I couldn't be more excited about this film. Tom Hanks is perfect to play the late great Walt Disney. The first portrayal of Disney on the big screen.
The film focuses on the creator of Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers played by Emma Thompson. The story goes back and forth between 1907 and 1961. The negotiating process with Walt Disney was very difficult for Travers because the story was highly personal. A lot of the movie focuses on P. L. Travers and her father played by Colin Farrell. Travers Robert Goff (Colin Farrell) was a banker who fell into alcoholism and the family fell into a financial hardship. George Banks the father character in Mary Poppins is very relative to Travers.
P. L. incorporated a lot of personal experiences into the Poppins books.
Walt was begged by his daughters to make the book into a film, and realized how popular it could be. Walt first made the offer to Travers in 1945, a venture that took 20 years to get to screen. P. L. was very skeptical about the idea and resisted several times. P. L. demanded the film be live action and not an animated feature.
P. L. finally agreed to sell the rights to Mary Poppins in 1959, with a understanding she would be a consultant on the script.
After the film was complete P. L. was very disappointed at the outcome, so much so, that she refused to sell any other rights to Disney. Mary Poppins made Travers a very wealthy woman.
The film covers P. L. traveling to Hollywood and battling with Disney over how to adapt her book.
Above is some production shots of Tom at Disneyland during filming. It would be so incredible to see Tom Hanks standing in Disneyland looking dead on Walt.
The film is in Post Production now, and has a release date of December 20th, 2013. The film also stars Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Rachel Griffiths. Directed by John Lee Hancock of The Blind Side .
Sources: Disney & Imdb.com
