All star cast in Saving Mr. Banks #DisneyMoviesEvent

Disney has began production on “Saving Mr. Banks”! Can you believe it took Walt Disney’s twenty years to gain the film rights to P.L. Travers’ popular novel, Mary Poppins? Not only that but this movie will also be depicting the partnership the upbeat filmmaker develops with the uptight author during the project’s pre-production in 1961. This already brews exciting but even more exciting is the all star cast in this movie. Two-time Academy Award®-winner Tom Hanks plays the legendary Disney with Emma Thompson as the novelist, Travers. This is the very first time that Disney will have been depicted in a dramatic film.

Would you look at that? We were at one of the filming sites! 

Travers travels from London to Hollywood in 1961 to finally discuss Disney’s desire to bring Mary Poppins to the motion picture screen. Interestingly, this was a quest he began in the 1940's as a promise to his two daughters. (Disney seems to have been quite the father figure!) In search of this goal, a difficult negotiator in Travers, as she demands a contractual script and character control circumvent before signing the script away. This would have created roadblocks in not only Disney’s vision for the film adaptation, but also those of screenwriter Don DaGradi and sibling composers Richard and Robert Sherman. The siblings'original score and song (Chim-Chim-Cher-ee) went on to win the Oscars® at the 1965 ceremonies. Another interesting fact, they won 5 out of their 13 nominations that year.

Amazingly, the book was inspired by Travers' childhood memories in 1906 Australia. Travers Goff, her father (played by Colin Farrell) is the basis the story’s patriarch, Mr. Banks. Mr. Banks is the only person that Mary Poppins comes to aide. Curiously, Disney also wanted to create the film in memory of his own relationship with his father in the early 20th Century.

Other names you may recognize include British actress Ruth Wilson, Rachel Griffiths, Bradley Whitford, Jason Schwartzman, B.J. Novak, Paul Giamatti, and Kathy Baker. “Saving Mr. Banks” will be filmed in Los Angeles mainly including Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney Studios in Burbank. To be honest, I'm quite curious about this film. Aren't you? This ought to be interesting as we see how Disney pursued and eventually got the rights to produce Mary Poppins, a well loved character to this day. Filming is expected to end around Thanksgiving, 2012. You can expect to see it in theaters in 2013.

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