Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson have signed on for Saving Mr. Banks, Variety reports. Hanks will play Walt Disney with Thompson portraying “Mary Poppins” author P.L. Travers.
Announced for development earlier this year with The Blind Side director John Lee Hancock helming, Saving Mr. Banks made last year’s “Black List” of unproduced screenplays and tells the true behind-the-scenes story of the making of Walt Disney Pictures’ 1964 film classic, based on Travers’ book.
Written by Kelly Marcel, best known as a writer and producer on Fox’s “Terra Nova,” Banks focuses specifically on P.L. Travers, the woman who wrote the “Mary Poppins” books beginning in 1934 and her fierce apprehension (and later regret) about bringing the character to the screen.
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