Jane Goldman has really leapt forward in recent years starting with her co-writing with Matthew Vaughn beginning with the excellent Stardust then Kick-Ass, The Debt, X-Men: First Class, and then writing on her own for The Woman in Black. Now she's picked up a new project for herself that could propel her name forward even more in Hollywood and might benefit from that excellent first script.

She'll be writing a live action version of Pinocchio for Warner Bros. with the potential for Tim Burton to direct, something that is still rumour for now.

Indeed it's not concrete that Jane Goldman will be writing the script and everything about this project is still in the negotiation phase or before, but it is looking likely that at least it will have an excellent writer.

According to the The Hollywood Reporter story the people behind Pinocchio are currently talking to Jane Goldman to write the script for the film, a film that has had Tim Burton looking at the directing of it for some time and Robert Downey Jr. being mentioned along with him.

The article says that the appointment of Goldman as writer will bring the rumours to a close regarding the association of Downey as she will:

...be incorporating Downey's notes.

So that would mean he really is pretty involved in the project right from the beginning and the suggestions to date saying that Downey would be playing the woodcarver who creates Pinocchio. The story would see Pinocchio go missing and Geppetto, the woodcarver, going on a search for his puppet who has been dreaming of becoming a real boy.

She's not the first writer on the script though, Bryan Fuller wrote the first draft so it won't all be Goldman's work, but she does bring a certain style to the project.

It'll be fascinating to see how the idea of a live action film of Pinocchio works, and even more interesting if we get a magic sparkling of Stardust on it from Goldman's keyboard. The problem will be Tim Burton, he'll just turn it into another Burton film rolling out the same style and oddness, as well as cast members, that he always turns to.