After the giant success of “Alice In Wonderland,” “Maleficent” and “Cinderella,” Disney are preparing to reboot everything—“Beauty & The Beast” and “The Jungle Book” are well into production, and everything from “Dumbo” and “Aladdin” are in the works to some degree or other. So it was only a matter of time before they got around to “Mary Poppins.”
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EW report that Disney are developing a new story featuring the magical nanny created by P.L. Travers, with “Chicago” and “Into The Woods” helmer Rob Marshall set to direct, and his producers on the latter project, John DeLuca and Marc Platt, backing him.
“Life Of Pi” writer David Magee will pen the script, and “Hairspray”’s Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman will write songs for the project, which would be set in London in the 1930s, and pick up further adventures with the Banks family. Travers’ estate are collaborating with Disney, as is Richard Sherman, who wrote songs for the original with his later brother Robert.
It was probably inevitable that this would happen at some point, though it’s likely to be few years off, with Disney’s live-action slot accounted for through to 2018. The biggest question might be who can step into Julie Andrews’ shoes as Mary. Can Disney possibly say no to Anne Hathaway after the SNL sketch below?…