew Adamson’s production company.