Tom Hanks is in talks to star in Robert Zemeckis' live-action version of 'Pinocchio'.

The Oscar-winning actor wants the role of Geppetto in Disney's upcoming flick and Hanks reportedly reached out to the filmmaker to personally ton The 49-year-old actor has confirmed that he will play Pinocchio's wise partner - known as the Talking Cricket in Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel 'The Adventures of Pinocchio' - in Guillermo del Toro's take on the classic tale, which is set to be released on Netflix in 2021.ell him.

Disney has always been keen on Hanks, 64, to portray the woodcarver, having previously tried to cast him when Paul King was set to helm the project. That deal never came to fruition, although Tom and Robert's previous collaborations on films such as 'Forrest Gump' suggests that Tom is likely to commit to the movie.

Zemeckis has been tasked with directing and co-writing the script as Disney continue their strategy of updating their classic animations. It comes after the success of the money-spinning revamps of 'Beauty and the Beast', 'Aladdin' and 'The Lion King'.

Disney first released the feature-length 'Pinocchio' cartoon - based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel 'The Adventures of Pinocchio' - in 1940.

Zemeckis, 68, is working on the 'Pinocchio' project with Chris Weitz, who is producing alongside Andrew Miano.

Zemeckis is also adapting Roald Dahl's 'The Witches', which will star Anne Hathaway and is set for the big screen in 2021.

Hathaway, 37, will take on the role of the Grand High Witch, a part that was made famous by fellow Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston in the original 1990 motion picture.

Sources close to the upcoming project previously claimed that Zemeckis' adaptation will be closer to the original source material - Roald Dahl's 1973 fantasy novel, in which a seven-year-old boy comes across real-life witches - compared to the previous movie.