Saving Mr. Banks Information

Saving Mr. Banks is an upcoming biographical drama film directed by John Lee Hancock from a screenplay by Kelly Marcel. Centered on the production of the 1964 Walt Disney Studios film, Mary Poppins, the film stars Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks with supporting roles from Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford, and Colin Farrell. Taking its title from the source character of the same name, the film depicts author P. L. Travers (Thompson) and her two-week briefing in Los Angeles as she is persuaded by filmmaker Walt Disney (Hanks), in his attempts to obtain the screen rights to her eponymous novel. Filming started on September 19, 2012. Walt Disney Pictures will produce and release the film theatrically in the United States on December 13, 2013 in select cities and in wide release a week later on December 20. The film will be produced by Alison Owen, Ian Collie, Philip Steuer, Christine Langan, Troy Lum, Andrew Mason and Paul Trijbits.

Plot

The film centers on the life of Travers, shifting between 1907 with her childhood in Queensland, Australia, the negotiations with Walt Disney and the making of Mary Poppins in 1961. While in California for filming, Travers thinks back to her difficult childhood in Australia, most especially to her father, the inspiration for the role of the story's patriarch, Mr. Banks.

Her relationships with her father and with Disney were examined in Valerie Lawson's biography of Travers, first published as Out of the Sky She Came in 1999 by Hodder Headline and as Mary Poppins, She Wrote, in subsequent publications from 2005 to 2010.

Cast

• Emma Thompson as P. L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins.
• Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, filmmaker and producer of the film. To prepare for his role, Hanks took several visits to The Walt Disney Family Museum and interviewed some of Disney's relatives including his daughter Diane Disney Miller. It is the first time that Walt Disney has been portrayed in a theatrical film.
• Paul Giamatti as Travers' chauffeur, Ralph
• Jason Schwartzman as Richard M. Sherman, composer/lyricist who co-wrote the film's songs with his brother Robert, one half of the Academy Award winning songwriting team known collectively as Sherman Brothers.
• Bradley Whitford as Don DaGradi, the Academy Award-nominated and Writers Guild of America-winning co-writer of the 1964 film.
• Colin Farrell as Travers' ill-tempered and alcoholic, yet loving father, Robert Goff Travers.
• B. J. Novak as Robert B. Sherman, composer/lyricist who co-wrote the film's songs with his brother Richard, one half of the Academy Award winning songwriting team known collectively as Sherman Brothers.
• Ruth Wilson as Margaret, Travers' mother
• Victoria Summer as Julie Andrews, actress who portrayed the on-screen character of Mary Poppins and later received a Golden Globe and Academy Award for her debut film performance.
• Kristopher Kyer as Dick Van Dyke, actor who portrayed the character of Bert and Mr. Dawes, Sr.
• Kathy Baker as Tommie, a trusted studio executive
• Rachel Griffiths as Aunt Ellie, Margaret's sister
• Annie Buckley as the young P. L. Travers, nicknamed "Ginty"
• Kimberly D'Armond as Nanny Katie, young Travers' childhood nanny
• Luke Baines as a waiter
• Michael Swinehart as a hotel porter

Production

Development

In 2011, Kelly Marcel's screenplay was listed in film executive Franklin Leonard's Black List, voted by producers, as one of the best screenplays that were not in production. In early 2012, Disney acquired the screen rights to Marcel's script. Studio chairman Alan Horn referred to the film as a "brand deposit".

According to the 40th Anniversary DVD release of Mary Poppins in 2004, Disney had been working since 1937 to acquire the rights to the book that was written in 1934, as a promise to his two daughters, but Travers had great misgivings about how her stories would be filmed. She finally relented and allowed Disney to film the story but was so disappointed with the animated portions of the film and other elements that she refused to allow any other stories to be filmed.

Filming

Although some filming was originally to be in Queensland, Australia, all filming took place in the Los Angeles area, including Disneyland, the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank and at Universal Studios' sound stages. Filming was completed on November 22, 2012, and the film will be released on December 20, 2013.

For the Disneyland sequences, Disney blocked off certain parts of the theme park including; Sleeping Beauty Castle, Main Street U.S.A., Fantasyland and the Astro Orbitor attraction from November 6 to 7, 2012. The park's cast members were also hired as extras.

Release

A trailer for the film was released on July 10, 2013. Saving Mr. Banks has been selected to close the 2013 London Film Festival on October 20. Walt Disney Records will release the film's soundtrack on December 10.