Tag: Rob Marshall

Angela Lansbury Joins Cast of ‘Mary Poppins Returns’

In practically perfect news, Disney Legend Angela Lansbury has joined the cast of Mary Poppins Returns! The sequel to Walt Disney’s 1964 classic is currently filming at the Shepperton Studios in London and stars Emily Blunt (Into the Woods) as the title character. Lin-Manuel Miranda, an Oscar® nominee for penning Moana’s “How Far I’ll Go,” plays the role of optimistic street lamplighter Jack. Lansbury will play the role of Balloon Lady.

Lansbury is beloved to Disney fans for her iconic roles as the wonderfully witchy Ms. Eglantine Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and the enchanting Mrs. Potts in the animated Beauty and the Beast. The five-time Tony® Award winner and three time Academy Award® nominees was inducted as a Disney Legend in 1995.

Directed by Rob Marshall (Into the Woods), Mary Poppins Returns also stars Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer as grown up Michael and Jane Banks, as well as Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, and Julie Walters.

Disney’s ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ Gets December 2018 Release Date

Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious.

Disney on Monday announced that its Mary Poppins sequel will open on Dec. 25, 2018, more than five decades after the 1964 classic film first played in theaters. The studio also revealed the movie’s title for the first time: Mary Poppins Returns.

The musical stars Emily Blunt as the magical nanny opposite Lin-Manuel Miranda, star and creator of the Broadway hit musical Hamilton.

Rob Marshall is directing Mary Poppins Returns from an adapted script by David Magee, as well as producing alongside Marc Platt and John DeLuca. Marc Shaiman is composing an all new-score, while he and Scott Wittman are collaborating in writing the original songs.

The character of Mary Poppins was first introduced to the world in P.L. Travers’ 1934 book, which Disney adapted into the 1964 movie starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Travers wrote seven additional books about Mary Poppins that were published between 1935 and 1988.

“I am truly humbled and honored to be asked by Disney to bring P.L. Travers’ further adventures to the screen,” Marshall said in a statement. “The iconic original film means so much to me personally, and I look forward to creating an original movie musical that can bring Mary Poppins, and her message that childlike wonder can be found in even the most challenging of times, to a whole new generation.”

The story will be set in Depression-era London, where a now grown-up Jane and Michael Banks, along with Michael’s three children, are visited by their former nanny following a tragedy in the family that leaves them numb and joyless.

Miranda will play the role of Jack the lamplighter, a new character. He is fast becoming part of the studio fold, having composed the music for Disney’s upcoming animated film Moana and worked on the music for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

From The Hollywood Reporter

Disney Working on New Mary Poppins Movie

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Disney will once again say the word “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

More than 50 years after Mary Poppins flew in on an umbrella into the hearts of moviegoers, Disney is developing a new live action “Poppins” movie, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

The new story will be set around 20 years after the tale of the classic 1964 movie that starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It will also take its cues from the book series that P.L. Travers wrote. (The original, published in 1934 is based largely on the first book. The last book in the series was released in 1988.)

Rob Marshall, who directed “Into the Woods” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” for the studio, will helm the new feature, which will also be a musical.

Songwriting team Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who worked on “Hairspray” and “Smash,” will compose new original songs as well a new score.

David Magee (“Life of Pi”) is board to write the screenplay.

As detailed in Disney’s “Saving Mr. Banks,” Travers’ had testy relationship with Walt Disney over the adaptation of the original. But the studio is working with her estate on the new movie.

John DeLuca and Marc Platt, who worked with Marshall on “Woods,” are also producing the new movie.

From CNN/The Hollywood Reporter

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