Tom Hanks is pairing with filmmaker Robert Zemeckis once again for Pinocchio, a reimagining of the classic tale for Disney. The director and actor have worked together on plenty of projects, including The Polar Express, Forrest Gump, and Cast Away. Clearly, the combination of Zemeckis and Hank’s works, and they hope to see similar results with Pinocchio.

As it turns out, Hanks claims he was the one to approach Zemeckis for their latest outing and not the other way around. During an interview with Variety during the red carpet premiere of Pinocchio, the Academy Award-winning actor said he heard about Zemeckis doing the film and desperately wanted to play Geppetto.

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Hanks Says There’s Some Pressure With Remaking a Classic

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Disney has been adapting their classic fairy tales for live-action for years to mixed results. A certain amount of pressure comes with recreating a story beloved by so many, and Tom Hanks recognizes that. However, during his time on the red carpet, Hanks tells Variety they knew they had to stick with the definitive story of Pinocchio that’s been told across generations.

“Opposite, opposite. I heard that he was doing it. Yeah [Zemeckis] and I get together about every three months and ponder great questions and go over everything that’s going on in our lives and the business and when he was — I just heard Bob was going to do Pinocchio I called him up and I just said, ‘All right, do you have Geppetto or not?’ and he said, ‘You’d be interested?’ And I said, ‘Bob I would walk through the island of lost boys smoking a cigarette in order to work with you on a movie again.’”

Pinocchio stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Angus Wright, Cynthia Erivo, Lorraine Bracco, and Keegan-Michael Key alongside Hanks. MovieWeb recently reviewed the film, calling it another instant classic from Robert Zemeckis. Pinocchio is available to stream today, Sept 8. on Disney+.

“It’s massive because you can’t just change the story arbitrarily. You’ve got to stick with what is the definitive Pinocchio for all of time whether what everybody tries to do, it’s Walt Disney’s Pinocchio. But at the same time you have to reflect the generation, the time that we’re living in now. And there’s stuff that makes absolute sense in order to do and there’s nothing to be afraid of you just, you know, it’s diverse, there’s themes that are examined that they’re not quite as — hoodlum, hoodlum-esque, yet it still touches on the same themes of, you know, we all have a social responsibility growing up even if you are a little wooden puppet of a boy.”