Benigni to play Geppetto for Garrone

(ANSA) - Rome, October 26 - Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni is to play Geppetto in a new adaptation of Pinocchio by Matteo Garrone, sources said Friday.
    Benigni, who won the best actor Oscar for Life Is Beautiful in 1999, is returning to the big screen after a seven-year hiatus.
    In 2002 Benigni wrote, directed and starred in his own take on Pinocchio, which was a critical and commercial flop.
    Gomorrah, Tales of Tales and Dogman director Garrone has written the new live-action version of Pinocchio, an Italo-French co-production between Archimede, RAI Cinema and Le Pacte, in association with the Recorded Picture Company.
    Garrone, 50, said "Finally directing Pinocchio and directing Roberto Benigni are two dreams which come true in a single film".
    Benigni, 65, said "Playing Geppetto directed by Matteo Garrone is one of the forms of happiness".
    Benigni's last directorial effort was The Tiger and the Snow, in 2005, in which he also starred.
    His last acting turn was a cameo in Woody Allen's 2012 film To Rome With Love.
    Garrone said: "Collodi's puppet and I have been chasing each other since I was a child, drawing my first storyboards. As years passed, I have always felt something familiar in the story, as if Pinocchio had penetrated my imagination to such an extent that many have found traces of his adventures in my previous films. "Also with Roberto it's a chase that started many years ago: I met him as a child, thanks to my father (theatre critic Nico Garrone, one of the first to write about Benigni at the start of his career). "It's an extraordinary chance for me to have the opportunity of finally working together with Roberto. "Pinocchio will be a film for families, big and small, and there's no one like Roberto, who has amused and moved millions of spectators across the world, and is able to touch an audience of all ages. I want to thank him for the trust that he has shown accepting to share with me this new and daring adventure." Benigni added, "A great character, a great story, a great director." Toni Servillo was previously aboard for the role of Geppetto.
    Guillermo Del Toro has a stop-motion version of the classic tale ongoing with Netflix.