Los Angeles, Calif., September 19, 2012-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.