Disney began production today on “Saving Mr. Banks,” the
account of Walt Disney’s twenty-year pursuit of the film rights to P.L.
Travers’ popular novel, Mary Poppins, and the testy partnership the upbeat
filmmaker develops with the uptight author during the project’s pre-production
in 1961.
Two-time Academy Award®-winner Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia,” “Forrest Gump”) will
essay the role of the legendary Disney (the first time the entrepreneur has
ever been depicted in a dramatic film) alongside fellow double Oscar®-winner
Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “Sense and Sensibility”) in the role of the
prickly novelist. Before actually signing away the book’s rights,
Travers’ demands for contractual script and character control circumvent not
only Disney’s vision for the film adaptation, but also those of the creative team
of screenwriter Don DaGradi and sibling composers Richard and Robert Sherman,
whose original score and song (Chim-Chim-Cher-ee) would go on to win
Oscars® at the 1965 ceremonies (the film won five awards of its thirteen
nominations).
When Travers travels from London to Hollywood in 1961 to finally discuss
Disney’s desire to bring her beloved character to the motion picture screen (a
quest he began in the 1940s as a promise to his two daughters), Disney meets a
prim, uncompromising sexagenarian not only suspect of the impresario’s concept
for the film, but a woman struggling with her own past. During her stay
in California, Travers’ reflects back on her childhood in 1906 Australia, a
trying time for her family which not only molded her aspirations to write, but
one that also inspired the characters in her 1934 book.
None more so than the one person whom she loved and admired more than any
other—her caring father, Travers Goff, a tormented banker who, before his
untimely death that same year, instills the youngster with both affection and
enlightenment (and would be the muse for the story’s patriarch, Mr. Banks, the
sole character that the famous nanny comes to aide). While reluctant to
grant Disney the film rights, Travers comes to realize that the acclaimed
Hollywood storyteller has his own motives for wanting to make the film—which,
like the author, hints at the relationship he shared with his own father in the
early 20th Century Midwest.
Colin Farrell (“Minority Report,” “Total Recall”) co-stars as Travers’ doting
dad, Goff, along with British actress Ruth Wilson (the forthcoming films “The
Lone Ranger” and “Anna Karenina”) as his long-suffering wife, Margaret; Oscar® and
Emmy® nominee Rachel Griffiths (“Six Feet Under,” “Hilary and Jackie,” “The
Rookie”) as Margaret’s sister, Aunt Ellie (who inspired the title character of
Travers’ novel); and a screen newcomer—11-year-old Aussie native Annie Buckley
as the young, blossoming writer, nicknamed “Ginty” in the flashback sequences.
The cast also includes Emmy® winner Bradley Whitford (“The West Wing,” “The
Cabin in the Woods”) as screenwriter Don DaGradi; Jason Schwartzman
(“Rushmore,” “Moonrise Kingdom”) and B.J. Novak (“NBC’s “The Office,”
“Inglourious Basterds”) as the songwriting Sherman Brothers (Richard and
Robert, respectively); Oscar® nominee and Emmy winner Paul Giamatti
(“Sideways,” “Cinderella Man,” HBO’s “John Adams”) as Ralph, the kindly
limousine driver who escorts Travers during her two-week stay in Hollywood; and
multi-Emmy winner Kathy Baker (“Picket Fences,” “Edward Scissorhands”) as
Tommie, one of Disney’s trusted studio associates.
“Saving Mr. Banks” will be directed by John Lee Hancock (“The Blind Side,” “The
Rookie”) based on a screenplay by Kelly Marcel (creator of FOX-TV’s “Terra
Nova”), from a story by Sue Smith (“Brides of Christ,” “Bastard Boys”) and
Kelly Marcel. The film is being produced by Alison Owen of Ruby Films
(the Oscar®-nominated “Elizabeth,” HBO’s Emmy®-winning “Temple Grandin”), Ian
Collie of Essential Media (the Aussie TV documentary “The Shadow of Mary
Poppins,” DirecTV’s “Rake”) and longtime Hancock collaborator Philip
Steuer (“The Rookie,” “The Chronicles of Narnia” trilogy). The film’s
executive producers are Ruby Films’ Paul Trijbits (“Lay the Favorite,” “Jane
Eyre”), Hopscotch Features’ Andrew Mason (“The Matrix” trilogy, “Dark City”)
and Troy Lum (“Mao’s Last Dancer,” “I, Frankenstein”) and BBC Films’ Christine
Langan (Oscar® nominee for “The Queen,” “We Need to Talk About Kevin”).
Hancock’s filmmaking team includes a trio of artists with whom he worked on his
2009 Best Picture Oscar® nominee, “The Blind Side”—two-time Oscar® nominated
production designer Michael Corenblith (“How The Grinch Stole Christmas,”
“Apollo 13”), Emmy®-winning costume designer Daniel Orlandi (HBO’s “Game
Change,” “Frost/Nixon”) and film editor Mark Livolsi, A.C.E. (“Wedding
Crashers” “The Devil Wears Prada”). Hancock also reunites with Academy
Award®-nominated cinematographer John Schwartzman (“Seabiscuit,” “Pearl
Harbor”), with whom he first worked on his inspiring 2002 sports drama, “The
Rookie.”
“Saving Mr. Banks” will film entirely in the Los Angeles area, with key
locations to include Disneyland in Anaheim and the Disney Studios in
Burbank. Filming will conclude around Thanksgiving, 2012, with no
specific 2013 release date yet set.
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