An account of Walt Disney's twenty-year pursuit of the film rights to P.L. Travers' popular novel, Mary Poppins, and the testy partnership the upbeat filmmaker develops with the uptight author during the project's pre-production in 1961.
Who's Involved:
Release Date:
Friday, December 20, 2013 Nationwide
Friday, December 13, 2013 Limited
thematic elements including some unsettling images
Plot: What's the story about?
When Walt Disney’s daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers’ “Mary Poppins,” he made them a promise—one that he didn’t realize would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney’s plans for the adaptation.
For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn’t budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp.
It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers the truth about the ghosts that haunt her, and together they set Mary Poppins free to ultimately make one of the most endearing films in cinematic history.
official plot version from disney.com
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Who stars in Saving Mr. Banks: Cast List
Tom Hanks ... Walt Disney
Toy Story 5, Pinocchio
Emma Thompson ... P.L. Travers
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Beauty and the Beast
Colin Farrell ... Goff
The Gentlemen, Horrible Bosses
Ruth Wilson ... Margaret
The Woman in the Wall (series), See How They Run
Rachel Griffiths ... Aunt Ellie
Bring Him to Me, Hacksaw Ridge
Annie Buckley ... Young P.L. Travers
Bradley Whitford ... Don DaGradi
Share?, The Last Full Measure
Jason Schwartzman ... Richard Sherman
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Asteroid City
B.J. Novak ... B.J. Sherman
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Founder
Paul Giamatti ... Ralph
Rock of Ages, The Holdovers
Kathy Baker ... Tommie
The Age Of Adaline, Nine Lives
Who's making Saving Mr. Banks: Crew List
A look at the Saving Mr. Banks behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director John Lee Hancock last directed Mr. Harrigan’s Phone and The Little Things. The film's writer Kelly Marcel last wrote The Changeling (series) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
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Production: What we know about Saving Mr. Banks?
Key Facts
- The script made the 2011 Black List. This marks the first time Walt Disney (the person) has ever been depicted in a dramatic film.
Filming Timeline
- 2013 - April: The film was set to Completed status.
MPAA rating announced; assumed completed.
- 2012 - September: The film was set to Production status.
Now shooting; shooting entirely in the Los Angeles area, with key locations to include Disneyland in Anaheim and the Disney Studios in Burbank. Filming will conclude around Thanksgiving, 2012.
- 2012 - June: The film was set to Pre-Production status.
Disney is eyeing a fall shoot in Los Angeles.
- 2012 - February: The film was set to Development status.
Saving Mr. Banks Release Date: When was the film released?
Saving Mr. Banks was a Nationwide release in 2013 on Friday, December 20, 2013. There were 4 other movies released on the same date, including Walking with Dinosaurs, Wrong Cops and The Past.
Saving Mr. Banks DVD & Blu-ray Release Date: When was the film released?
Saving Mr. Banks was released on DVD & Blu-ray on Tuesday, March 18, 2014 .