Disney announces plan for Mary Poppins remake, Mary Poppins will return to the silver screen shedding the glossy charm of the original to be set in depression-era Britain, it has been revealed.
The film, which will be set 20 years after the original, is expected to show the Banks children as young adults, possibly with children of their own. It could also show a darker side of Mary Poppins.
This would follow a growing trend of recent remakes of Disney favourites being more loyal to the original literary works than to the original films.
The new adventure will once again be made by Disney but will be more than a simple re-make, taking inspiration from from all of the books in PL Travers’ eight-part series.
If the remake is to be loyal to the original literary works rather than the 1964 film, it raises the prospect that Poppins could be portrayed in a far harsher light than devotees of Julie Andrews will be used to.
Disney are understood to have won the backing of Travers’ estate for the project.
In the books, Poppins is shown to be snippy, eternally vain, sniffs a great deal and “never wasted time in being nice”.The original film, which is estimated to have played to more than 200 million people when it was released in 1964, drew loosely on just the first book in the series.
It won five Oscars, including best actress for Julie Andrews in the title role, and grossed $100 million.It is however thought that the franchise’s new outing will eschew Dick Van Dyke’s much maligned cockney accent and cast at least a handful of authentic English actors.
Though studio bosses have been tight-lipped about casting, bookmakers are already backing Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet or Carey Mulligan to take on Julie Andrews’ mantle.
Mary Poppins’ revival will be directed by Rob Marshall who won the Academy Award for Best Picture for the 2002 film Chicago.
Songwriters Marc Shaiman who wrote the score for the Hairspray musical and composed the theme music for the Smash TV series along with Scott Wittman will together compose the new film’s soundtrack.
They have received early backing for the project from the co-composer of the original score, Richard Sherman, who penned “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” along with his late brother, Robert.
Meanwhile David Magee whose credits include Finding Neverland and Life of Pi will write the screenplay.
Mary Poppins’ legacy was most recently revived in 2013 in Saving Mr. Banks, which told the story of PL Travers’ meetings with Walt Disney in the early ’60s and how he persuaded her to allow him to make Poppins into a film.
Other recent revivals of children’s favourites have included Disney’s Cinderella, directed by Kenneth Branagh. The film was an enormous success, grossing over $542 million worldwide.
The Jungle Book will be remade by Disney as a live action drama, rather than animation. Due to premiere in 2016, the classical styling of the poster has raised expectations that the film could be faithful to Rudyard Kipling’s original novel.The news of a Mary Poppins revival came as a new tour of “The Sound of Music”, the film version of which also starred Julie Andrews, prepares to get underway in the United States this weekend.
The film, which will be set 20 years after the original, is expected to show the Banks children as young adults, possibly with children of their own. It could also show a darker side of Mary Poppins.
This would follow a growing trend of recent remakes of Disney favourites being more loyal to the original literary works than to the original films.
The new adventure will once again be made by Disney but will be more than a simple re-make, taking inspiration from from all of the books in PL Travers’ eight-part series.
If the remake is to be loyal to the original literary works rather than the 1964 film, it raises the prospect that Poppins could be portrayed in a far harsher light than devotees of Julie Andrews will be used to.
Disney are understood to have won the backing of Travers’ estate for the project.
In the books, Poppins is shown to be snippy, eternally vain, sniffs a great deal and “never wasted time in being nice”.The original film, which is estimated to have played to more than 200 million people when it was released in 1964, drew loosely on just the first book in the series.
It won five Oscars, including best actress for Julie Andrews in the title role, and grossed $100 million.It is however thought that the franchise’s new outing will eschew Dick Van Dyke’s much maligned cockney accent and cast at least a handful of authentic English actors.
Though studio bosses have been tight-lipped about casting, bookmakers are already backing Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet or Carey Mulligan to take on Julie Andrews’ mantle.
Mary Poppins’ revival will be directed by Rob Marshall who won the Academy Award for Best Picture for the 2002 film Chicago.
Songwriters Marc Shaiman who wrote the score for the Hairspray musical and composed the theme music for the Smash TV series along with Scott Wittman will together compose the new film’s soundtrack.
They have received early backing for the project from the co-composer of the original score, Richard Sherman, who penned “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” along with his late brother, Robert.
Meanwhile David Magee whose credits include Finding Neverland and Life of Pi will write the screenplay.
Mary Poppins’ legacy was most recently revived in 2013 in Saving Mr. Banks, which told the story of PL Travers’ meetings with Walt Disney in the early ’60s and how he persuaded her to allow him to make Poppins into a film.
Other recent revivals of children’s favourites have included Disney’s Cinderella, directed by Kenneth Branagh. The film was an enormous success, grossing over $542 million worldwide.
The Jungle Book will be remade by Disney as a live action drama, rather than animation. Due to premiere in 2016, the classical styling of the poster has raised expectations that the film could be faithful to Rudyard Kipling’s original novel.The news of a Mary Poppins revival came as a new tour of “The Sound of Music”, the film version of which also starred Julie Andrews, prepares to get underway in the United States this weekend.
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