Director Tim Burton (Frankenweenie, Nightmare Before Christmas) is definitely no stranger to puppets in his movies. He’s got his eye on developing a live-action story spinning off the Pinocchio tale and even has a particular star in mind to headline the film.

According to THR, Burton is courting Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes, Iron Man) to star as Geppetto, the puppetmaker whose creation longs to become a real boy. A script has been written by Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller and Dan Jinks (American Beauty, Pushing Daisies) is attached to produce. In Fuller’s script, “Geppetto embarks on a quest to reunite with his missing marionette.” A “well-placed source” says that Downey has “expressed serious interest in the project (and in working with Burton.)”

Currently, neither Downey nor Burton has a deal with Warner Bros who is developing this Pinocchio project but again, this will come down to a juggling act of scheduling for both of them. Hopefully, the stars will align and this project will go through as Warner Bros would like to see this project get on the fast track to production.

Pinocchio was originally a story by Italian writer Carlo Collodi and adapted most memorably by Disney with its 1940 animated classic. Word is that there are several other Pinocchio-related projects in development including a stop-motion version headed by the ever-busy Guillermo del Toro.